Campus climate reflects “community members’ attitudes, perceptions, behaviors, and expectations around issues of race, ethnicity, and diversity.” [1] Though initially focused on understanding perceptions and experiences of minoritized students (women in STEM, students of color generally, and Black students in particular),[2] increasingly research on campus climate encompasses a multi-dimensional environmental perspective involving multiple groups (faculty, students, administrators, and staff) and aspects of difference, such as race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, ability status, and more.

[1] Hurtado, S., Griffin, K. A., Arellano, L., & Cuellar, M. (2008). Assessing the value of climate assessments: Progress and future directions. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 1(4), 204–221.

[2] Griffin, K. (2018). Addressing STEM Culture and Climate to Increase Diversity in STEM Disciplines. Higher Education Today.

The first step in improvement is having a better understanding of the climate. The Fall 2023 diversity, equity, and inclusion climate survey results will provide that information to begin conversations about next steps. A steering committee and four working groups have been charged to analyze the data, prepare reports for the university community, and develop best practices and next steps based on the findings of the survey results. Colleges and divisions will design and organize their action plans to address results from the survey. 

No. Participation in this survey is not required. Participation in this survey is voluntary, but your participation is highly encouraged. Full participation provides the university with a more comprehensive understanding of community members’ perceptions and experiences at Illinois.

The Fall 2023 survey will be a census survey designed to take the temperature of our campus climate and help us assess whether our values of diversity, equity and inclusion are reflected in the daily experience of the university community. This will be a short survey that will take 15 minutes on average to complete.

One of the goals of this survey is to establish a baseline across all of the colleges and administrative units, so that we have a shared understanding of what we are doing well as a university, as well as areas where we need to improve. Your participation will add to a holistic understanding of perceptions and experiences across every college and unit at Illinois.

In Spring 2023, the All Campus Climate Assessment Executive Steering Committee was charged by Vice Chancellor Garrick to provide oversight of the campus climate work. In addition, a Leadership Team and Implementation Working Groups have been charged to guide students, faculty and staff, data analysis and communications. The working groups will identify approaches to increasing faculty, staff, and student participation on the survey and develop data-driven plans.

We anticipate sharing the results of the survey with the university community in early Fall 2024. A primary report will be generated at the university level to share results for faculty, students (undergraduate and graduate), and staff. Secondary reports will also be generated at the academic or administrative college level. Only aggregated reports will be shared.

In any report generated from the campus climate assessment, we will report for groups only where 15 or more people are represented in a demographic group. For example, when the university generates a report for the School of Labor and Employee Relations, if there are fewer than 15 people in any group, the data will not be included in the aggregated college data report for LER. However, the data for this demographic will be reflected in the primary, all campus report for the entire university. This approach allows us to balance understanding the unique perspective of small demographic groups, while also safeguarding confidentiality and privacy.

To protect your privacy, no one at the University of Illinois will know who completes the Fall 2023 survey. However, we are very sensitive to the possibility that aggregated reports of survey data could unintentionally identify university community members who belong to unique or small demographic groups in their college or unit.

To overcome this challenge, in any report generated from the campus climate assessment, we will report for groups only where 15 or more people are represented in a demographic group. For example, when the university generates a report for the School of Labor and Employee Relations, if there are fewer than 15 people in any group, the data will not be included in the aggregated college data report for LER. However, the data for this demographic will be reflected in the primary, all campus report for the entire university. This approach allows us to balance understanding the unique perspective of small demographic groups, while also safeguarding confidentiality and privacy.

To assess perceptions of the campus climate that pertain to your social identity, a series of specific demographic questions are asked including (but not limited to): race/ethnicity, gender identity, socioeconomic class background, sexual orientation/identity, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, religion or spiritual beliefs, and political opinions. You may skip any questions that you prefer not to answer.

The University of Illinois has contracted with SoundRocket, a social science survey research firm located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to help with the design of the survey instrument, collection of survey data, and data reporting.

SoundRocket develops and delivers innovative, science-guided survey methodologies and services to the global community of social science researchers and those who rely upon such research. More about SoundRocket.

Your privacy and confidentiality are important to us, thus we are using Soundrocket as a third-party survey provider where they will send the recruitment emails, will collect and store the data, and will provide Illinois with both reports and de-identified data. This will ensure confidentiality as the University of Illinois will not know if you participated and will not be able to identify you in any data SoundRocket shares with us. 

We also are using SoundRocket because of their in-depth experience and success in working with other institutions in conducting climate surveys. We are invested in conducting a quality climate survey, and SoundRocket will help us ensure we are using best-practices in all aspects of the project. We will build on the experience and expertise offered by SoundRocket to provide a safe and smooth campus climate survey process.

We also are using SoundRocket to enable data comparison among our participating peers in the Big Ten, including the University of Minnesota and Rutgers University. This is because we all will be using the same survey (i.e., the NCCS DEI Campus Climate Survey), and SoundRocket will be able to create reports that help us compare among our institutions.

In order to totally separate the University of Illinois from knowing who participates, we needed to send SoundRocket some basic information to help with data collection. For all eligible students, staff, and faculty, the following information will be shared with SoundRocket:

First name, last name, and email address, to receive email invitation to the web survey
Student level: Undergraduate, Graduate, or Professional
Employee Classification: Faculty or Staff
Race/Ethnicity
Sex
Primary College/Administrative College

No departmental data will be shared.

In order to ensure best ethical practice in all facets of survey design and administration, we have had experts in survey design and ethical research compliance on the steering committee, leadership team, and working groups.

The Steering Committee submitted our plans for this study to the IRB on July 21, 2023 to determine if formal IRB approval was needed. Because the purpose of the survey is to inform institutional practice and improvement, the Office for the Protection of Research Subjects (OPRS) determined the study was Non-Human Subject Research (NHSR) and we were issued a determination letter.

No one besides SoundRocket will know who completed the survey. All responses will be stripped of any direct identifiers before it is shared with the university.

The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete on average, although the exact time will vary. You can choose to skip or not answer any of the questions, and you may stop your participation at any time.

Every undergraduate and graduate student who is enrolled, and staff/faculty member who is employed and resides within the United States at the time of the survey will be eligible to participate. All respondents must be at least 18 years old to complete the questionnaire. Online students as well as remote employees who live in the United States are eligible to take this survey. To adhere to international privacy laws in China, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, we are limiting survey participation to students, faculty, and staff who are physically located in the US.

Yes. The survey is optimized for the smaller screens of smartphones and other mobile devices. To take the survey on your smartphone, click on the link in the email from Joshua Patterson at surveys@srsrv.com in the email on your mobile device. That will open the survey in your mobile browser, where you can complete it. If you are interrupted while taking the survey and need to close your browser, you may click on the survey link again and pick up right where you left off.

If you are interrupted while taking the survey and need to close your browser, you may click on the survey link again and pick up right where you left off.

Yes, you can skip any question that you do not want to answer.

All survey participants will have a chance to receive an Amazon gift card worth up to $50, University of Illinois apparel, and other items for taking the time to complete the survey.

Data from the Campus Climate survey will be used by the University to assess and improve its climate during the three years that this survey will be conducted. A leadership team has been charged to work with four different working groups with representatives of dozens of academic and administrative units to develop data-driven best practices to guide tangible improvement. Beginning in Fall 2024, academic colleges and administrative units will design and organize action plans to address results from the survey.

After three years, once the study is completed, only anonymous summaries of these data will be made available to eligible researchers by request for related studies to improve protocols, evaluate programs, assess policies, or provide background for future research on these topics.

Data collection will be completed through a web-based survey, with email invitations and reminders communications coming from SoundRocket. SoundRocket will have access to survey data submitted by respondents on behalf of the university for the duration of the survey. Once the survey session closes, SoundRocket will anonymize the survey response before sending it to the university.

Initially, the raw data will be available to select data stewards in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Student Affairs, Division of Management Information, Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning, the Provost Office, and the Campus Climate Assessment Working Group. All data stewards will undergo data privacy training and sign Data Use Agreements prior to receiving the data. Data from the Campus Climate survey will be used only for institutional assessment and improvement initiatives for the first three years. Protocols will be developed for requesting data after three years have passed for individual research purposes.

If you would like to speak to someone about this survey, please contact the SoundRocket survey team via email at illinoisclimate@ssgresearch.com or by phone at 734-­527-­2199.

If you would like to speak to someone at Illinois about this survey, please contact the University of Illinois Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion via email at AllCampusSurvey@illinois.edu or by phone at 217-300-9580.