The All Campus Climate Survey Report Guide is available for download.

Executive Summary

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign All Campus Climate Assessment examines how our university’s values of diversity, equity, and inclusion are reflected in the daily experiences of students, faculty, and staff.  

As stated in the university mission, the university is charged by the state to enhance the lives of all people in Illinois, across the nation, and around the world through leadership, discovery, engagement, and economic development.  

In order to better serve students, employees, and the public, the All-Campus Climate Assessment was designed to develop a baseline understanding of the climate relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion .  

The survey was launched on November 7, 2023 and closed on December 31, 2023. All eligible undergraduate students, graduate students, staff, faculty were invited to participate. The survey was administered by Sound Rocket, a Michigan based social science research firm. Of the 63,358 eligible participants who were invited, 16,666 responses were collected, yielding an overall response rate of 26.3%. Of those respondents, 82.3% completed the entire survey.  

To fully understand this data, it is important to also recognize the institutional an global context within which the survey was administered. The survey was administered to the community between November 7 through December 31, 2023, a period marked by several international conflicts, including the first months of the Israel-Hamas war and the continuing war in Ukraine. These global conflicts were also engaged on campus at this time through protests, events, and messages from campus administration. The results in the Overall Campus Climate Report reflect the responses our community members shared during this movement of raised tensions on university campuses across the country, including Illinois. 

This booklet provides information about the conceptualization and development of the campus climate survey, highlights of overall campus climate, and a series of tools that will help readers to review the overall report. To review the full Overall Campus Climate Report, please visit the Campus Climate Survey Site [ADD LINK]. The full report includes an executive summary and a full breakdown of the survey questions and responses by gender and race for all four populations (undergraduate students, graduate students, staff, and faculty). 

During the Spring 2025 semester, the Campus Climate Assessment team will provide opportunities for campus community members to engage in a series of conversations and presentations about the results, the work ahead, and next steps. [See Section V for details.] 

Why the survey, why now? 

During the creation of the University’s Strategic Plan, “The Next 150”, the university committed to conduct campus climate surveys at regular intervals and use the results to educate and improve the campus community. However, the university had not conducted a campus climate since 2011.  

During 2020, institutions of higher education were facing and navigating a series of climate issues precipitated by racial unrest nationally as well as the impact of the COVID pandemic. Illinois was not exempt from experiencing some of these issues and the need to measure the campus climate became imminent. The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (OVCDEI) was charged to help the campus lead this effort in 2020 in partnership with the Office of the Provost, Student Affairs, Illinois Human Resources, and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation. 

In 2022, several conversations across campus led to the need to embark on assessing perceptions, experiences, and perspectives of students, staff, and faculty, on issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. OVCDEI charged a steering committee of administrators, staff and faculty to provide oversight of the campus climate work, assign and charge working groups, work with the third-party vendor to administer the survey, give input on the institutional agreement and survey instrument, and provide guidance on the delivery of the primary and secondary reports to the campus audiences and stakeholders. 

Fall 2023 All Campus Climate Survey Timeline 

Pre-Survey (January – October 2023) 

Establish the Steering Committee and working groups to work collaboratively in the planning and development of the All Campus Climate Initiative.  

Contract negotiation with SoundRocket, a third-party vendor to collect and store the data, and provide reports & de-identified data 

Consult with several units on campus (Privacy and Cybersecurity, Legal Counsel, Risk Management, Purchasing and Contract Management, and more) to ensure compliance with university policies.  

Data Collection (November – December 31, 2023) 

Survey Instrument release November 7, 2024 via web-based survey and paper surveys 

Reminders sent, with some targeted to populations with lower response rates.  

Survey closed December 31, 2024, to allow additional time for employee responses.  

Data Reporting (January – August 1, 2024) 

Reviewed raw data and reports for accuracy. 

Assessment committee data analysis reviewed and Steering committee began socialization and implementation phase planning.  

Data Analysis and Socialization (August 1, 2024 – December 31, 2024) 

Created reports for university, colleges, and other major campus units.  

Shared preliminary information with several stakeholders (students, staff, and faculty) to prepare the campus to the release of the full report.  

Released the overall campus report on December 5, 2024.  

Question to Consider

As you read the survey report, here are some questions that you might consider. These questions are based in part on the Rutgers University Campus Climate Action Planning Guide.

What elements in the data did you find to be notable?
a. Were there data points that surprised you?
b. Were there data points that reinforced your existing perceptions of the campus climate?
What questions do you have about the climate data?
c. Are there constituencies that you are engaged with who you think will have particular questions about the data?
d. Are there questions you think this data does not answer, and which you’d seek more information on?
e. Are there other data sources you are aware of that add to this understanding?
What are the most important take-aways that you think students, faculty, staff, and administrators should be getting from the climate survey data/reports/discussion?
What would you like to see the university do based on these findings?