For those at Salisbury University waiting to be heard, now is the time to act. The campus climate survey will be available beginning Tuesday, Feb. 25. After two years of discussion and design, the survey will finally be released via email to all SU students, staff and faculty to be completed during the coming weeks. It will also be accessible from the university's website.
The survey's results will be made publicly available to all students, staff and faculty this fall. With the committee acting independently from administration, the data will be released to students at the same time as the president. This aspect is intended to reassure those completing the survey in order to encourage more honest responses.
Despite the unfortunate circumstances of racially charged vandalism that transpired Wednesday, Feb. 19, the online survey will continue as previously scheduled. The content spans many areas of the university’s climate, but may provide a platform to raise awareness of concerns over the recent graffiti incidents as well.
The survey has been created by a committee of shared governance groups with the goal of assessing the state of SU’s culture and gathering the major concerns of the campus community. The committee is led by Associate Vice President of Institutional Equity and Title IX coordinator Humberto Aristizabal alongside Dr. James King of the English department.
While the length of the survey will depend on an individual’s responses, everyone will be given the opportunity to thoroughly describe their campus experience.
“It’s important that we can see everything that's happening on campus, whether you're a student, staff, faculty or adjunct faculty, because when things are going wrong in our community, we need to better understand what it means in order to create actual, effective change,” said Dorien Rogers, director of diversity and inclusion for the Student Government Association. Rogers serves as a student representative on the campus climate study, but emphasized that the survey addresses much more than just diversity on campus.
“Using your voice as a student is so important to shaping how the university grows. The more input the survey gets, the better we can understand student life at SU and what improvements need to be made to ensure success,” said Julia Hangarter, an SGA senator and Diversity and Inclusion Committee member.
Once the survey has closed, the committee will gather and review the responses to develop a plan of action for how to move forward and generate meaningful change.
By JAKOB TODD
Staff writer
Featured image: Salisbury University image.
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