Campus
Climate survey results to be announced Feb. 2-3
by Elizabeth Ashford
Staff Writer
The Campus Climate survey results are back and the facilitators
of the survey are inviting students and faculty to come and
hear the results.
“Three and a half years ago, Dr. Greg Blimling, the
Vice Chancellor for Student Development, appointed a group
of us to create a Student Development Committee for diversity,”
Director of Multicultural Student Development Tracey L. Wright
said.
Wright’s group looked for information that showed how
well diversity is appreciated at Appalachian.
Wright said the group was unable to find much current data
on diversity or information on campus climate and how students
and staff felt about campus diversity.
“In fall of 2002, we engaged on just a real mission
to create a campus climate survey for this campus,”
Wright said.
The survey covered topics including religious beliefs, sexuality,
gender and physical and mental disabilities. The survey created
for students, faculty and staff contained questions relevant
to all parties.
In Jan 2003, 2,007 students, faculty and staff participated
in the online survey.
It took almost 10 months to compile all of the results into
a useable format for the program, Wright said.
The results of the survey will be presented to faculty and
staff on Feb. 2 and to students on Feb. 3. Both presentations
are sponsored by the Hubbard Center, Wright said.
“Results will be shared on what students, faculty and
staff shared [in the survey] about their feelings about diversity
on campus,” Dean of Students Susie L. Greene, a facilitator
of the program, said.
Opportunities for addressing the issues will be discussed,
Greene said.
“We will begin by sharing data from the campus climate
survey, as well as some of the common themes that came across.
Once that is done, individuals will have the opportunity
to develop their own plan of action,” Wright said.
Organizations or groups that attend the program will be given
the opportunity to organize a plan of action on how their
group will use the information given to them from the survey,
Wright said.
“I think what they’ll get out of [the program]
is what other students and faculty think about diversity
on campus,” psychologist Jacqueline M. Huff, a facilitator
of the program, said.
They will be able to explore issues of diversity and how
it relates to them as students and to others, Huff said.
The Feb. 2 program for faculty and staff will be held in
room 154 of Whitener Hall from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. The Feb.
3 program for students will be in Price Lake room in Plemmons
Student Union from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.
“I think it’s important for all of us to understand
what others are feeling … to be able to understand
where the other person is coming from,” Wright said.
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