Carleton College

Campus Climate Assessment

Project

January 21, 2008

How Did We Get Here?

Why Assess?

What is the Process?

Where Do We Start?

Assessing Institutional Climate

Process to Date

March 2007 Preliminary meeting at NASPA to review R&A proposal

May 2007 R&A visited Carleton and presented proposal to DIG and

other campus constituents

December 2007 Initial meetings with DIG subcommittee

Why conduct a climate assessment?

To foster a caring campus community that provides leadership for constructive participation in a diverse, multicultural world. To open the doors wider for underrepresented groups is to create a welcoming environment.To improve the environment for working and learning on campus.

Statement on Diversity

“The purpose of Carleton College is to provide a liberal education that equips students with the skills - critical, intellectual, aesthetic, and ethical – they need to lead a fully realized life in a diverse and changing world. A Carleton education recognizes that the world’s people are heterogeneous in their race and ethnicity, political and social worldviews, religious and spiritual understandings, language and geographic characteristics, gender, gender identities and sexual orientations, physical abilities, age, and social and economic classes. Carleton students must encounter this diversity to learn how to engage it; they must learn how to engage it in order to be full, creative persons. Carleton has a responsibility to educate people from all backgrounds, preparing them as democratic citizens and agents of change.

The core principles of a liberal education at Carleton are based on a culture of mutual respect that provides a welcoming environment for the free expression of diverse points of view. We wish faculty, staff, and students to feel welcomed in all learning spaces, and we recognize that some intellectual conversations are difficult and require sensitivity. In the pursuit of creating a culture of respect within a diverse community and a free and open marketplace of ideas, Carleton educators and students ought to ensure that all individuals feel welcomed and safe in our learning spaces.”

Statement on Diversity (continued)

“At the same time, pursuit of a liberal education often involves discomfort. Our students grow when their established views are challenged and they gain an opportunity to rethink deeply held assumptions about the world. A Carleton education enables students to engage in self-reflection. It trains them to enhance their listening and communication skills, their empathic understanding. And, in turn, it allows students to synthesize different ideas, develop creative solutions for challenging problems, and learn to apply these ideas and solutions as leaders for change in the world.

A community that fosters diversity of thought and an open exchange of ideas can only emerge from the presence and engagement of individuals with different backgrounds and worldviews. Because creative and talented people come from many places and have many backgrounds, Carleton College is dedicated to the attracting and retaining of a diverse faculty, staff, and student body. These principles will constantly sustain the enriching learning environment that defines the institution and its place in the world”

Project Objectives

Participants’ Personal Experiences

Participants’ Perceptions of Institutional Climate

Participants’ Perceptions of Institutional Actions

Participants’ Demographic Information

Participants’ Input into Recommendations for Improving the Campus Climate

Projected Outcomes

Carleton College will add to their knowledge base with regard to how constituent groups currently feel about their particular campus climate and how the community responds to them (e.g., pedagogy, curricular issues, professional development, inter-group/intra-group relations, respect issues)Carleton College will use the results of the assessment to inform current/on-going work

Setting the Context for Beginning the Work

Examine the ResearchWork already completed

PreparationReadiness of the campus

Follow-upAddressing the Challenges

Climate In Higher Education

Climate on college campuses not only affects the creation of knowledge, but also has a significant impact on members of the academic community who, in turn, contribute to the creation of the campus environment (Hurtado, 2003; Milem, Chang, & Antonio, 2005)

Preserving a climate that offers equal learning opportunities for all students and academic freedom for all faculty - an environment free from discrimination – is one of the primary responsibilities of educational institutions.

Current Campus Climate

Access

Retention

Research

Scholarship

Curriculum Pedagogy

CollegePolicies/Service

Intergroup &IntragroupRelations

Transformational Tapestry Model©

Baseline Organizational

Challenges

SystemsAnalysis

Local / Sate /Regional

Environments

Contextualized Campus Wide Assessment

AdvancedOrganizational

Challenges

ConsultantRecommendations

Assessment

Transformationvia

Intervention

FiscalActions

Symbolic Actions

AdministrativeActions

EducationalActions

Transformed Campus Climate

Access

Retention

Research

Scholarship

Curriculum Pedagogy

CollegePolicies/Service

Intergroup &IntragroupRelations

© 2001

External Relations

External Relations

PHASE I

Fact-Finding

GroupsJanuary 21-22, 2008

Fact-Finding Groups

To identify baseline institutional challenges

To assist in developing survey questions

Systems Analysis

To examine mission, structure, current policies, etc. at Carleton College

To assist in developing survey questions

Considerations from Outside the Institution

To examine local, regional, and state environments

To assist in developing survey questions

PHASE II

Assessment Tool

Development and Implementation

Survey Instrument

Final instrument Quantitative questions and additional space for respondents to provide commentary

Sample = Population (Census)All members of each institution are invited to participate via an invitation letter from the President

Contextualized Campus-Wide Survey

Campus input (students, faculty, staff, & administrators)

Paper & Pencil and/or Web Based on-line survey

Communication Plan

Preparing Your Institution

Talking Points Invitation LetterSubsequent Invitations to Participate

Institutional Review Board

IRB Proposal Preparation

PI from Carleton College

Stephen Kennedy, Professor of Mathematics and Chair of Mathematics

PHASE III

Data Analysis

Sample Demographic Profile to Create Chi-Square Table Comparing

Demographics/Population & Sample

Carleton College

Spring 2008

Faculty   Male Female  African

AmericanAsian

AmericanHispanic American

Native American

White American

                   

   

Professor    

   

   

Associate Professor    

   

   

Assistant Professor    

   

   

Adjunct Faculty    

   

   Other Faculty (Instructor, Visiting)    

PHASE IV

(1) Draft Report

(2) Final Report

Sample Table of Contents

Executive SummarySample Demographics/Quantitative Findings/Qualitative Findings

MethodsConceptual FrameworkDesign of the Study

ResultsPersonal ExperiencesPerceptions of ClimateInstitutional Actions

Sample Table of Contents

Next Steps

References

AppendicesAppendix A – Comments AnalysisAppendix B – Data TablesAppendix C – Survey Instrument

Presentation of Results

Town meetings scheduled for Fall 2008

To present results To assist in developing strategic initiatives

PHASE V

Strategic Initiatives

Consultant Recommendations

Based on current research, consultant expertise, benchmarks from previous studies, etc.

To assist in developing strategic initiatives

Transformational ChangeA change in the institution’s:

Shape – how the institution looks, which allows it to function effectively in the dynamic world in which it operates

Structure – the basic parts of the institution that are responsible for its character

Nature – values, beliefs , reward systems, ownership, patterns, etc.

Development of Strategic Plan Areas for consideration

Access/Retention Research/Scholarship Curriculum/Pedagogy Inter-group/Intra-group

Relations College

Policies/Service External Relations

Transformed Campus Culture

Access

Retention

Research

Scholarship

Curriculum Pedagogy

CollegePolices/Service

Intergroup &IntragroupRelations

ExternalRelations

Development of Strategic Plan Action areas

Symbolic actionsFiscal actionsAdministrative actionsEducational actions

Transformationvia

Intervention

FiscalActions

Symbolic Actions

AdministrativeActions

EducationalActions

Transformed Campus Culture

Access

Retention

Research

Scholarship

Curriculum Pedagogy

CollegePolices/Service

Intergroup &IntragroupRelations

ExternalRelations

Questions..? Other Ideas..?

Next Steps…

Process Forward

Phase I Conduct fact-finding groups with various constituent

groups on campus to present the project process and assist in informing questions for the survey

Phase II Develop, review, and revise survey instrument in

collaboration with the DIG Create both on-line and/or paper/pencil forms Develop marketing/communication plan Prepare and submit IRB proposal

Process Forward

Phase III Data Analysis Draft Report

Phase IV Final Report Presentation to Campus Community

Phase V Begin process of Creating Strategic Actions specific to

Carleton College to address challenges discovered in the assessment

Rankin & Associates, Consulting

Susan R. Rankin, Principal

sxr2@psu.edu

sue@rankin-consulting.com

814-625-2780