The results of the first-ever Campus Climate Survey, conducted in March of 2021, was published on Oct. 7, revealing discrepancies in perspectives between groups in the University of Rhode Island’s climate.
“In March of this year, we invited students, staff and faculty to participate in the University’s first-ever Campus Climate Survey,” Associate Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer Mary Grace Almandrez said. “We asked you to speak your truth.”
The greater than 430-page long report asked 119 anonymous questions about students, faculty and staff experience at the University. The report with the results of the survey was shared at the same time with the Climate Survey Working Group as it was with the entire community on Oct. 7, according to the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Jen Riley.
“There is nothing being held back in any way,” Riley said in regards to the results of the survey in the report.
Across the University, 4,555 surveys were completed between students, faculty and staff, for a total of 22.4 percent of the community taking the survey. Genevieve Weber, an executive associate and research associate for Rankin Consulting, the company that did the report, said that usually, the firm needs a 30 percent response rate to say that the results are “generalizable” across a university.
Of the respondents, 58 percent were undergraduate students, 12 percent were graduate students, 18 percent were staff members and 11 percent were faculty members, according to the survey.
“What you’re going to hear today are many things about URI that [are] working, that people are saying ‘this is helping me succeed,’” Weber said. “You’re also going to hear things that tell us where the work needs to be done. And we will see particular differences based on identity — where those who hold marginalized identities have shared with us that their experiences are different [from] those who hold identities with privilege. That’s what this is about; this is an honest look at URI.”
Sixty-nine percent of survey respondents said they were “comfortable” or “very comfortable” with the overall climate at URI. However, respondents that identify as women, Black/African/African American and LGBTQIA+, as well as respondents with disabilities, were all less comfortable with the overall climate than their counterparts, according to the survey.
Places that student survey respondents said they felt unsafe were in athletics, Greek Life, academic environments and open walkways on campus, according to Weber.
There were discrepancies in the perception of academic success among different student racial demographics. Weber said that white students perceived their success academically at the University higher than non-white students perceived their success academically.
According to the report, not low-income students and non-first-generation students said they felt more academically successful than low-income students and first-generation students, respectively. Women also perceived themselves as more successful academically than men in their survey responses.
When it comes to a sense of belonging, Weber said that white students felt they belonged more than Black/African/African American students and multiracial students in their responses. According to the report, among students in the category of gender, women felt a stronger sense of belonging than men, and in the category of sexual identity, bisexual and queer-spectrum respondents felt they belonged at URI less than heterosexual respondents.
“Things happening here are not unique; they are reflective of what’s happening systemically and nationally,” Weber said.
One of the “biggest” questions asked in the survey was ‘Have you personally experienced conduct that has impacted your ability to thrive here?’ according to Weber. This type of conduct includes microaggressions, she said.
Fifty percent of respondents answered yes, which Weber said is “lower than comparable institutions.” Of those 50 percent, 30 percent said that they experienced this conduct five or more times in a year.
Based on gender identity, Weber said the results of the survey showed that trans people experience this conduct more often than women and men, with one in three trans-spectrum respondents answering yes to the question asking whether this conduct was because of their gender identity. Additionally, women respondents experienced this conduct more than men.
In terms of position at the University, faculty said they experienced this conduct at the highest rate, but staff said that they experienced this conduct because of the nature of their position as a staff member, according to Weber.
“If you want to have some meaningful, impactful conversations– talk to staff,” she said. “Staff will say, ‘you know I like it here, but there’s a hierarchy. I want to feel more valued.’”
When asked what this experienced conduct was based on in the survey, faculty said their gender and position most often, and students said because of their mental health. In Weber’s 16 years working in this kind of research, she said she had never seen mental health as the number one answer to that question.
Staff said this conduct was happening mostly in meetings or in a group of people, according to Weber. Faculty said it happened on phone calls, in emails and through texts. Students said this was happening in campus housing. Weber also said that the microaggressions reported in the survey were said to be within groups (student on student, staff on staff, faculty on faculty). Thirteen percent of those who experienced microaggressions said they reported that conduct.
For respondents with disabilities, the largest barriers to accessibility and thriving at the University were classroom buildings, Brightspace, learning technology, textbooks and accommodations from faculty, according to Weber. Signage, locker rooms and restrooms were another cited concern for respondents with disabilities.
In cases of “unwanted sexual conduct,” the four listed types in the report were relationship violence, stalking, unwanted sexual interaction (catcalling, whistling) and unwanted sexual contact which was defined as “more physical in the sense of assault, rape,” according to Weber.
Four hundred fifty-seven respondents said they experienced unwanted sexual conduct, according to the survey. The respondents were mostly students, but there were a few employees who also answered yes to this question, according to Weber. From all of the respondents, 1 percent said they experienced relationship violence, 2 percent said they experienced stalking, 6 percent said they experienced unwanted sexual interaction, and 3 percent said they experienced unwanted sexual contact.
Sixty percent of those who answered yes said they experienced this unwanted sexual conduct within the past year, and 72 percent said it happened as a first-year undergraduate student, according to the report. Weber said that the most vulnerable students for all four types of unwanted sexual conduct based on the survey results were first semester, first-year undergraduate students.
“We’ve got to protect our first years,” she said. “Still have to in the subsequent years, but that first year.”
Thirty-five percent of respondents who answered yes to this question said that alcohol and drugs were involved, according to the report. As for where these incidents occurred, 112 respondents said that it happened off-campus and 197 respondents said that it happened on campus. Weber said that 63 percent of respondents said that a URI student was the perpetrator.
Only 9 percent of respondents reported this conduct to authorities, according to Weber. Many respondents that said they experienced this unwanted sexual conduct said they handled it independently, and others said they reported it but “nothing happened, there was no consequence,” Weber said.
The main themes seen, according to Weber, are that, depending on what identities hold privilege and power systemically, are happier with their experiences here.
Virtual and in-person forums will be held throughout the month of November hosted by the Campus Survey Working Group, according to Almandrez. The faculty forums will be hosted on Nov. 2 and Nov. 17, the staff forums will be held on Nov. 2 and Nov. 9 and the student forums will be held on Nov. 4, Nov. 5 and Nov. 17. Further information on these forums is available on the campus survey website.