The University of California plans to conduct a first-ever comprehensive systemwide campus climate assessment as part of its effort to foster an environment that's inclusive and tolerant.
The plans were announced as part of the UC Annual Accountability Sub-Report on Diversity presentation to the Board of Regents today (Sept. 15). The UC president is required to submit a report yearly to the regents as part of a diversity policy goal established in 2007.
 Former student regent Jesse Bernal played an integral role in compiling the diversity report. He also is staff person for the president's advisory council on campus climate and serves as a liaison to the regents' ad hoc committee on campus climate. Read about his work here. |
Campus climate came into focus this year after a series of highly charged racial, religious and cultural incidents on some UC campuses. As a result, the regents appointed an Ad Hoc Committee on Campus Climate, UC President Mark Yudof named an Advisory Council on Campus Climate, Culture and Inclusion and chancellors have created similar committees on each campus.
All the groups have convened, and reports from campuses will be delivered to the president's council at its next meeting in October, said UC Provost Lawrence Pitts, who presented the diversity sub-report to the regents.
UC is looking into options for a comprehensive campus climate assessment tool that would encompass undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff, something that doesn't currently exist, Pitts said.
Campus climate is a measure — real or perceived — of the personal, academic and professional interactions that occur, he said. "In a healthy campus climate, groups generally feel welcomed, respected and valued."
Research has shown that a diverse environment can increase educational benefits for all, and healthy campus climate can enhance diversity, Pitts continued. "Getting an idea about campus climate allows us to ask and hopefully answer more questions."
Measuring campus climate on a comprehensive level is complex and will take time to implement, Pitts said. No specific timeline has been announced. One assessment model for UC could come from UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute. UCLA professor Sylvia Hurtado, director of the institute, presented an outline of the research methods of her organization's Diverse Learning Environments project to the regents' campus climate committee on Tuesday (Sept. 14).
In the meantime, information gleaned from the recently created UC website for reporting incidents of intolerance or discrimination and similar reporting mechanisms from campuses can provide a picture of the climate on campuses.
Pitts said there likely are incidents that occur which may not rise to the level of criminal activity or could fall into the realm of free speech, but could still be detrimental to campus climate and "offer an opportunity for education."
"If a campus has a flurry of incidents, that will be opportunity to intervene at whatever level is appropriate," Pitts said.
The only systemwide data available comes from the UC Undergraduate Experience Survey conducted every other year. It includes questions about respect and tolerance but is not designed to measure campus climate specifically and does not include graduate students.
The latest UC undergraduate survey data is from 2008 (2010 results are to be released early next year), and showed that, "on the whole, the climate for undergraduate students across race, ethnicity and gender is respectful and tolerant," the diversity sub-report said.
Overall, 86 percent of respondents to the undergraduate survey said they somewhat agree, agree or strongly agree that their racial or ethnic group is respected on campus. White students (91 percent) agreed the most, followed by Asian Americans (86 percent), Chicano/Latinos (76 percent) and African Americans (61 percent).
Beyond race, 73 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students surveyed said they agreed that their sexual orientation was respected on campus, compared with 93 percent of heterosexuals, according to the diversity sub-report.
"This is another group that we can afford to spend more energy on to make sure that they feel respected and very much welcome on campuses," Pitts said.
UC's demographic picture is largely unchanged from when the diversity sub-report was submitted last year.
Undergraduates and professional and support staff were the most diverse groups while ladder-rank faculty and senior management were the least diverse.
About 28 percent of the 90,700 professional and support staff, and about 20 percent of UC's 172,900 undergraduates come from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups — African American, Latino and Native American — according to fall 2008 data.
UC enrollments have not kept pace with the state's fast-growing Latino population, the report said. About 14 percent of UC's undergraduates were Latino in 2008-09, compared with 34 percent of the state population. The gap was lower for African Americans, who comprised about 5 percent of UC undergraduates compared with a statewide population of 7 percent.
Among UC's academic appointees, 9 percent of its 2,800 lecturers, 8 percent of its 9,100 ladder-rank faculty and 7 percent of its 22,200 other academics were from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups.
About 14 percent of UC's 300 senior managers come from underrepresented groups.
UC's gender breakdown shows that more than half of all undergraduate and professional degree students (54 percent each) and 44 percent of graduate academic students are women. Almost 29 percent of ladder-rank faculty, 51 percent of lecturers and 41 percent of other academics are women. More than 65 percent of professional and support staff are women, compared with 50 percent of managers and senior professionals. Among senior managers, less than 30 percent were female.
"We have lots of targets of opportunity to improve," Pitts said.
Harry Mok is principal editor in the UC Office of the President's Integrated Communications group. For more information, visit the UC Newsroom or follow us on Twitter.