UC releases reports on campus climate, response to protests

The University of California today (March 19) released updates on two systemwide efforts begun more than a year ago, one that surveyed UC’s campus climate and the other focused on responding to protests and civil disobedience.

The campus climate study — which includes responses from the 10 campuses, the Office of the President, the Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory — is an unprecedented, proactive effort to obtain baseline data and better understand how members of the university community relate to one another.

Initial results show that a large majority of respondents (79 percent) are satisfied with the overall campus climate at UC. This data now will be analyzed and action plans will be formulated at each locale, allowing the university to reinforce what is already working, and continue to improve the learning, working, and living environments at UC.

The voluntary survey was administered between fall 2012 and spring 2013, and was available to university staff, faculty and other academic appointees, undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral scholars and trainees.

In a letter introducing the survey results, UC President Janet Napolitano, UC chancellors and leaders at other university locations said:

“We seek to create and nurture in every corner of the University…an ethos of respect for others and inclusion of all. Such an ethos need not undermine the spirit of free speech and acceptance of differing ideas and attitudes that have long been the University’s hallmark. Rather, respect and inclusion form the essential bedrock on which to build a community that cherishes and benefits from robust, constructive discourse and daily interactions among all its members.”

The second report released today charts the progress of the Civil Disobedience Initiative (CDI), which has focused on implementing recommendations from the Robinson-Edley Report around UC’s response to campus protests and civil disobedience. Each campus has addressed or is working to address each of the 49 recommendations included in the original report.

The work of the CDI has been guided by three goals: preserving and protecting First Amendment rights, promoting the peaceful convergence of different ideologies and points of view and ensuring the rights of all on the campuses to create and acquire knowledge in a safe and secure environment.