Concerns expressed at UC Regents meeting on campus climate survey results

This article and headline was updated at 3 p.m.

SAN FRANCISCO – The University of California Board of Regents on Wednesday voiced concerns that a significant number of respondents to a University campus climate survey have experienced exclusionary or intimidating conduct on a UC campus.

At their bimonthly board meeting at UC San Francisco’s Mission Bay conference center, the UC regents heard the results of the survey, which officials have said was the first to be conductedon such a large scale. The survey was initially launched in October 2012, commissioned by then-UC President Mark Yudof. The results were supposed to come out in summer and fall of 2013, but were delayed because they took longer to compile than officials had expected.

Out of more than 386,000 individuals invited to participate in the survey, more than 104,000 responded to the 93 questions designed to assess campus climate at all 10 campuses, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Office of the President.

Most respondents of the survey said they feel comfortable with their campus climate, but many underrepresented racial minorities, staff, women, queer and transgender communities said they have experienced exclusionary or offensive conduct on campus.

Systemwide, 24 percent of respondents said they had personally experienced exclusionary, offensive, intimidating or hostile conduct at a UC campus or location. Nine percent of the same respondents said the conduct interfered with their ability to work or learn, which regents said was concerning at their meeting.

In addition, 3 percent of respondents said they had experienced unwanted sexual contact – more among undergraduate students than graduate students, faculty or staff, and more among women than men.

Overall, a higher percentage of staff respondents and racial minorities reported experiencing exclusionary conduct, as compared to non-minorities and faculty.

At UCLA, the findings mirrored those found systemwide, with 24 percent of respondents reporting exclusionary or offensive experiences and 3 percent reporting unwanted sexual contact while on campus.

Women, genderqueer, transgender and underrepresented minority respondents all said they felt less comfortable with their campus climate than men and non-minority respondents at UCLA.

Faculty at UCLA, however, reported being less comfortable with the overall campus climate as compared to staff, students and post-doctoral or trainee students.

UCLA respondents constituted about 6 percent of the overall findings.

Some regents at the meeting expressed concerns about the nature of the survey itself, as well as its findings.

“It’s good news if it’s true. … I wonder, when I look at the response rates, (if) we have a basis to be positive about this report,” said Regent Eddie Island at the meeting. “My concern is, with what I perceive to be relatively low response rates, we may not have an accurate picture of campus climate.”

Island added that he thinks the low rates may partially invalidate the top results.

Other people spoke up about the content of the findings.

Kathy Barton, staff advisor to the board, said one the biggest concerns she’s heard from staff is staff morale and attitudes because of heavy workloads.

“There’s heartfelt worry by many … dedicated staff, that they’re doing everything humanly possible to get stuff done, but oftentimes at standards lower than they expect even of themselves,” Barton said at the meeting. “I encourage you to … act on (these) findings.”

UC Provost Aimée Dorr and Gibor Basri, vice chancellor for equity, inclusion and diversity at UC Berkeley who co-chaired the committee that developed the survey, both presented the survey findings and responded to the concerns by stating that much of the response will come from the campuses. Basri said officials plan to give campuses and student groups time to “digest” the findings before following up with them.

Student Regent Cinthia Flores asked whether the Office of the President plans to provide support to student groups and others trying to make sense of the findings, to which Basri did not provide examples but said the task of developing support programs will be left to the campuses.

“There’s no surprise there are some areas that need improvement,” Flores said.

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, who wasalso present at the UC regents meeting Wednesday, sent out an email to the UCLA community in response to the released results.

“While the report offers us new opportunities to strengthen equity, prevent bias and foster inclusivity, many of those efforts are already well underway,” Block said in the email.

He said in the email that UCLA administrators are already pushing for a general education requirement about diversity and are searching for a vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion on campus.

The Council on Diversity and Inclusion, composed of UCLA’s chancellor and campus student, staff and faculty representatives, is the entity that will take the lead in responding to UCLA’s campus climate concerns, according to UC documents related to the recent survey.

Island said he hopes the UC can undertake similar surveys every few years, so that there is eventually a “body of evidence” to assess in dealing with campus climate issues.

Other regents agreed the issue must be re-addressed consistently to implement changes.

“I’m hoping this becomes a yearly report that we take seriously,” said Regent Sherry Lansing at the meeting. “And (I’d like to) see those (negative experience) numbers going down.”