Why did the university administer this survey?
  • The purpose of the 2021 Campus Culture Survey was to gather information from CU Boulder students, staff, and faculty about their classroom, workplace, and, for undergraduate students, campus residential environments.
  • The survey results will assist campus leaders in the development and implementation of policies and practices to address inequities interfering with the university's ability to create and maintain a respectful and inclusive campus environment.
Who administered the survey?

The CU Boulder Office of Data Analytics administered the survey. ODA administers most of the large-scale surveys at CU Boulder and follows best practices in survey and data security standards.

When did the survey take place? When will it happen again?
  • The Campus Culture Survey launched on Oct. 18 and closed on Nov. 28, 2021. Survey administrators invited 45,384 students and employees to take the survey, and participants received a unique link via their CU Boulder email address.
  • The university will administer the survey every four years, with targeted, smaller-scale survey administrations to evaluate progress toward improvement in intervening years.
What topics did the survey cover?
  • The Campus Culture Survey asked questions about participants’ sense of belonging, respect and support. It also asked questions about identity-based discrimination and harassment, including sexual harassment, and about experiences of incivility and whether the participant would attribute those experiences to aspects of their identity. In addition, the survey covered a range of identity-based harms that may occur in the workplace, classroom and, for undergraduate students, in residence hall environments.
  • Students also responded to questions about mentoring and sexual misconduct, including sexual assault, sexual exploitation, intimate partner violence and stalking. The campus will share the results of the survey's sexual misconduct assessment in fall 2022. In addition, undergraduates answered questions about close friendships at CU Boulder and difficulty connecting with study peers.
  • The survey also asked for information about key demographic and background characteristics that supplement demographic information drawn from institutional records. The campus will use these demographic and background indicators to compare experiences across groups reported in workplaces, classrooms and, for undergraduate students, in residence halls.
Did everyone get the same survey?

There are different versions of the survey, and campus survey administrators tailored each one to fit the needs and experiences of each constituent group on campus. Faculty, staff, graduate students and undergraduate students received different but comparable versions of the survey.

What was the survey response rate?

Participation rates were strong:

  • Faculty 59% (n = 2,132/3,586)
  • Staff 73% (n = 3,289/4,510)
  • Graduate students 48% (n = 3,358/7,016)
  • Undergraduates 30% (n = 9,200/30,272)
How can I see the survey results?
  • CU Boulder will release the survey results for the campus and division levels in early April via a data visualization dashboard, and people will be able to use a range of demographic and other types of filters and comparison options to explore the results for students and employees.
  • Survey administrators aggregated the results for statistical analysis and reporting. When that data are reported in the data visualization dashboard, they will aggregate to groups of 10 or more responses to maintain the anonymity of survey participants. If any demographic group or combination of group characteristics has fewer than 10 individuals, those data will not be displayed in the dashboard.
  • The university will not provide any findings that would risk making someone identifiable due to the uniqueness of their demographic characteristics, years at CU, faculty rank, job category, department, major or a combination of those factors.
What steps have survey administrators taken to protect the anonymity of the survey responses?
  • Survey participants must have the assurance that their responses to survey questions are confidential and secure so they can trust the process. Survey participants' privacy is of the utmost importance to campus survey administrators, who put strict internal safeguards in place to ensure that privacy.
  • No one outside of CU Boulder's Office of Data Analytics—no faculty members, supervisors, or administrators—has access to survey respondents’ identities or to data files.
  • Once a participant submitted their survey, the identifying information that permitted the database manager to keep track of who did and did not respond to the survey was automatically deleted by the Qualtrics survey software. In other words, each case in the final data file is an anonymous case.
  • The anonymity of survey participants is the first duty of care for campus survey administrators, who will protect participant anonymity in all reports resulting from this survey. Anything else is counterproductive to the survey process.
  • For more information about steps taken to ensure anonymity and confidentiality throughout the administration of this survey, please email CampusCultureSurvey@colorado.edu.
How secure are my data?

The CU Boulder Office of Data Analytics safeguards sensitive employment and student data with state-of-the-art data security protocols. The survey platform, Qualtrics, meets Vendor Security Assessment Questionnaire data standards. The data are encrypted in transit and at rest. Read more about Qualtrics security. Once the survey closed, data were encrypted in transit to ODA. The full database of anonymized responses are held by ODA in encrypted form on their secure server. 

Will raw survey data ever be shared?

The university uses the results of the Campus Culture Survey to improve campus programs, and the survey is not intended for research use. Survey responses—even though anonymized—would never be shared, even for the purposes of conducting research. When there are more than 10 individuals in a group, alone or in combination with other groups, aggregated results will be displayed in data visualization software.

How was the survey developed?
  • The Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance and the Office of Data Analytics, along with many campus partners, developed and refined the Campus Culture Survey. More than 3,000 CU Boulder students, staff and faculty participated in a three-year pilot during its development.
  • The survey builds on CU Boulder’s 2014 undergraduate and graduate student social climate surveys. Survey administrators adapted student-focused questions to create comparable questions for faculty and staff to gain a more complete picture of CU Boulder's campus culture.
  • In addition, survey administrators also developed new questions to assess the campus community environments, including questions about experiences of behaviors that negatively impact the workplace, classroom and living environments.
  • For more information about the development of the survey and its content, please send inquiries to CampusCultureSurvey@colorado.edu.
How does this survey fit in with other campus surveys related to culture or climate?
  • The Campus Culture Survey consolidates campus “climate” surveying efforts in support of programs, departments, colleges, divisions, institutes and the campus at large by comprehensively measuring the campus culture at all levels and among all constituents.
  • The Campus Culture Survey replaces the undergraduate and graduate student Social Climate Surveys administered in 2014 and included many questions asked in the earlier surveys in order to track the university's progress in creating and sustaining an inclusive environment for undergraduate and graduate students. Survey data will benchmark and track staff and faculty experiences at CU Boulder campus over time.
  • The survey will also support the CU Boulder Inclusion, Diversity, and Excellence in Academics (IDEA) Plan, providing baseline data for all campus populations and evidence of progress toward meeting the goals of creating a more inclusive campus community.
  • In fall 2019, the survey replaced the previous survey used in the Academic Review and Planning (ARPac) process that each academic program undergoes every seven years to identify program strengths and weakness.
What if I would like to report my experience of protected-class harassment or discrimination?
  • Information disclosed in this survey will not initiate a formal process of investigation into situations involving protected-class discrimination or harassment because it does not constitute an official report to the university.
  • The university is committed to providing an inclusive environment where all individuals can achieve their academic and professional aspirations free from discrimination and harassment based upon protected-class identities. Identities covered by CU policy are race, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy, age, disability, creed, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, political affiliation and political philosophy.
  • To formally report an incident of protected-class discrimination or harassment, please call the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance at 303-492-2127; email cureport@colorado.edu; or use the online reporting form. If you are reporting about something that happened directly to you, there is the option to report anonymously by using the online reporting form. However, responsible employees reporting for someone else may not report anonymously.
  • Anonymous reports related to concerns about campus academic, research, or business integrity or environmental health and safety can be submitted at the CU Boulder EthicsPoint website
What if I would like to speak with someone confidentially about some of the issues raised in the survey?
  • You do not need to make a formal report to the university to receive confidential support.
  • The Ombuds Office assists all members of the CU Boulder campus to informally and impartially resolve complaints or disputes with other individuals, offices or departments within the university. They are independent of any department or office. Visit the Ombuds Office website for more information or call 303-492-5077.
  • The Office of Victim Assistance is a confidential resource available to members of the CU Boulder community who have had disruptive or traumatic experiences related to sexual misconduct, discrimination or harassment. Visit the OVA website for more information or call 303-492-8855.
  • The Faculty and Staff Assistance Program offers counseling and programs for university faculty and staff. All staff are general counselors trained to respond to a wide range of personal and work-related issues. Visit the FSAP website for more information or call 303-492-3020.