Below are the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for the fall 2019 Campus and Workplace Culture Survey, which will be administered to CU Boulder Institute employees and the College of Arts & Sciences departments involved in the Academic Review and Planning (ARPAC) fall 2019 cycle review. This survey will assess academic and workplace culture, incivility, protected-class harassment, discrimination, and sexual misconduct.

What is the goal of this survey?
  • The university is committed to creating a welcoming environment that values respect, civility and collegiality. The purpose of the Campus and Workplace Culture Survey is to gather information about the academic, workplace and residential environments experienced by CU Boulder students, staff and faculty.
  • We will use the results from this survey to better understand the existing culture in the social science academic departments, as well as at each Research Institute, and to identify both strengths and areas of concern in order to make recommendations for creating and sustaining a welcoming and inclusive culture at CU Boulder.
When will the survey take place?

The College of Arts & Sciences units that are in the 2019-20 ARPAC review cycle will receive the survey on September 17 (closing 9/29 at midnight) and Research Institutes will receive the survey on September 19 (closing 10/1 at midnight).

When will other members on campus get to take the survey?

In 2020, all students, staff and faculty who did not receive the survey this month will be invited to participate.

How often will the campus administer this survey?

This survey will be administered every four years, with targeted, smaller-scale assessments designed to evaluate progress towards improvement in the intervening years.

Who is administering the survey?

The Office of Data Analytics (ODA), specifically its Institutional Research assessment area, will administer the survey. This group administers a number of surveys on a regular schedule and client-requested surveys on special topics or for special populations on an ad hoc basis and follows best practices in survey and data security standards.

How was the survey developed?
  • The Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance (OIEC) and the Institutional Research unit in the Office of Data Analytics (ODA), along with many campus partners, worked together to develop and refine the survey; over 900 CU Boulder students, staff and faculty participated in the two-year pilot testing phase of development.
  • This survey builds off of the CU Boulder undergraduate and graduate student 2014 Social Climate Surveys and the 2015 Sexual Misconduct Survey. Key questions from those student surveys have been carried forward into this survey. This will allow us to compare the overall 2019 and 2020 results to the earlier campus surveys in order to gauge our progress. These student-focused questions were then used to create comparable questions for faculty and staff so that we will have a more complete picture of our campus culture.
  • In addition, the survey includes questions that are drawn from surveys used at other colleges, universities, and scientific institutes. We also developed new questions relevant to the assessment of campus community environments, for instance items asking about experiences of incivility.
How does this survey fit in with other campus surveys related to culture or climate?
  • The Campus and Workplace Culture Survey is designed to consolidate our campus “climate” surveying efforts in order to support programs, departments, colleges, divisions, institutes, and the campus at-large in comprehensively measuring our campus culture at all levels and among all constituents.
  • The Campus and Workplace Culture Survey will replace the undergraduate and graduate student Social Climate Surveys that were last administered in 2014. Many questions asked in the 2014 Social Climate Surveys have been carried forward into the 2019 survey so we can continue to track our progress in creating and sustaining a welcoming environment for undergraduate and graduate students. This survey will also provide the data to comprehensively benchmark and track staff and faculty experiences on the CU Boulder campus.
  • The Campus and Workplace Culture Survey will serve as another tool to support the CU Boulder Inclusion, Diversity, and Excellence in Academics (IDEA) Plan by providing benchmarking data for all campus populations and, going forward, evidence of progress towards meeting the goals of creating a more inclusive campus community.
  • The CWC Survey will replace the current survey used in the Academic Review and Planning (ARPAC) process that each academic program undergoes every seven years to identify program strengths and weakness. Going forward, this survey will be scheduled so that units will have their survey results in time to incorporate the findings into the review and the recommendations for improvement.
  • Finally, the CWC Survey will be administered in addition to the Regents’ survey and will complement that survey with additional data and recommendations at the campus, division, and department levels.
How will the survey be administered?

A unique survey link will be sent to your CU Boulder email address—this includes employees who work for one of the CU Boulder Institutes. The link will take you to the online survey in Qualtrics, a state-of-the-art survey platform used by the campus.

What steps are being taken to protect the anonymity of my survey responses?
  • We know that individuals must have assurance that their responses are confidential and secure if we are to receive accurate and candid feedback. Survey participants' privacy is of utmost importance to us, and strict internal safeguards are in place to ensure that privacy.
  • No one outside of the Institutional Research (IR) assessment staff—no students or students’ parents or faculty members or administrators—has access to survey respondents’ identities or to files that may connect names or email addresses with answers to survey questions.
  • Members of the IR Assessment group will manage the survey email distribution list, wherein it is recorded who has and has not completed the survey questionnaire.
  • When data collection has been completed, we remove from the final data file the identifying information that permitted the database manager to keep track of who did and did not respond to the survey. In other words, each case in the final data file is an anonymous case. In addition, the data file is encrypted and stored in a secure, encrypted drive which only IR assessment staff can access.
  • Questionnaire responses will be aggregated for statistical analysis and reporting; for example, it may be reported that X percent of first-year students agreed or strongly agreed that they feel welcome at CU Boulder compared to Y percent of upper-division students. We will aggregate the data to groups of 10 or more responses in order to maintain the anonymity of survey participants. If any demographic group or combination of group characteristics (gender and ethnicity, for instance) has fewer than 10 individuals, those data will not be reported. Institutional Research will not provide any findings that would risk making someone identifiable due to the uniqueness of their demographic characteristics, work location, program, department, role, job category, or a combination of those factors. Your anonymity is our first duty of care and it will be protected in all reports, papers, talks, or posts resulting from this survey. We are committed to ensuring that individuals can provide candid feedback with confidence. Anything else is counter-productive to the effort.
  • Please contact Robert Stubbs, Director of Institutional Research (IR), at robert.stubbs@colorado.edu for more information regarding steps taken to ensure anonymity and confidentiality.
How secure are my data?
  • The CU Boulder Office of Data Analytics (ODA) currently safeguards any sensitive employment and student data it accesses by using state-of-the-art data security protocols. The survey platform, Qualtrics, meets Vendor Security Assessment Questionnaire (VSAQ) data standards. Data are encrypted in transit and at rest. Read more about Qualtrics security. Once the survey has closed, data will also be encrypted in transit to ODA. The full database of anonymized responses will then be held by ODA in encrypted form on their secure server. The de-identified data will be stored to allow investigation of trends by comparison with future surveys.
  • Please contact Robert Stubbs (IR) at robert.stubbs@colorado.edu for more information about data security.
Will everyone get the same survey?

There are different versions of the survey, and each one has been tailored to the needs and experiences of each constituent group: undergraduate students, graduate students, staff, faculty, and Institute employees. Nevertheless, many questions across the five versions are similar, so that it will be possible to directly compare the experiences of the different groups.

What if I need to take the survey in a different language?

For CU Boulder staff employees, the survey is also available in Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and Nepali.

How long will it take to take the survey?

The survey will take about 10-20 minutes—the time needed to complete the survey varies due to certain answers to some questions prompting follow-up. Those who have more to share may take a little longer. If you need to leave the survey before completing your answers, Qualtrics will save your place, and you can pick up where you left off by clicking the same link that came with the email that invited you to participate in the survey.

Is the survey accessible to a screen reader?

Yes, it is. The survey will be administered through Qualtrics, an online survey platform. CU’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) has tested Qualtrics’ compatibility with screen readers extensively. Only question types that have been tested and shown to be accessible are used in the Campus & Workplace Culture Survey. Learn more about screen reader compatibility.

May I take the survey on my smartphone or mobile device?

Every effort will be made to ensure that it is possible to take the survey on a mobile platform. However, it is more difficult to review and complete the survey on a smartphone. It is highly recommended that you complete the survey on a computer.

What kind of questions are on the survey?
  • The questions address the culture of the academic, workplace, and residential environments, as well as experiences of incivility, protected-class harassment and discrimination, and sexual harassement. Professional Institute employees will also receive questions about sexual assault, sexual exploitation, dating and domestic violence, and stalking.
  • In terms of the more intimate questions related to sexual assault, we ask about the specific sexual behaviors and whether those behaviors were facilitated by a range of tactics that would make the behavior non-consensual. This is a best practice in collecting sexual assault prevalence data and it leads to more accurate reporting, since people don’t generally share a common understanding of what constitutes “sexual assault” in terms of Colorado law or the CU policy. This is also true of the other categories of sexual misconduct, which is why we focus on the behaviors associated with the specific category of misconduct.
  • There are also demographic questions because we know that members of different groups may be having different experiences inside and outside the classroom and in the workplace. Demographic questions have been developed in collaboration with campus experts to be both sensitive and useful. Results for demographic groups will not be shared if there are fewer than 10 members in the group. We will not present data that is broken out in a way that could inadvertently identify individuals.
  • The questions have been adapted to be appropriate for each campus population (undergraduates, graduate students, staff, and faculty). The majority of questions are asked on a 6-point disagree-agree scale.
Are there any open-ended questions on the survey?

We will not be asking any open-ended questions on this survey. From past experience, we know that some people will report incidents that will make it necessary to break the confidentiality agreement because of the seriousness of what they disclose. Examples from the past include survey respondents telling us about illegal behavior like sexual misconduct or research/fiscal misconduct committed by someone in their department and this has triggered an investigation. Throughout the survey, there is information on how to officially report problematic behavior or reach confidential resources, along with links that can take people directly to those offices.

I know that sexual misconduct is an important issue to address with students, but why ask faculty and staff about things like sex assault, stalking, and domestic violence?
  • When we conducted the 2015 CU Boulder Sexual Misconduct survey for undergrad and graduate students, we received a flood of inquiries from faculty and staff asking why we hadn't surveyed them about these issues. The CU Sexual Misconduct, Intimate Partner Abuse & Stalking policy covers students, staff, and faculty; OIEC administers this policy for the campus and it is not uncommon that CU employees report having experienced a sexual misconduct policy violation, often from another CU employee. These problems do exist on our campus and we suspect that they are underreported (even though responsible employees have a mandatory obligation to inform OIEC if they become aware of a possible violation of this type.) This survey will help us understand the nature and scope of the problem among CU staff and faculty. Our concern is the person being targeted, as well as the people they work closely with. Domestic violence and stalking situations do sometimes result in workplace violence. Research on sexual misconduct experienced by employees in higher education indicates that rates of sexual harassment and sexual assault are higher among those who conduct field work; in addition, we know that sexual misconduct often occurs at academic/professional conferences. No matter where it occurs, sexual misconduct can undermine the workplace culture and impair the sense of belonging that a person has with the campus. In order to protect the identities of the survey participants who indicate that they have experienced sexual assault, sexual exploitation, stalking, or domestic violence in the last 12 months, we will report the sexual misconduct findings for Institute employees at the overall Institute level in December, and for CU faculty, staff, and students at the campus level once the CWC has been administered campus-wide in 2020.
  • In 2018, UC Berkeley conducted an extensive sexual misconduct survey for students, staff, and faculty. They found that among staff, the rates of sexual misconduct were: sexual assault (6.2%), relationship violence (6.7%), stalking (12.8%), and sexual harassment (13.3%). Among faculty, the rates were: sexual assault (2.9%), relationship violence (4.3%), stalking (13.5%), and sexual harassment (11.2%). When asked whether the perpetrator was associated with UC Berkley, 35% of staff and 37% of faculty indicated that the responsible person was a campus affiliate.
  • In terms of the utility of the data, knowing the rates of the different categories of sexual misconduct helps us direct campus prevention efforts and is also important for harnessing resources needed to support our employees via OIEC, FSAP, OVA, and Ombuds.
What kind of response rate are you hoping for?

In our pilot testing of this survey on over 900 CU Boulder students and employees from eight different departments/units, the response rates ranged from 60-80+ percent. We hope to do as well or better! A robust response is needed in order to make the most of the survey findings.

What are the benefits of participating in the survey?

Due to the strict confidentiality of survey responses, the study will not benefit anyone personally. However, numerous students and employees will experience benefits of participation as recommendations arising from this study are adopted by departments and Institutes. This work will direct CU Boulder’s efforts to create more welcoming environments for all students and employees—specifically, environments that increase student and employee retention and that attract more diverse and talented people to join our community. This survey is also intended to benefit the wider community by providing evidence-based best and promising practices for improving the academic and workplace culture on our campus.

What will happen after the survey closes?
  • When data collection has been completed, the identifying information (e.g., email addresses, survey links) that permitted the database manager to send survey reminders will be removed from the final data file. In other words, the information in the final data file will be anonymous.
  • Non-identifiable survey findings needed to help address the ARPAC Self-Study Questions on Unit Climate and Inclusiveness will be reported in mid-October. More in-depth analyses of the complete data set will be provided later this year, at which point we will share the results and create a plan to address issues and to bolster strengths. Research Institutes will receive results in three phases (December, April, and September), with each phase providing greater detail about the results and recommendations for improvement.
  • Department-level data will only be reported if there are 10 or more participants responding from a department or program within the employee and student categories.
  • Working with the de-identified dataset, members of the Institutional Research (IR) unit will carry out the initial data analysis and reporting of the survey results; IR and the Assessment unit in the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance (OIEC) will work together to perform additional in-depth analyses and reports.
  • Reports will include recommendations for amplifying areas of strength and addressing problems and concerns.
  • Action plans grounded in the results of the survey will be developed and communicated to inform new programming and efforts, and to create accountability.
What if I would like to report my experience of protected-class harassment or discrimination, or sexual misconduct including sexual assault, sexual exploitation, intimate partner abuse, or stalking?
  • The information you disclose in this survey will not initiate a formal process of investigation into situations involving protected-class discrimination or harassment, or sexual misconduct, as 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 that are 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 affilation, and political philosophy.
  • To formally report an incident of protected-class discrimination or harassment or sexual misconduct, please call the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance (OIEC) 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 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 this survey?

You do not need to make a formal report to the university in order 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 their website for more information or call 303-492-5077).
  • The Office of Victim Assistance (OVA) is a confidential resource available for members of the CU Boulder community who have had disruptive or traumatic experiences related to sexual misconduct, discrimination, harassment, or crime (visit their website for more information or call 303-492-8855).
  • The Faculty & Staff Assistance Program (FSAP) offers counseling and programs for university faculty and staff. All FSAP staff are trained as generalist counselors and are equipped to deal with a wide range of personal and work-related issues (visit their website for more information or call 303-492-3020).