Meredith Prepares to Launch Campus Climate Survey as Critical Step in Anti-Racism Initiative

As a part of the College-Wide Initiative on Anti-Racism, Meredith will conduct a Campus Climate Survey this fall to better understand the realities and experiences of BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color) on campus. The survey will be sent via email to students, faculty, staff, and alumnae/i who graduated within the last five years.

Specific dates for when the survey will be administered have not yet been determined, but the plan is for it to be sent out in early October and remain open for the duration of the month. The survey is a critical step in taking further, informed action against racism at Meredith.

“The Campus Climate survey is designed to elicit the voices of all members of the Meredith College community regarding their experiences with racism,” said President Jo Allen.

“This point of data collection will help us further refine our inquiry to ensure we are addressing all aspects of racism, not just those that are most obvious or easy to solve. Asking hard questions, after all, is what education requires of us.”

The survey, which will be conducted through the Higher Education Data Sharing (HEDS) Consortium, will provide an anonymous platform for providing feedback and a means for action.

A diverse team of Meredith staff members have been charged with researching the best means for administering the survey, including Meredith’s Director of Research, Planning and Assessment, Dianne Raubenheimer.

“We reviewed a number of different survey instruments to determine one that best addressed the topics we are most interested in, as well as the deliverables,” said Raubenheimer. “We did a thorough comparative analysis based on several criteria.”

• This criteria includes, but was not limited to
• Constructs that Meredith is interested in assessing (campus climate, diversity, equity, inlustion, institutional support, discrimination, and harassment)
• Results broken out by sub-groups
• Timeline available for distribution
• Timeliness of reporting
• Benchmarking against other institutions
• Availability for follow-up questions and additional reports
• Cost

Results for the survey are expected to be available in January or February 2021. Decisions about who will have access to the data have not yet been finalized but the data will only be available in aggregate and cannot be linked to individuals who complete the survey.

Once results are available, further in-depth data may be gathered through focus interviews and additional targeted surveys. Meredith’s Executive Leadership Team will evaluate the results and then develop actionable steps to address the feedback from the Meredith community.

For more information on Meredith’s College-Wide Initiative on Racism, please visit meredith.edu/anti-racism-initiative.