April 2014

 

Campus Senates to have Critical Role in Analyzing
Climate Survey Results
Survey will also Inform Implementation of Moreno Report Results

 

Senate leaders were standing by on March 19 when Provost Aimée Dorr and Berkeley Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Gibor Basri briefed the Regents on the data produced by UC’s massive campus climate study. The data [campusclimate.ucop.edu) for all ten UC campuses, the Office of the President, non-campus Agriculture and Natural Resources locations, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was released simultaneously with the presentation to the Regents. Only a very small group of administrators—and even fewer Senate leaders—had seen the data before it was public, and the work of analyzing it is just beginning.

 

Concurrent with the release of the data compiled by the consultant who conducted the survey in identical formats for every location, the 13 location heads issued a joint statement in which they pledged “to create and nurture in every corner of the University . . . an ethos of respect for others and inclusion of all.” They characterized the survey as “a starting point, not a finish line” and looked ahead to detailed analysis of the data at each location in order to “reinforce what is working . . . [and] also to address head-on what is not.”

 

Each location will use its distinctive local processes to conduct its data analysis. Divisional Senate leaders will need to assert the Senate’s vital interest and readiness to engage with the data, says Academic Council chair Bill Jacob. On some campuses, he notes, the administration has actively sought Senate involvement, even asking Senate leaders to begin reviewing the data prior to its release, but most Senate members first saw the data when it was released to the public. Jacob stresses the critical role faculty play in establishing campus climate, which makes it essential that the Senate actively participate – and be seen as doing so – in shaping the campus response to the data.

 

Link to Moreno Report

The Senate, through the University Committee on Affirmative Action and Diversity (UCAAD) and the University Committee on Privilege and Tenure (UCP&T), was represented on the joint Administration–Senate work group that prepared the systemwide response to the Moreno report last fall, and both committees have devoted significant parts of their 2013-14 agendas to climate issues. The Academic Council also participated in substantive discussion about the Moreno Report as a response was prepared.

 

Committee chair Emily Roxworthy (UCSD) said that UCAAD’s emphasis has been on academic personnel issues, including pay equity, evaluation of contributions to diversity in merit reviews, and growing the number of diverse faculty members. UCAAD has proposed a fellowship program to recruit undergraduates from Hispanic-serving institutions for summer research internships at UC. Similar to the existing program targeting students from historically black colleges and universities, this initiative is intended to recruit talented students for graduate study and eventual employment as faculty at UC.

 

UCP&T Chair Jeff Lansman (UCSF) describes his committee’s focus as ensuring that the privilege and tenure process provides a robust venue in which faculty-initiated grievance cases can successfully challenge and transform non-supportive departmental climates, and administrators can bring discipline cases against individuals who make departmental climates exclusionary and even hostile toward members of their faculty and student bodies and thus violate the Faculty Code of Conduct. UCP&T is working on an advisory letter to raise department chairs’ awareness of their responsibilities as administrators to ensure that Faculty Code of Conduct prohibitions against harassment and discrimination are enforced.

 

Divisional representatives to the systemwide committees gained important insights as they exchanged perspectives and analyses grounded in specific conditions – both positive and problematic – on their respective campuses. These will inform divisional committees as they scrutinize the data for their own locations to identify priority issues and bring them to the attention of their divisional chairs and executive committees. Divisional leaders will need to ensure these analyses and recommendations are included in campuswide responses to the Climate Survey.

 

Of particular interest to divisional CAAD and CPT members will be local responses to survey questions about how faculty feel about the tenure and advancement process, their colleagues’ interest in their success, whether service is burdensome, family leave policies, and whether they have seriously considered leaving UC.

 

President Napolitano has directed every location head to identify two to three action items with measurable goals and timelines by the end of the 2014 calendar year. “Do whatever you need to do to insert your divisional Senate’s views into your administration’s deliberations,” urges Council Chair Jacob, who notes that the academic calendar may make it challenging for the Senate to meet the President’s timelines.