UCA’s Office of Diversity and Community released the results of its annual Campus Climate Survey on Feb. 8.
The goal of the annual survey is to get feedback from students, faculty and staff on what UCA is doing well and what needs to be improved.
1,109 students responded to the 2023 UCA Campus Climate Survey.
Accompanying the survey, Diversity, Belonging, Inclusion and Equity Week was held Oct. 2 to 6, 2023. UCA started the week in 2022 to address previous campus climate survey concerns.
Respondents rated 14 factors on a scale of one to seven.
Of the 14 factors, the results noted students’ highest-rated aspects were their personal attitudes and behaviors, perceptions of UCA as an institution, perceptions of faculty and staff and overall satisfaction with UCA.
Students rated all 14 factors as good or excellent. However, three points had “opportunities for improvement,” the results said.
On average, students rated the statements “Students at this institution encourage free and open discussions about difficult or controversial topics,” “Students at this institution are willing to talk about group differences” and “Students at this institution are open-minded when it comes to sharing different ideas and beliefs” at 5.35, 5.35 and 5.41, respectively. A seven would mean they strongly agree.
475 faculty and staff members responded to the survey. Similar to the student survey, on average, respondents rated all 14 factors as either good or excellent.
The highest-rated factors were personal attitudes and behaviors, overall perceptions, work environments and perceptions of the institution.
The survey identified “three opportunities for improvement,” all related to employees’ perceptions of administration.
On average, faculty and staff members rated the statements “Administrators are genuinely concerned about my welfare,” “Administrators value the work I do” and “Administrators respect what faculty and staff think” at 4.97, 5.02 and 4.95, respectively.
Answers from the open-ended questions on the student survey indicate that students believe UCA should improve and increase indoor and outdoor lighting, host more events to bring students together, identify and implement ways to onboard nontraditional students and train students on how to have difficult conversations.
To help with the latter concern, Employee Engagement and Enrichment offers training on how to handle difficult conversations, including using models created by Braver Angels, a nonprofit organization dedicated to political depolarization and bringing people from opposite sides of the political spectrum together, according to its website.
Common themes emerged from faculty members’ responses to the open-ended survey questions, which also showed concerns about difficult conversations.
Respondents said UCA should train faculty and staff on how to have difficult conversations, work to increase inclusion for all student identities, improve accessibility of facilities and review their pay and compensation.
The results of the UCA Campus Climate Survey also provided a list of changes to help solve the issues students expressed.
The physical plant spent $65,000 to repair the sidewalk in front of McAlister Hall, of the $100,000 budgeted to improve campus sidewalks.
According to the survey, the “physical plant has been working to identify areas on campus that are prone to flooding during rain. A contractor was hired to fix the flooding around Harrin Hall.”
Regarding the lighting problems students brought up in response to open-ended questions, the survey said, the “physical plant hosts Campus Safe Walks with UCA Administration and
SGA to identify priority areas for outdoor lighting.”
The survey results also mention the Safe@UCA app, which can call UCA Police dispatch and alert UCAPD of the device’s location. The app also has a “Friend Walk” feature, which lets users send their real-time location to a friend.
From the app, the receiver can watch as their friend arrives at their intended destination and can initiate an emergency call if they don’t make it.