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Community Survey

About

In 2018, Executive Vice President and Provost, Nicholas P. Jones, charged a working group to implement a University-wide “community survey” for students and employees.  The working group gathered input from stakeholders to identify six priority topic areas for the survey: 

  1. Belonging and inclusion; 
  2. Institutional commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion; 
  3. Engaging across difference; 
  4. Cultural competence and knowledge; 
  5. Experiences with stereotyping, microaggressions, and harassment; and 
  6. Off-campus contexts. 

Based on these priority areas, the working group chose the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium’s (HEDS) Diversity and Equity Campus Climate Survey.  This survey was further adapted and customized to better address the specific context and needs of Penn State.  The online survey was administered independently by HEDS and sent to all Penn State students and employees in Spring 2020.  Over 20,000 responses were collected, yielding an overall University response rate of 17%. 

Survey results are provided at the unit level in the dashboards in order to inform strategic planning. To help units put Community Survey data to productive use, the Office of Educational Equity offers consultants to all University units to provide comprehensive support to build human capacity in the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) space; create action plans for DEI-focused practice; and measure the success of those efforts. Click here for DEI resources.