Campus Climate Assessment
Based on the assessment needs of the newly appointed University Diversity Council co-chaired by Dr. Naomi Johnson Tsigaridas and Jonathan Page, and federal and state recommendations for a formal evaluation of current sexual assault response and education practices, Longwood chose to participate in the nationally normed, EBI Skyfactor Campus Climate, Safety, and Sexual Assault Assessments. In spring of 2018, students as well as faculty and staff responded to questions related to campus diversity, inclusiveness, visibility, and treatment. Questions regarding personal attitudes and behaviors related to working with people from diverse backgrounds were posed as well as queries of attitudes and perceptions regarding Longwood’s students, faculty/staff, and administration. Prompts evaluating institutional policies, procedures, and training related to campus safety and sexual assault prevention, education, and response were also included in this online survey. Responses from these assessments are being used to inform the development of a Five-Year Diversity Strategic Plan crafted by the University Diversity Council and to prioritize initiatives intended to improve the campus climate at Longwood for all campus constituents.
Of the 540 faculty and staff who responded…
- 81.0% felt they belonged at this institution
- 79.8% said overall, they were satisfied with their work environment
- 79.5% said they would recommend working at Longwood to a close friend
Of the 794 students who responded…
- 79.8% felt they belonged at Longwood
- 80.7% said overall, they were satisfied with their experience at Longwood
- 81.8% said they would recommend Longwood to a friend
- 79.3% felt accepted by other students at Longwood
- 94.3% said they intended to graduate from Longwood
Through this nationally benchmarked survey, Longwood had the opportunity to compare student and faculty/staff responses with those from students and faculty/staff at all participating institutions and with those from a smaller group of participating institutions who share Longwood’s same Carnegie Classification.
Of the 15 factors of questions on the Faculty/Staff Campus Climate Survey, the LU mean equaled or exceeded that of the other two comparison groups on all 15. With a criterion performance level set at 75%, Longwood’s faculty/staff results surpassed that threshold on all but four factors - Perceptions of Faculty, Perceptions of Administrative Policies, Perceptions of Administration, and Visibility (visible signs of diversity on-campus).
Of the 14 factors of questions on the Student Campus Climate Survey, the LU mean exceeded or equaled that of the other two comparison groups on 13. Longwood’s score on the factor that measures visible signs of diversity (i.e. the number of diverse faculty, staff, and students) fell short of that for the group representing all participating institutions. Longwood students’ results surpassed the threshold for a 75% performance goal on all but four factors measuring the On-Campus Sexual Assault Training, the Perceptions of Administration, the Perceptions of Peer Students, and Visibility.
Further analyses of these Campus Climate Survey results will focus specifically on the differences among key sub-populations and the open-ended responses offered by students and faculty/staff as to their suggestions for improving the campus culture at Longwood.
Within the complete summary of the 2018 EBI SkyFactor Climate Survey Results (pdf), slides 4-35 illustrate student results and slides 36-62 portray faculty and staff results. Additionally, a summary of 2018 EBI SkyFactor St-Fac-Staff Response Frequencies (pdf) on Key Items can also be found.
Abbrev Collection of Slides for Handout (pdf)