The University of Michigan will initiate a survey of librarians, curators, postdoctoral fellows, house officers at Michigan Medicine and others to continue efforts to gauge the climate around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.
The survey, which is a component of the university’s five-year DEI strategic plan, will help the university develop valid statistics for measuring the campus climate as it relates to diversity, equity and inclusion.
This survey is focused on about 5,000 instructional employees who have not yet been surveyed.
The confidential, web-based survey will take about 15 minutes to complete. To ensure the confidentiality of the survey, it will be administered by the independent Ann Arbor research firm SoundRocket. No one at the university will have access to any identifiable information from participants. Those eligible for the survey will receive additional instructions by email from SoundRocket during the week of Oct. 30.
Robert Sellers, chief diversity officer and vice provost for equity and inclusion, and members of his staff have been overseeing similar surveys of faculty, staff and students.
The census surveys, which are open to everyone, follow an earlier survey based on a representative sample of the university community. The sample survey provides universitywide benchmarking, while the census surveys provide more individual results for specific units across the Ann Arbor campus.
Questions for the survey were developed over the past year by the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in consultation with community advisory committees. Experts from the campus community and survey research experts from the university’s Survey Research Center also collaborated to develop the survey.
Results from the survey will help schools, colleges and units create a base level of statistics for measuring climate in their environments. It will also provide insight into key issues that warrant further, deeper levels of assessment. The survey will remain open through Dec. 8.
