Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What should I look for in these data?
Primarily you are looking for ways to have meaningful discussions about your department. Here are some useful questions:
1. Positive aspects of the department
a. What are the primary strengths of this department?
b. How can we leverage these strengths better?
c. How can we promote more access to these strengths?
2. Surprises
a. How do the experiences of others differ from mine?
b. What departmental experiences have I not thought about before?
3. Concerns
a. Where is the department not currently functioning at its own standards?
b. How might these concerns be addressed?
4. Questions
a. Where do these data motivate new questions?
b. How can discussion with others in this department help me understand these data?
c. Do we need to collect other data to provide context, perspective, or other information?
What will I learn in Climate Profile 1?
Climate Profile 1 focuses on the general experience of people in your department. It’s useful as a means of calibrating the overall experience and also for identifying some specific strengths of this climate. Climate Profile 2 will expand on this general experience to look at the ways this department functions. Climate Profile 3 will look at the survey items that focus specifically on departmental climate, including the open-ended question about climate concerns in your department. Climate Profile 4 will examine the impact of bias and exclusion in your department and the ways that social identity correlates with departmental experience.
How is confidentiality being protected in this process?
All information obtained through this survey will be kept strictly confidential. The survey was administered and analyzed by the Office of Institutional Research; no one outside of the Office of Institutional Research will have access to the raw data and individual responses. Results are reported in an aggregate form and no information that could be used to identify individual persons will be reported. Where the number of people in a particular category are too low, results are combined with individuals in other departments to further protect confidentiality.
When will we see how social identity impacts experiences in our department?
Climate Profile 4 will summarize all patterns of difference based on social identity (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity/nationality). For example, while “overall satisfaction” is reported in Climate Profile 1, if there are gender differences in “overall satisfaction” they will be reported in Climate Profile 4. Due to the low representation of faculty of color, statistical analyses related to race/ethnicity will only be conducted for the division as a whole to protect confidentiality.
How large is the division-wide comparison group?
129 faculty responded from departments participating in the Fall 2020 survey: Biological Sciences, Earth Sciences, Engineering Sciences, Mathematics, and Physics & Astronomy.
115 staff members responded from departments participating in the Fall 2020 survey: Biological Sciences, Earth Sciences, Engineering Sciences, Mathematics, and Physics & Astronomy.
49 postdocs responded from departments participating in the Fall 2020 survey: Biological Sciences, Earth Sciences, Engineering Sciences (Thayer), Mathematics, and Physics & Astronomy.
188 graduate students responded from departments participating in the Fall 2020 survey: Biological Sciences, Earth Sciences, Engineering Sciences, Mathematics, and Physics & Astronomy.
Why aren’t the division-wide results provided throughout the Profile?
A separate division-wide profile will summarize the survey results from the Science Division as a whole. While comparison with the division-wide results is meaningful, it can also distract department discussion. The more meaningful question is whether the experiences of those in the department match the standards your department holds for itself - not whether your department is “typical”.
How much of the survey is included in Climate Profile 1?
The faculty survey included 115 questions (109 multiple choice and 6 open-ended questions). Climate Profile 1 presents results for 35% of the survey. Another third will be presented in Climate Profile 2 which addresses specific dimensions of department life. The final third will be split between Profiles 3 and 4 and will focus specifically items and analyses related to the department climate.
How is the color scheme on the charts determined?
These results present a mean that was computed by assigning values to each of the categories on a Likert scale (e.g., strongly agree = 1, agree = 2, disagree = 3, and strongly disagree = 4). Likert scales of 1-5 were recoded to a 1-4 range. Color distinctions are assigned to quartiles within this range:
dark orange: 1-1.75
light orange: 1.75-2.5
light green: 2.5-3.25
dark green: 3.25-4
Who sees the results?
In general, results from a specific department are only distributed to people in that department. A broad summary of the division results will be distributed publicly.