The Board of Regents on Thursday heard initial results of the Campus and Workplace Culture (CWC) Survey, in which University of Colorado students, faculty and staff provided information about their academic, workplace and residential environments.
At the direction of the board, university leadership launched the survey last fall, seeking to listen and understand the experiences of community members across the university. The initiative emphasizes CU’s commitment to creating an inclusive environment where all community members feel respected, supported and valued.
“Our goal is to establish and sustain a just, equitable and inclusive culture at the University of Colorado where everyone can thrive,” said CU President Todd Saliman. “The first step in this process is the survey, which asked some tough questions. That allows us to set baselines for progress. We can only move forward by understanding how our community is feeling now.”
Collaborating with DEI leaders
The CU system worked collaboratively with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) leaders, institutional research professionals, and compliance officers across the campuses to support the survey launch. Each campus and system administration administered its own survey independently and is leading its own survey analysis and action planning.
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CU Anschutz: ‘We Are Committed’
“At CU Anschutz, we are committed to fostering a culture and environment that is supportive, enriching and inclusive. Through this survey effort, our campus leadership team is able to gain insights from our community, develop a deeper understanding of our strengths as a campus today, and identify areas of focus for the future.” – Regina Richards, PhD, MSW Vice Chancellor of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Community Engagement |
Diversity, equity and inclusion are integral parts of CU’s systemwide strategic plan. Thursday’s presentation to the board focused on a small portion of the CWC Survey findings, specifically those responses to questions directly relating to metrics in the strategic plan.
From now into April, local survey results will be shared internally with campus stakeholders. Leadership will use survey results to better understand the current culture and to identify strengths and areas of concern. Responses will inform recommendations for actions aimed at creating and sustaining a just, equitable and inclusive culture at CU.
“The CWC Survey is a brave beginning to a process where each campus will now be able to better understand where to focus its efforts,” said Sharon Matusik, dean of CU Boulder’s Leeds School of Business, who co-chaired the system’s strategic planning process with Saliman. “At each campus, leadership will bring together individuals to evaluate survey results and develop steps for unit and campus level action plans, which will be crucial to achieving meaningful progress.”
Setting a baseline
The survey results establish a baseline for each of the campuses so they will be able to measure progress going forward through monitoring of metrics and administration of future surveys.
The Board of Regents will review campus-level results – including highlights, key demographics and the action planning process – during a presentation planned for the April board meeting. A further update to regents on campus action plans is set for July.
