2020-2021 Faculty Senate Taskforce to Transform Campus Culture Year-End Report
About the Taskforce: This special ad hoc taskforce was created by Faculty Senate (10/15/2019) to explore and make recommendations to administration to address all aspects of UA Campus Culture that lead those in the UA Community to feel marginalized, threatened, unsafe and/or unheard. We are interested in talking with members of our community about issues on our campus as they relate to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The Faculty Senate Taskforce to Transform Campus Culture comprises 9 members: Wanda Burton, Leah Cheatham, Greg Cottrell, Barbara Dahlbach, Heather Gunn, Kelly Guyotte, Latrise Johnson, Regina Range and Alyxandra Vesey. The Taskforce chose governance by committee, rather than by chair. Meetings were convened via Zoom bimonthly, every other Tuesday (1:00–2:30pm).
The Taskforce’s activities during the 2020-2021 academic year included:
- Piloting and distributing broadly-targeted surveys soliciting views of campus culture – one seeking
participation from faculty and staff, and another seeking participation from students (April/May 2020); - Analyzing findings from the faculty/staff survey (n = 681) and student surveys (n = 391), as well as
the Interactive Campus Culture Forum (n ~ 40) (June–December 2020); - Responding to constituent concerns of hate speech on campus (June–August 2020);
- Revising/abbreviating campus culture survey to solicit additional responses from varied faculty and
staff constituents (January–March 2021); - Redistributing campus culture survey to faculty and staff (n = 665) with particular attention to
recruitment through staff organizations and affinity groups (March–April 2021).
The Taskforce’s next steps during the 2021-2022 academic year include:
- Organizing focus groups (in-person and virtual) with survey respondents interested in discussing
campus culture and climate with the Taskforce; - Developing actionable recommendations to be shared with and approved by Faculty Senate; and
- Communicating recommendations with appropriate University stakeholders.
To accomplish these goals, the Taskforce will organize work within the following 2021 timeline:
[Table translated to text for accessibility, see PDF version for table]
Faculty Senate Taskforce Activities
Meeting Schedule: One meeting each in May, June, and July; Two meetings in August, September, October, and November; One meeting in December
Survey
- De-identify Survey Data: May
- Clean Survey Data: May-June
- Analyze Survey Data: June-August
- Summarize: August-September
Focus Groups
- Recruit Respondents for Focus Groups: August-September
- Hold Focus Groups: August-October
- Analyze Focus Group Data: September-December
- Summarize: November-December
PDF Version – Taskforce to Transform Campus Culture Report 2020-2021