The results are in: Firm provides details of Campus Climate survey

Last Wednesday and Thursday, UTRGV and ModernThink LLC hosted a town hall meeting to reveal the results from a campus climate survey conducted earlier this year.

The overall response rate for students was 7% and 54% for faculty and staff.  

The firm first surveyed the campus in 2018. 

ModernThink is an organizational development and management consulting firm with particular expertise in improving workplace quality, stakeholder engagement and overall outcomes, according to its website.

“The firm’s ultimate goals are to recommend a path forward based on the organization’s specific results, start strategic planning to address key areas and help implement best practices to improve culture and climate,” the website states.

This year, the Transforming our World Campus Climate Survey was conducted between Feb. 9 and March 5 and had a student response rate of 7%, which decreased from 9% in 2018. The faculty and staff response rate increased from 50% to 54%. 

Nicole Englitsch, an organizational development specialist for UTRGV’s Office of Human Resources, said the typical range for employee response rate is between 36% and 46%. For students it is between 5% and 15%. 

Englitsch said the university is happy and positively surprised by the outcome. 

“We have seen tremendous improvements, … especially on the employee side,” she said. “The climate, according to the survey results, has improved dramatically and we’re really proud of that. And, … we’re really pleased to see that whatever we have done in the last few years has worked and we’re seeing improvements in the areas that we wanted to tackle over the last few years.”

Englitsch said the more people who respond the more accurately the university can paint a picture of what is actually going on on campus.

ModernThink detailed the results of full-time employees in a town hall meeting last Wednesday via a Microsoft Teams meeting. 

Based on results from the survey, employees reported that the university’s strengths are job fit, autonomy and pride, supervisor/department chair, professional development, work/life balance and benefits, diversity, equity and inclusion. 

Areas for improvement, according to results, were resource constraints, performance management and accountability, respect and appreciation, senior leadership, communication and collaboration, shared governance and campus experience.  

Last Thursday, ModernThink also went over the results for the student surveys.

Seventy-seven percent of students agree they are “provided sufficient support and resources from this institution to succeed academically.” Four percent disagree. 

Eighty-nine percent agreed that people at UTRGV are supportive of other people regardless of their heritage, background or sexual orientation. Two percent disagree. 

Eighty-one percent of students agree that “the facilities (e.g., classrooms/labs, residence halls, dining facilities) adequately meet my needs.” Five percent disagree. 

Eighty-six percent of students are proud to be part of the institution. Three percent disagree. 

Eighty percent of students who answered the survey understand the mission of the institution. Six percent disagree. 

Eighty-one percent of students agreed that “faculty, administration and staff work together to ensure the success of institution programs and initiatives.” Four percent disagree. 

“If we don’t have a lot of people respond, then the results really don’t say much,” Englitsch said. “And this is the chance for everyone to voice their concerns, how happy they are, any areas of opportunities. And, this time, in an anonymous and confidential way, so there’s no way for us to find out who said what. So, this is really their chance to make their voices heard.”

In an email sent by Englitsch, she wrote that in the two weeks following the town hall, Rich Boyer, consultant from ModernThink, will meet with each division lead and college dean to go over their area results. 

“Similar to our approach after the previous survey on 2018,” she wrote. “We will have a team of campus climate liaisons (mostly HR employees) ready to assist each division and department in the result and action planning process. Over the next two years, we will also assess our progress by completing progress reports.”

Englitsch said this is the first time they are able to see areas of growth and opportunities. 

“This time, it’s really interesting to see because in 2018, this was the first time we did the survey,” she said. “So, we didn’t have any numbers to compare it to. This time around, we will see actually how did we do in 2018 and were we able to move the needle and where are we now. So this time we have a little bit more of a comparison.”