UC Irvine Campus Climate Report

"I feel quite comfortable on campus, thank you."


Here it is, Folks; the report that we have all been waiting for. The UC Irvine Campus Climate Report. No, this has nothing to do with Global Warming or Climate Change. It has to do with how we all get along on campus.  I am linking it in case anyone wants to read this. As it is, I perused it. Not much in the way of narrative, but a whole lot of charts. At the end, you can see the questionnaire. Altogether, there are 299 pages. I never dreamed that people could be divided into so many categories.

By the way, I did participate in filling out the questionnaire, but had to make a couple of phone calls and e-mails to get included since I am only an adjunct.

http://campusclimate.ucop.edu/_common/files/pdf-climate/uci-full-report.pdf

"Because of the inherent complexity of the climate construct, it is crucial to examine the
multiple dimensions of climate in higher education. The conceptual model used as the
foundation for this assessment of campus climate was developed by Smith (1999) and
modified by Rankin (2002). The model is presented through a power and privilege lens.
The power and privilege perspective is grounded in critical theory and assumes that
power differentials, both earned and unearned, are central to all human interactions
(Brookfield, 2005). Unearned power and privilege are associated with membership in
certain dominate social groups (Johnson, 2005). Because we all hold multiple social
identities we have the opportunity and, we assert, the responsibility to address the
oppression of underserved social groups within the power/privilege social hierarchies on
our campuses. The model is instituted via a transformational process that capitalizes on
the inclusive power and privilege perspective. The model has been implemented by over
one hundred campuses as a means of identifying successes and challenges with regard to
climate issues."

That was my reaction too.

I did pick up one one point buried in the mass of stats on p 64. That was that among religious groups, Jews felt the most uncomfortable on campus though the differences were slight. Similar slightly higher numbers were reflected for Jews on pp 65 and 78 (figures 30, 31 and 37).

"Only slight differences existed among individuals from the various religious/spiritual affiliations 
regarding their comfort level with the overall climate at UCI (Figure 29). Jewish respondents 
appeared least comfortable with the climate at UCI." 


I wonder how much money that Rankin outfit made to conduct this survey. Great gig.