To quantify the state of campus climate and of intergroup understanding on campus, UCLA conducted a Diverse Learning Environments survey in 2011 as part of an effort to gauge and improve certain areas of campus climate.
The results of the survey have been rolled out since April 2012 and have been presented to various on-campus bodies, equipping the UCLA community with new information to tackle the problem of campus climate. The administration is currently using the survey results as a means of informing the campus about the state of UCLA’s campus climate and has shared the findings with groups including the Undergraduate Students Association Council, Community Programs Office and the Office of Residential Life.
Now that the university has taken the first steps to better measure and improve campus climate by creating the survey and compiling the data, student- and staff-led organizations should make use of the information in a way that enacts lasting short- and long-term change.
The survey data point to several important conclusions that can be addressed by on-campus groups.
Students are generally interested in diversity and community-oriented goals, but are less willing to actually engage in diversity-building activities, Kristen McKinney, director of the Student Affairs Information and Research Office at UCLA, told the Daily Bruin.
Additionally, the survey found that black and Native American students are more likely than other groups to encounter discrimination on campus.
Another major finding of the DLE survey showed that students enrolled in science, technology, engineering and mathematics majors showed lower levels of civic engagement and were less likely to be exposed to diversity-related curriculum than non-STEM majors.
These trends might be interesting, but they won’t necessarily offer groundbreaking conclusions or spur noticeable change by themselves. The campus community needs to take it upon itself to use this data to better reach out to and serve the demographics that appear marginalized in the survey.
Bodies like USAC already put on programming to address issues of campus climate, but there is room for improvement in appealing to certain student demographics.
The results of the survey might help USAC identify and support groups previously unengaged with student government, and they might help student leaders on council come up with new programming that addresses issues that were less visible before the survey was released.
Additionally, the results could help student leaders find opportunities for co-programming among diverse student groups and help them identify new partners on campus.
This apparent disconnect between survey data and how to apply it in real-world solutions is one issue of which student leaders are aware.
Razmig Sarkissian, a member of USAC’s Cultural Affairs Commission, said that surveys like the Diverse Learning Environments survey are often only marginally useful.
“The data shows that we need an institutional change to address the issue of diversity and discrimination,” Sarkissian said. “Having survey data available is a way to quantify the issue, but it will continue to perpetuate unless we address the problem itself.”
With this in mind, it is imperative that student groups make use of the survey data and apply it to realistic solutions.
The UC Office of the President is currently in the second phase of its own UC-wide campus climate survey, with the goal of asking individual UC campuses to use the data to identify one to three action-oriented steps they can take to improve campus climate, said Jesse Bernal, UCOP’s interim university diversity coordinator.
While this UC-wide survey will no doubt shed light on new trends, UCLA and campus organizations should commit to expediting the use of existing survey data in proactive and concrete ways, going beyond “just the numbers” and not letting a potentially useful tool go to waste.