Campus Climate Study

Rankin Climate, LLC, which is serving as the outside consultant for the LCCC climate survey, defines campus climate as, “the current attitudes and behaviors of faculty, staff, administrators and students, as well as institutional policies and procedures, which influence the level of respect for individual needs, abilities, and potential.” The climate is often shaped through personal experiences, perceptions and institutional efforts.

Research maintains that positive personal experiences with campus climate and positive perceptions of campus climate generally equate to successful outcomes. Examples of successful outcomes include positive educational experiences and healthy identity development for students, productivity and sense of value for faculty and staff, and overall well-being for all.

LCCC affirms that a welcoming campus climate is crucial to the intellectual vitality of the campus community. We value a classroom, studio and campus environment that advances principles of social equity and inclusion, environmental and climate justice, and equal access to resources and opportunities. Free exchange of different ideas and viewpoints in supportive environments encourages students, faculty and staff to develop the critical thinking and citizenship skills that will benefit them throughout their lives.

We recognized the need for a comprehensive process that would provide campus climate metrics for the experiences and perceptions of students, faculty and staff to better understand the current campus climate and to use that as a foundation for building on LCCC’s strengths and focusing on opportunities for growth and change.

During the fall 2024 semester, LCCC will undertake a vital campus climate assessment. This is our chance to make a difference in LCCC’s future, our opportunity to make positive, lasting changes and to help create a more inclusive campus. To ensure full transparency and to provide a more complete perspective, we have contracted with Rankin Climate, LLC to help lead this effort. Rankin Climate has conducted more than 250 campus climate assessment projects over the last 22 years.

A team from Rankin Climate will be working with a committee of students, staff and faculty from LCCC to develop and implement the assessment. The results will better enable us to both develop programs and policies that will increase inclusivity in areas shown to be problematic and enhance and replicate programs and policies in areas shown to successfully meet the needs of the community.

The Climate Survey Working Group (CSWG) is charged with conducting LCCC’s climate survey. After a review of potential vendors, Rankin Climate was selected to conduct the survey. Rankin Climate reports directly to the committee. Although the CSWG will regularly update LCCC about its progress, the committee—in consultation with Rankin Climate—is solely responsible for the development, implementation and interpretation of the survey and its results. Dr. Susan Rankin and Dr. Katrina Alford from Rankin Climate will be the Rankin Climate associates working directly with us on this project. Rankin Climate has conducted multi-location institutional climate studies at more than 250 institutions across the country. Rankin Climate developed and utilizes the Transformational Tapestry model as a research design for campus climate studies. The model is a “comprehensive, five-phase strategic model of assessment, planning and intervention. The model is designed to assist campus communities in conducting inclusive assessments of their institutional climate to better understand the challenges facing their respective communities” (Rankin & Reason, 2008).

In reviewing efforts by other colleges and universities to conduct comprehensive climate studies, several best practices were identified. One was the need for external expertise in survey administration. The administration of a survey relating to a very sensitive subject like campus climate is likely to yield higher response rates and provide more credible findings if led by an independent, outside agency. Members of a college community may feel particularly inhibited to respond honestly to a survey administered by their own institution for fear of retaliation.

Rankin Climate has administered climate assessments to more than 250 institutions across the nation and developed a repository of tested questions. To assist in contextualizing the survey for LCCC, and to capitalize on the many assessment efforts already undertaken, the CSWG was formed. The committee is responsible for developing the survey questions. The team will review selected survey questions from Rankin Climate’s tested collection and will also include LCCC-specific questions, which will be informed by the focus group results.

It is important in campus climate research for survey participants to “see” themselves in response choices to prevent “othering” an individual or an individual’s characteristics. Some researchers maintain that assigning someone to the status of “other” is a form of marginalization and should be minimized, particularly in campus climate research, which has an intended purpose of inclusiveness. Along these lines, survey respondents will see a long list of possible choices for many demographic questions. However, it is reasonably impossible to include every possible choice to every question, but the goal is to reduce the number of respondents who must choose “other.”

Submitting the survey to the college’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) is an important step of the campus climate study project. There are several benefits to going through this process, even if the survey is considered to be “exempt” or “not human subjects research.” Firstly, it provides some assurance to potential participants that their responses to the survey will remain confidential.  People who have participated in social science research may recognize and expect that the process has been reviewed by IRB.  They may feel more comfortable sharing their confidential information and personal stories. Secondly, going through an IRB review provides some protections to the those entrusted with analyzing and managing the data. The expectation is that the data will not be shared with others, as designated in the data security plan.  Lastly, an IRB review provides some cache to the study in the eyes of those who conduct research professionally, such as faculty members and scientists. These individuals understand what an IRB review requires and the protections for the data to which research professionals commit.

The primary investigator from LCCC for the IRB process is Marco Anglesio, Executive Director of Institutional Research and Effectiveness at Lehigh Carbon Community College. An IRB application will be submitted for the project. Once the project is approved, the survey will be administered.

Although the committee believes the survey process itself is informative, we have sought and received commitment from the senior leaders that data will be used to plan for developing specific and measurable actions to continue to improve the campus climate at LCCC.

Th.e target participation in the survey is students over the age of 18 enrolled in the fall 2024 semester (omitting Dual Enrollment and Early College), currently employed faculty and staff at LCCC (fall 2024). Every response matters and is valuable in providing the most beneficial feedback and results

Confidentiality is vital to the success of campus climate research; particularly as sensitive and personal topics are discussed. While the survey cannot guarantee complete confidentiality because of the nature of multiple demographic questions, Rankin Climate will take multiple precautionary measures to enhance individual confidentiality and the de-identification of data. No data already protected through regulation or policy (e.g., Social Security number, campus identification number, medical information) is obtained through the survey. In the event of any publication or presentation resulting from the assessment, no personally identifiable information will be shared.

Confidentiality in participating will be maintained to the highest degree permitted by the technology used (e.g., IP addresses are not recorded). In addition, Rankin Climate and LCCC will not report any group data for groups of fewer than five individuals, because those “small cell sizes” may be small enough to compromise confidentiality. Instead, Rankin Climate and the college will combine the groups or take other measures to eliminate any potential for demographic information to be identifiable. Additionally, any comments submitted in response to the survey will be separated at the time of submission to Rankin Climate so they are not attributed to any individual demographic characteristics. Identifiable information submitted in qualitative comments will be redacted.

Participation in the survey is completely voluntary, and participants do not have to answer any question and can skip any other questions they consider to be uncomfortable. Paper and pencil surveys are also available and will be sent directly to Rankin Climate.

Information in the introductory section of the survey will describe the manner in which confidentiality will be guaranteed, and additional communication to participants will provide expanded information on the nature of confidentiality, possible threats to confidentiality and procedures developed to ensure de-identification of data.

Rankin Climate will provide a final report that will include: an executive summary; a report narrative of the findings based on cross tabulations selected by Rankin Climate; frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations of quantitative data; and content analysis of the textual data. The reports provide high-level summaries of the findings and will identify themes found in the data. Generalizations for populations are limited to those groups or subgroups with response rates of at least 30%. The committee will review draft reports and provide feedback to Rankin Climate prior to public release.

Rankin Climate uses a research data security description and protocol, which includes specific information on data encryption, the handling of personally identifiable information, physical security and a protocol for handling unlikely breaches of data security. The data from online participants will be submitted to a secure server hosted by Rankin Climate. Participants’ confidentiality will be kept to the degree permitted by the technology used (e.g., IP addresses, longitudinal/latitudinal data are never recorded by RC systems). The survey is run via Qualtrics whose servers are protected by high-end firewall systems, and scans are performed regularly to ensure that any vulnerabilities are quickly found and patched. Access is monitored and audited for compliance. Qualtrics uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption (also known as HTTPS) for all transmitted data. Surveys may be protected with passwords. Our services are hosted by trusted data centers that are independently audited using the industry standard SSAE-18 method. Rankin Climate associates working on the LCCC project will have access to the raw data. All Rankin Climate analysts have CITI (Human Subjects) training and approval and have worked on similar projects for other institutions. The server performs an hourly and daily back up and stores the back up on a separate context offsite for safety.

Rankin Climate has conducted more than 250 institutional surveys and maintains an aggregate merged database. The data from the LCCC project will be merged with all other existing climate data and stored indefinitely on Rankin Climate’s secure server. No institutional identifiers are included in the full merged data set held by Rankin Climate. The raw unit-level data with institutional identifiers is kept on the server for six months and then destroyed. The paper and pencil surveys are returned to Rankin Climate directly and kept in a locked file drawer in a locked office. Rankin Climate destroys the paper and pencil responses after they are merged with the online data. Rankin Climate will notify the committee chairs of any breach or suspected breach of data security of the server.

Rankin Climate  will provide the primary investigator with a data file and visualization dashboards at the completion of the project.

The survey will be administered to students over the age of 18 at LCCC enrolled in the fall 2024 semester (omitting Dual Enrollment and Early College) and currently employed faculty and staff. Climate exists in micro-climates, so creating opportunities to maximize participation is important as well as maximizing opportunities to reach minority populations. Along these lines, Rankin Climate has recommended not using random sampling as we may miss particular populations where numbers are very small (e.g., Native American students). Since one goal of the project is inclusiveness and allowing invisible voices to be heard, this sampling technique is not used. In addition, randomized stratified sampling is not used because we do not have population data on most identities. For example, LCCC collects population data on gender identity and racial identity, but not on disability status or sexual identity. A sample approach could miss many groups.

This initiative will include five primary phases. The first will involve developing the survey (November 2023-February 2024). The second will be launching the website and submitting the IRB proposal (June-August 2024). The survey, which will seek input from all students, faculty and staff at LCCC, is administered during phase three (September-October 2024). Rankin Climate will analyze the data and report the results to the LCCC community in the fourth phase (November-December 2024). The fifth and final phase (January-April 2025) will encompass developing the report and presenting results, as well as developing actions.

Your questions and comments are very important as we move through this process. Please share by contacting: Marco Anglesio, Executive Director of Institutional Research, manglesio@lsxythnjy.com.