The University of California is deeply committed to fostering a learning environment where every student feels welcomed, respected, and supported. The UC recognizes that experiencing discrimination and harassment—particularly based on national or ethnic origin, shared ancestry, and religion—can profoundly affect student well-being and academic success.
In alignment with our values and in response to the UC’s Voluntary Resolution Agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, we are launching a comprehensive, systemwide Campus Climate Assessment Survey to students. This important initiative is designed to better understand student experiences and perceptions related to discrimination and harassment, including those based on actual or perceived national or ethnic origin, shared ancestry, and/or religion, including shared Jewish, Palestinian, Muslim, and/or Arab ancestry, or association with these identities. While the impetus of the survey is to understand the experiences of students as described above, the survey will also explore whether students feel accepted for other personal identities, such as race and religion, as well as broader campus climate issues affecting students’ sense of safety and belonging, including issues related to cultural and political expression.
UC is partnering with NORC at the University of Chicago, a leading independent research organization, to administer this confidential survey to undergraduate, graduate, and professional students across all 10 UC campuses. The survey was developed in collaboration with UC Office of the President and campus representatives.
NORC will begin sending communications about the survey before Fall Break, to ensure students are aware of the opportunity to participate—especially those whose academic term ends early. The survey itself will be distributed in early December, close at the end of January, and will take students approximately 20–25 minutes to complete.
Your participation is vital. The insights gathered will help UC identify needed support resources; strengthen anti-discrimination training, policies, and procedures; and foster more inclusive campus environments. Participation in this survey is confidential rather than anonymous. This means that your survey responses can be linked to your name and other demographic characteristics. Though your survey responses can be linked to your name, this information will not be shared by NORC in any way or reported (i.e., names, email addresses, or demographic and employment data will be kept separate from survey responses). Only NORC research staff monitoring survey participation and preparing the final dataset will have access to linked survey responses. Once the survey closes, NORC will remove participants’ names, email addresses, and IP addresses from the final dataset used for all analyses. All survey responses will be securely stored by NORC and accessible only to NORC research staff conducting data analyses.
All findings from this survey will be reported in ways that ensure no participant can be identified based on their demographic or employment characteristics. This means that findings will either be reported in aggregate (e.g., summarized findings for all respondents from specific demographic groups or in specific roles) or suppressed (e.g., if particular respondent groups are small, where someone could potentially be identified, NORC will not report fewer than 10 responses). Additionally, at the end of the project, NORC will share a de-identified data file (i.e., no respondent names, email or campus addresses, or IP addresses).
We encourage you to take part in this important effort and make sure your voice is heard. Together, we will build a stronger, more inclusive University of California.
We appreciate your time and participation.
Sincerely,
