Campus Climate

To survey employees, the Campus Climate survey developed by the Higher Education Data Consortium (HEDS) was selected and administered in Fall of 2022. Communication about the survey and its availability was conducted through the college email distribution and personal communication via deans, department chairs, and administration.  Listening sessions are planned for Fall 2024 using a third-party research company to provide the protections appropriate for qualitative data collection. 

• Employee Equity & Diversity Survey Results PowerPoint (PDF)
• Employee Equity & Diversity Survey Results Tables (PDF)

New onboarding processes and resources were developed by the CCS District Human Resources Office to support the goal of a supportive, diverse, and welcoming work culture. From small efforts such as welcome bags to substantial efforts such as utilization of the Search Advocates to identify potential bias, CCS and SFCC are striving to create a work environment that ensures employees’ success.

CCS is required to demonstrate compliance through certification of faculty/staff training, and we’ve developed the following system to demonstrate our compliance. We have developed four areas in which faculty and staff can earn credit. The four areas are Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-racism. One credit is earned for every training completed. When a person completes 2 credits in one of the four areas, they receive a badge recognizing their achievement. Faculty and staff must earn 2 credits every two years.

 
    
The SFCC Dean of EDI has designed and implemented a new employee onboarding program for non-faculty employees. It consists of multiple meetings throughout the first year with a focus on building relationships and engagement at SFCC. 100% of new non-faculty hires participated. 

Additional efforts will be included in the EDI strategic plan being developed this year.

The well-known Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) piloted a Race and Ethnicity Survey (RES) at this same time, so it was selected for administration in Spring 2022 for students. The Vice President of Student Affairs was the primary lead in the communication. In addition to the email invitation (English language only), counselors, advisors, Guided Pathway specialists, and other student affairs personal made additional contacts. The response rates were low, an ongoing issue with large surveys, and especially for the populations of concern, students from historically institutionally underserved groups.
 
Before the campus climate legislation, SFCC administered the Diverse Learning Environment (DLE) survey of students in 2019. In addition to the substantial base survey, SFCC included sets of questions

• Intergroup Relationships,
• Classroom Climate, and
• Climate for Transfer.

The more specific equity-based items in the DLE augment the results of the RES.
 
The first student voice project was conducted over Spring 2022 by a contracted qualitative researcher, Dr. Youmna Deiri. Another set of listening sessions with a focus on how students from historically institutionally underserved students are experiencing SFCC’s Guided Pathways is being conducted by Hanover Research in Spring 2024.
 
The qualitative and quantitative data allows SFCC to triangulate the findings to confirm consistency in what we are learning about the student experiences and better inform efforts to continually improve the campus climate for all students and improve their learning experiences. 

• Race and Ethnicity Survey (RES)
• Workbook: DLE Survey (sbctc.edu)
• Student Voice (2022)
• Experience of HIU Students (2024)

From the results of the RES and DLE, it appears that most students find the SFCC campus a welcoming and supportive environment. But there are subgroups which experience the learning environment in different, if not substantially different, ways. The DLE identified response differences for students who identified as Asian, but not at a statistically significant level. The RES identified that students who identify as Black/African American are more likely to emphasis the importance of relationship with faculty. But with both surveys, the challenge of low response rates, especially among groups of historically institutionally underserved students, limited the ability to generalize and then utilize the data. And the descriptive nature of the data did not address the “why” of the concern to inform actions.

In order to better understand the lived experiences of students, qualitative interviews were conducted. While qualitative data by its very nature cannot be generalized, it does provide richer descriptions of the student’s experience and provides more understanding of what and why of that experience. The results will be shared with the college at large but specifically the Diversity, Equity, and Global Awareness Committee for utilization and planning.

The interviews conducted to understand the students’ experience of Guided Pathways will inform SFCC as it evaluates its implementation. Improvements to advising, the student success course GUID 105, utilization of maps, improved access to career data, and other GP efforts will be informed by the students’ voices.