2015 Climate Assessment Results

In 2015, Drake embarked on a yearlong climate assessment to explore how students, faculty and staff experienced the climate at Drake. Climate on a college campus refers to the ways in which individuals and groups experience membership in the campus community—in other words, we asked individuals what it was like to be at Drake. The assessment included a three phases, including, conducting focus groups to create the survey, administration of the campus wide survey, and a series of town-halls and discussion groups to develop next steps based on the data that was collected.

Drake University community members completed 2,159 surveys for an overall response rate of 36%. Response rates by constituent group varied: 38% (n = 1,129) for Undergraduate Students, 22% (n = 396) for Graduate/Professional Students, 51% (n = 376) for Staff and Administrators, and 58% (n = 258) for Faculty.

The survey revealed that 80% (n =1,722) of the survey respondents were “comfortable” or “very comfortable” with the climate at Drake, and 91% (n = 1,317) of student respondents reported that many of their courses were intellectually stimulating. However, the survey also revealed that 20% (n = 420) of respondents believed that they personally had experienced exclusionary, intimidating, offensive, and/or hostile conduct. The findings of the study were consistent with those found in higher education institutions across the country, based on the work of Rankin & Associates Consulting.

To explore more of the findings of the 2015 Climate assessment, please visit our secured website.