The initial results and recommendations of the 2010 Campus Climate Survey of faculty and staff were presented at today’s Board of Trustees meeting by Richard Boyer, founding partner of ModernThink, the firm contracted to conduct the survey.

An initiative of President Stephen Jordan, the online survey was held in February and resulted in a 41 percent response rate for all faculty and staff including affiliates, and a 63 percent rate for full-time faculty and staff.

Boyer called the full-time faculty and staff response rate outstanding with a very robust data set. “It suggests that faculty and staff are invested in the College.” He also said that the high rate puts ModernThink’s confidence level in the accuracy of the data at 95 percent.

That being said, Boyer termed the data set as unusual. “Clearly people are engaged with the College, as evidenced by the 300 pages of comments they wrote. They take great pride in Metro State, but there also are continuing frustrations. … The sum of the parts don’t add up.”

The results indicate the faculty and staff consider Metro State a good place to work, with stability, a sense of community, and good rapport with and respect for supervisors. In the categories of job satisfaction, supervisor relationship, pride, and diversity and community, the percentage of positive responses ranged from the mid 60s, all the way to 80 percent.

However, there also were several key issues, among them:

• Vision: varying degrees of understanding Jordan’s vision of preeminence and the role/connection to some strategic initiatives
• Shared governance: while there are processes in place to facilitate shared governance, faculty and staff input is not fully considered
• Communication: there is a desire for greater transparency, more inclusive processes and improved cross-functional communication
• Fairness: consistent/equitable treatment, performance management and compensation
• Valued/respected: not sufficiently recognized or respected
• Leadership: varying degrees of skills and effectiveness across different levels of leadership, with senior leadership being of the most concern

In the categories of resources; community; shared governance; compensation, benefits and recognition; fairness and senior leadership, the responses ranged from a low of 34 percent positive, up to 57 percent positive.

Boyer said there appears to be a dependency on the president. “Faculty and staff need to hear the story from more than just Dr. Jordan,” he explained. “Senior leadership needs to share with faculty and staff in an appropriate and authentic way the story behind decisions.”

Some elements of individual responses were incongruent, Boyer said. “People report that they’re happy despite giving low scores. This ultimately is not sustainable.”

Boyer completed his presentation by listing six recommendations, among them shoring up the managerial skills across the institution, focusing on quality communications and addressing fairness concerns.

The presentation was given only as an information item for the trustees and Chair Adele Phelan said that the board would be considering further discussion at its retreat in August.

Following the meeting, Jordan said that the survey results will allow the College to move forward with a strategic plan, which has been on hold while the provost position was permanently filled.

“The Strategic Plan Committee and the Campus Climate Committee will work hand in hand in analyzing the results and recommending an action plan so that the two are aligned,” he said.

ModernThink’s complete presentation is available at survey results.