Creating equity
The campus culture and climate
In 2019, VCU Institutional Equity, Effectiveness and Success launched the Campus Culture and Climate Rankings, a new tool to help monitor and report on the university’s progress toward a more diverse and inclusive culture and climate. The survey and methodology is customized to VCU. As part of this effort, all major academic and administrative units are assessed every 18 months and are rated and ranked based on their performance on three indices: engagement, inclusion and performance outcome.
The engagement index measures the conditions of the work environment conducive to engagement. It takes into account the employees’ perceptions of the integrity and efficacy of senior leadership, the supervisors’ support and the employees’ feelings of motivation and competency regarding their role in the workplace. The inclusion index measures behaviors related to inclusive environments, such as do they promote a fair, empowering, open and cooperative environment? And the performance outcome looks at the overall satisfaction of employees and the perceptions of a unit’s productivity.
VCU uses these data to determine whether the current or prospective academic and administrative unit is meeting expectations for a more diverse and inclusive culture and climate.
The tool builds upon previous efforts made by the university. The first was the Great Place Initiative that was constructed in 2013 and results were later used to inform the university’s overhaul of human resource policies and related strategic initiatives. The second effort was a VCU Diversity and Inclusion Campus Climate Survey that was distributed in 2016.
Learn more about the dashboard.