With the election of a new president and students graduating this spring, SFCC is conducting its first campus climate survey since 2013.

Bonnie Brunt, dean of visual and performing arts and chair of the core theme four committee, took on the challenge of conducting another campus climate survey in 2019.

The Core Theme Four Committee, otherwise known as the Committee for Diversity, Equality, and Global Awareness, recently “felt a bit frustrated” since SFCC stopped conducting the surveys.

“We haven’t had a way to systematically ‘take the pulse’ of how students are experiencing our campus environment,” Brunt said. “And in (Core Theme Four Committee’s) case, it’s of particular interest.”

Brunt and the rest of the committee encouraged the administration to conduct another survey.

“Normally no committees are involved,” Brunt said. “But, our committee (is) involved because we cared so much about getting good data.”

The specific survey being used is straight out of the University of California Los Angeles. Last spring, administration sent a small cohort of faculty and staff to UCLA’s diversity research institute.

“(The survey) is called ‘Diverse Learning Environments,’ ” Brunt said. “UCLA is one of the leading research institutions on campus climate, and in particular, they have a really strong diversity and equity bent in theirs.”

The group came back from UCLA with in-depth knowledge about the survey and were ready to start marketing for it on campus.

“I’ve never done marketing before,” Brunt said. “So I called up our marketing director at the district office and she was really excited about working with me on the project.”

The marketing team has created 1,000 buttons that read “I spoke up!” for all students who complete the survey, as well as buttons for faculty and staff that read “Have you spoken up yet?” which are made to encourage students to take the survey.

“When we approached the president and vice presidents to ask for money to do this, they said yes,” Brunt said. “We were really happy about it because that meant more turn-out for the survey.”

Some students have already received an email from SFCC’s interim president, Nancy Fair-Szofran, and the incoming president, Kimberlee Messina. In order to have received this email, students must fit into the following criteria:

-Be 18 or older.

-Have 24 or more credits completed at SFCC.

“We want students that have been going here long enough to have a good feel for the college,” Brunt said.

After plenty of research, the committee found that the DLE survey fit the committee’s checklist.

“As we were looking at different surveys, we chose one that is administered online,” Brunt said. “Knowing that we wanted to hear from minority groups, we figured online was the best option rather than a cross section being chosen from a classroom-based survey.”

In an email that qualified students received from Fair-Szofran and Messina, the survey is said to have questions pertaining to student’s classes, interactions with faculty and peers, participation in campus activities and use of campus services.

Brunt and her committee reached out to minority groups on campus such as the Latinos Unidos club, the Black Student Union, the Alliance Club and the Red Nations Club.

“We wanted to reach out to all the groups that are historically marginalized,” Brunt said. “We really wanted to hear from you.”

The main purpose of the survey is to get an understanding of what goes on at SFCC, how students feel while on campus and the overall work that needs to be done in certain areas on campus.

“When we hear about incidents that happen on campus, we think, ‘well, that’s awful,’ ” Brunt said. “What should we do about it?”

Brunt said that administration and faculty want to make sure they are pinpointing the correct issues.

“If some egregious, racist incident happens on campus, we want to know about it,” Brunt said. “And when we only hear about these things by coincidence, we start to think about all of the other incidents we aren’t hearing about.”

After the survey is conducted and all of the data is received, the administration will be able to compare SFCC’s data to other institutions and see where the campus measures up.

Messina is slated to start in June. Brunt said the committee kept that in mind when thinking about when to conduct the survey.

“She’ll come in with all her goals and everything,” Brunt said. “At her presidential open forum, she talked so much about diversity and equity, it seems like that is something important to her. What great timing.”

In order to get the data they need, Brunt is hoping that within the qualified set of students, 30 percent will complete the survey. That’s 1,100 students.

“Anyone who has ever done a survey by email thinks we are ridiculous to set our goals that high,” Brunt said. “Even 25 percent is really good, really healthy.”

But don’t fret, student’s hard work on completing the 30-minute survey isn’t going to waste.

“We have provided some great incentives for completing the survey,” Brunt said. “Not a lot of people have 30 extra minutes to sit down and do something just to help us out.”

After completing the survey, students are prompted to either screenshot or print out their completion page as proof of taking the survey. Students will then take their proof to the bookstore and fill out a raffle ticket.

“The bookstore donated some prizes and we purchased others,” Brunt said. “It was important that there be something in it for the students.”

Daily and weekly raffles will occur from April 22 to May 7.

In an email sent from the desk of the president and the incoming president, the prizes are listed as follows:

-The first 100 students to complete the survey are eligible for a prize.

-All students who complete the survey can pick up a complimentary SFCC folder and a button that you can proudly wear, proclaiming, “I spoke up.”

-All students who complete the survey are eligible to enter the drawing for five daily prizes ($10 value) and 15 weekly prizes ($20 value), as well as the grand prize – a 10-in Acer Tablet ($159.99 value).

When signing up for the raffle, students are asked which clubs they are a part of on campus. Whichever club gets the most members to take the survey, receives a pizza party at the end of the survey period.

An email was sent out Monday, April 22, from Sally Jackson, SFCC’s director of Institutional Effectiveness and Research, inviting students to participate.

“We’ve worked really hard to make sure everyone knows about it,” Brunt said. “So I hope that we hear from students and can learn from what they have to say.”