Announcing the Belonging & Culture Survey, BU’s first-ever campus-wide culture assessment
September 15, 2022
Dear Boston University Community Members,
At Boston University, we seek to create an environment characterized by openness, fairness, and equal access for all students, staff, and faculty. A welcoming and inclusive campus culture and climate is foundational to our educational goals and grounded in mutual respect, nurtured by dialogue, and validated by civil interaction. Creating and maintaining a community environment in which all individuals have the opportunity to achieve their potential and goals is critically important.
We write to share with you that during the fall 2022 and spring 2023 semesters, the University will undertake a comprehensive culture/climate assessment, the Belonging & Culture Survey. As we continue to fulfill our commitments to two of the 2030 Strategic Plan pillars—“Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” and “Community, Big Yet Small”—the forthcoming campus-wide survey will allow us to assess the sense of belonging and culture at the University for students, staff, and faculty and to identify successes and opportunities for improvement. Survey data will better enable us to develop programs and policies that will increase a sense of belonging for all at BU.
We recognize that we have surveyed students, staff, and faculty in a number of different ways over the years. Each of those surveys has provided us with meaningful, actionable feedback that we continue to apply. The Belonging & Culture Survey we are announcing today, BU’s first-ever campus-wide survey and the start of an ongoing process to be repeated every three years, is an opportunity for you to make a difference in the University’s future.
To assist with this work and help achieve a fully confidential and transparent process, we have partnered with a nationally respected educational consulting firm, Rankin Climate. Rankin has conducted more than 250 culture/climate assessment projects in higher education over the last 22 years. A team from Rankin will collaborate with a working group of BU students, staff, and faculty from across our campuses to populate focus groups, build the survey, encourage participation in the survey, and ultimately share the survey results with the broader community. The membership of the working group is listed below.
A Belonging & Culture Survey website is being developed to communicate about the assessment process and results. We will forward information on this website and additional details about the project as they become available. In the meantime, please feel free to reach out to belong@bu.edu with any questions.
We thank you in advance for your participation in this important initiative and for your ongoing assistance in helping ensure a safe, inclusive, and productive environment for all members of the BU community.
Sincerely,
Robert A. Brown, President
Jean Morrison, University Provost & Chief Academic Officer
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Belonging & Culture Survey Working Group
Co-Chairs:
Linette Decarie, Assistant Vice President for Analytical Services & Institutional Research
Karin Firoza, Associate Provost ad interim for Community & Inclusion
Megan Segoshi, Manager of Faculty Diversity Initiatives, BU Diversity & Inclusion
Members:
Mumtaz Brown, Assistant Vice President for Talent Development
Addye Buckley-Burnell, Executive Director, Center for Career Development
Jay Byron, Senior Research Analyst and Programmer, Graduate Affairs
Katy Collins, Director of Student Outreach & Engagement, Dean of Students Office
Vanessa Edouard, Director of Strategic Partnerships, School of Public Health
Arcadia Ewell, MS/PhD Student, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Kara Farquharson, PhD Candidate, Microbiology, School of Medicine
Delaney Foster, Undergraduate Student, College of Arts & Sciences
Deborah Fournier, Assistant Provost for Institutional Research & Evaluation, School of Medicine
Bénédicte Gnangnon, Postdoctoral Associate—PhD Progression, Professional Development & Postdoctoral Affairs
Angelique Harris, Associate Dean for Diversity & Inclusion; Associate Professor of General Internal Medicine, School of Medicine
Jimmy Huynh, Business Intelligence Analyst, Analytical Services & Institutional Research
Malika Jeffries-EL, Associate Dean, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences; Professor of Chemistry, College of Arts & Sciences
Ronell O’Kussick, Account Supervisor, Marketing & Communications
Danielle Staub, Director of Operations, Dean of Students Office
Abby Styles, Senior Administrative Coordinator, BU Diversity & Inclusion
Mike Tom, Communications Manager, BU Diversity & Inclusion