Kent State anticipates spring 2023 report on climate study detailing campus inclusion

Kent State will release its 2021 Climate Study on Race next spring, and early analysis indicates a decrease in comfort level for students and faculty when compared to the 2016 Campus Climate Research study.

In March 2022, two preliminary studies – one qualitative and another quantitative– were released to the Kent State community as information became available. The studies are organized by the Steering Committee, which is made up of Kent State students, staff and faculty.

The 2021 study follows up on the university’s 2016 climate study, which culminated in a 377-page aggregate report that presented data on demographics and community opinions. 

According to the study’s web page, a university’s climate describes “the current attitudes, behaviors, standards and practices of employees and students of an institution.”

Robert Hamilton, an associate biology professor and research scientist at Kent State Stark campus, leads the Climate Study Steering Committee as one of the co-chairs for the 2021 climate study. Hamilton said climate studies give institutions like Kent State new knowledge about their constituents and their thoughts about the university.

“The key to addressing any issue is having actual information about it,” Hamilton said. “That’s why we do things like a climate study to make sure that all communities, constituencies and groups have shared at least their voice and their point of view.”

The 2021 study was compiled from a questionnaire released to the Kent State community via email in March of 2021. 5,800 respondents answered the survey, which was composed of questions on topics such as inclusion, demographics and current events related to campus.

The quantitative update organized the results into four demographic categories:

• Participation by classification (faculty, staff, students)
• Participation by campus
• Gender identity and sexual identity
• Participation by race

According to the 2021 Early Quantitative Analysis, “there were more students who reported lower levels of comfort with the overall and department/college climate” when compared to the 2016 study. 

The 2016 study reported the overall comfort level of “very comfortable / comfortable” was rated at 79% for Kent campus respondents, and 79% for Regional campus respondents. The department / work unit climate level was rated at 68% for Kent campus respondents, and 73% for Regional respondents.

Male-identifying students reported “relatively high comfort levels with their overall and department/college climate”. The 2021 study notes the satisfaction level was lower than the last study, which reported 77% of male respondents in 2016 were “very comfortable” or “comfortable” with Kent State’s campus climate.

Trans-spectrum students reported “they considered leaving Kent State at disproportionately higher rates based on being uncomfortable with the climate, a few percentage points less than (in) 2016.” The 2016 study reported 33% of Queer-spectrum respondents and 38% of Trans-spectrum respondents considered leaving Kent State due to the uncomfortable nature of the campus climate.

Black Students reported “they considered leaving Kent State at disproportionately higher rates based on being uncomfortable with the climate, a few percentage points less than (in) 2016.” The 2016 climate study reported 51% of Black respondents who considered leaving Kent State, “believ(ing) they had experienced exclusionary, intimidating, offensive, and/or hostile contact because of their ethnicity.”

Multiracial and Hispanic/Latinx students reported “they were not as comfortable as other populations with the climate and considered leaving Kent State.” The 2021 study noted this was a slight improvement from 2016, which reported 76% of multiracial respondents felt less comfortable than their counterparts with the climates of the campus, workplace and classroom. 

The qualitative update highlighted themes raised from two questions that produced the most written answers from survey respondents. The update notes the themes “do not encompass the complete analyses” of the climate study. The two questions include:

• Have you seriously considered leaving?
• Perceptions on the racist graffiti on The Rock in Fall 2020

The study included 1,004 participants who wrote a response to the question “have you seriously considered leaving?” The study also included 1,721 participants who wrote a response to the question “how did learning about this event make you feel?” when asked about the 2020 Rock incident.

Some of Ohio’s largest universities are in the midst of conducting their own climate studies as well. Ohio State announced a campus climate study in May 2022; University of Cincinnati launched its second climate study in February 2020; and Ohio University launched its second study in October 2021.

N.J. Akbar, the associate vice president for the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), works on the climate study as another co-chair. Akbar said the committee wanted to release their findings in a consumable fashion, as the data can be difficult for the public to easily interpret.

Akbar said the final reports will roll out next semester between the end of February and the start of spring break.

“We have two final reports on our qualitative analysis,” Akbar said, “as well as all of the college and division-level reports, (and) that information will be released to those entities. And then we will work on doing a community release and informational (release) where we can walk through what we know so far, what our next steps are, as well as determining who and what will work on those recommendations for what we do with the data moving forward.”

Akbar said the finalized data will most likely pass onto the Great Place Initiative (GPI), an organization Kent State founded from the 2016 climate study results. GPI identifies inclusion-related strengths and weaknesses at Kent State, and uses the climate studies’ findings to recommend solutions to preserve inclusion at the university.

For more information and updates on the 2021 climate study, visit the website.