FAQs

Climate surveys focus on the feelings, relationships and experiences of various constituents of a community. In other words, a campus climate survey, that is conducted at an institution of higher education, is a measure (real or perceived) of the campus environment and structures related to interpersonal, academic, and/or professional experiences that our students, staff and faculty have.

Campus climate surveys are important to understanding how a University is functioning because how we experience the campus can influence whether individuals or groups feel listened to, seen, valued, safe and/or treated fairly.

The University’s Strategic Framework states that our institution will “continue the work needed to provide greater access and opportunity to success through equitable learning, living, and working environments.” Collecting and evaluating campus climate data will give campus leaders the tools needed to inform decision-making strategies as they relate to realizing inclusion, diversity and equity. More specifically, the data will influence how we evaluate a variety of initiatives, structures and opportunities to enhance the experiences of students, staff and faculty.

Rankin Climate defines Campus Climate as current attitudes, behaviors and standards of faculty, staff, administrators, and students, as well as Wake Forest’s environment and policies, which influence the level of respect for individual needs, abilities, and potential. 

There is ample empirical evidence* that the campus climate influences the levels to which students, faculty, and staff members thrive. For example, when students feel they have a sense of belonging, they report higher levels of perceived academic success and are more likely to persist. Contrarily, if students experience microaggressions or biases, they are more likely to consider leaving. 

* see Rankin general climate research, faculty climate research, staff climate research, and student climate research

Those who complete the survey during its open period (January 22- February 15) and complete the form to be considered for the prize drawings are eligible to be entered into drawings for incentive prizes listed below. Drawings for incentive prizes will take place on February 16. Winners will be notified via email.  

• NEW:
  • 2 reserved tickets for Face to Face with Liz Cheney and Jon Meacham (2/22)
  • 2 tickets to Pitt v. Wake Men’s Basketball, including Parking
  • 2 tickets to Georgia Tech v. Wake Men’s Basketball, including Parking
• 2 students will receive early housing registration, within their class, for Fall 2024 housing (i.e., if you are a sophomore, you will receive priority registration among sophomores)
• Free Premier Parking for 1 month on Reynolda Campus (faculty/staff only) 
• Nintendo Switch (students only) 
• 4 Reserved tickets to the general Commencement ceremony (students only)
• 2 reserved tickets for Face to Face with Trevor Noah event – April 30, 2024
• 2 $50 food gift cards from Dining Services (for staff)
• Reserved Table for 4 at Pitsgiving 2024 (one winner; can invite 3 people to join)
• The President’s Office 
• Communication & External Relations 
• Division of Campus Life 
• Student Activities Fund 
• WFU Athletics 
• Face to Face 
• Office of Advancement 
• Facilities & Campus Services
• WFU Business School 
• WFU Law School 
• Harvest Table Culinary Group
• Parking & Transportation Services

Wake Forest has surveyed students, staff, and faculty in a number of different ways over the years. Each one of those surveys has provided meaningful, actionable feedback that the University has used to inform policy, process, or practice. This climate survey is our first-ever University-wide assessment that includes the College, Graduate and Professional Schools, the Charlotte campus, and the School of Medicine, and is designed to gather experiences with our campus climate from our three main stakeholder groups: Students, Staff and Faculty. 

This survey will be the starting point in an ongoing process aimed at assessing positive, lasting changes and helping create a more inclusive climate at Wake Forest. The current plan is to repeat the survey every four years.

In reviewing efforts by other universities to conduct comprehensive culture climate studies, several best practices were identified. One was the need for external expertise in survey design, administration, and evaluation. The administration of a survey relating to a very sensitive subject like campus climate is likely to yield higher response rates and provide more credible findings if led by an independent, outside agency. Members of a college community may feel particularly inhibited to respond honestly to a survey administered by their own institution for fear of retaliation.

After a review of potential vendors, Wake Forest University selected Rankin Climate, LLC. Rankin Climate, LLC has been working with college campuses for over 20 years and has conducted similar assessments on more than 200 college campuses nationwide. 

Rankin Climate developed and utilizes the Transformational Tapestry model as a research design for campus climate studies. The model is a “comprehensive, five-phase strategic model of assessment, planning and intervention. The model is designed to assist campus communities in conducting inclusive assessments of their institutional climate to better understand the challenges facing their respective communities” (Rankin & Reason, 2008).

Their process is highly confidential and transparent. No protected data is used in the project.

The survey will take approximately 15-30 minutes to complete, and is designed to be completed in one sitting on the same computer, tablet, or phone. If you change devices or web browsers, you will lose the information you previously entered.

We encourage all community members to answer the full survey if possible. However, you do not have to answer every question and can skip any questions you consider to be uncomfortable.

You can take the survey via a link that will be sent to your WFU email address, or by using the QR code to the survey which will be available throughout the WFU campuses. Because the survey is anonymous and does not ask for your name or identifying information, all students, faculty, and staff can use the same survey link.

Computer stations will be provided for employees in Facilities and Auxiliary Services who do not use a computer as a regular part of their job responsibilities.

The response rate goal for the survey is 35% for students, 35% for faculty, and 35% for staff. Every response matters and is valuable in providing the most beneficial feedback and results.

Rankin Climate has developed a repository of tested questions from administering climate assessments at more than 200 institutions across the nation. To assist in contextualizing the survey for Wake Forest, the Executive Steering Committee was formed. This committee was responsible for developing the survey questions, using Rankin’s pool of questions and editing/adding questions as needed for the Wake Forest environment.

It is important in campus climate research for survey participants to “see” themselves in response choices to prevent “othering” an individual or an individual’s characteristics. Some researchers maintain that assigning someone to the status of “other” is a form of marginalization and should be minimized, particularly in campus climate research, which has an intended purpose of inclusiveness. Along these lines, survey respondents will see a long list of possible choices for many demographic questions. While it would be impossible to include every possible choice to every question, the goal is to reduce the number of respondents who must choose “other.”

The survey will be administered to all students, faculty, and staff at Wake Forest University, both undergraduate and graduate, including the Reynolda and Charlotte campuses, the School of Medicine, and faculty and staff who are working remotely.  Campus climate exists in micro-climates, so creating opportunities to maximize participation across different and broad academic and administrative units is important as well as maximizing opportunities to reach underrepresented populations. Along these lines, Rankin has recommended not using random sampling as we may “miss” particular populations where numbers are very small (e.g., Native American students). Since one goal of the project is inclusiveness and allowing marginalized and minoritized “voices” to be heard, this sampling technique is not used. In addition, randomized stratified sampling is not used because we do not have population data on most identities. For example, Wake Forest collects population data on gender identity and racial identity, but not on disability status or sexual identity. A sample approach could miss many groups.

Rankin Climate will provide a comprehensive report that will include: an executive summary; a report narrative of the findings based on cross tabulations selected by the consultant; frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations of quantitative data; and content analysis of the textual data. The reports provide high-level summaries of the findings and will identify themes found in the data. Generalizations for populations are limited to those groups or subgroups with response rates of at least 30%. The Executive Committee will review draft reports and provide feedback to Rankin Climate prior to public release, to ensure data standards are maintained with regards to effect size measurement, minimum targets for analysis, and checks on confidentiality and anonymity.

The purpose of conducting the survey is to assess student, staff, and faculty sense of belonging and climate at Wake Forest and to identify successes and opportunities for improvement. 

The findings will serve as a guide when creating the action plan that accounts for the identified opportunities for improvement. 

Although the committee believes the survey process itself is informative, we have sought and received commitment from the senior leaders that data will be used to plan for an improved climate at Wake Forest.

The Executive Committee did not apply for IRB review because this is not a generalizable human subjects research study. In other words, we will not try to claim that the results of this project would be applicable outside of the Wake Forest community, and the data will be used only internally. We have consulted with substantive experts across campus to ensure the questions we ask are clear and accurate. 

Participation in the survey is completely voluntary, however we need a strong participation rate to ensure the data we collect is representative of all our community members’ experiences, so we hope you will take it. You do not have to answer every question and can skip any questions you consider to be uncomfortable.

All of your answers will remain anonymous: Neither Rankin Climate nor anyone at Wake Forest will be able to identify you from your survey responses. Results will only be reported in group form; there is no individual identification.

In line with standards established by Wake Forest University’s Office of Institutional Research, Rankin Climate will not report any group data for groups of fewer than six individuals, because those “small cell sizes” may be small enough to compromise anonymity. Instead, Rankin Climate will combine the groups or take other measures to eliminate any potential for demographic information to be identifiable. Additionally, any comments submitted in response to the survey will be separated at the time of submission so they are not attributed to any individual demographic characteristics. Identifiable information submitted in qualitative comments will be redacted by Rankin and Wake Forest will only receive the redacted comments.

Confidentiality in participating will be maintained to the highest degree permitted by the technology used (e.g., IP addresses will be stripped when the survey is submitted). No guarantees can be made regarding the interception of data sent via the Internet by any third parties; however, to avoid interception of data, the survey is run on a firewalled web server with forced 256-bit SSL security.

Rankin Climate uses a research data security description and protocol, which includes specific information on data encryption, the handling of personally identifiable information, physical security and a protocol for handling unlikely breaches of data security. The data from online participants will be submitted to a secure server hosted by the consultant. The SaaS hosting platforms are SOC2. The firewall is via Next-Gen Fortigate Firewall. Data is stored in a SQL database which can only be accessed by VPN via authorized personnel only. Our encryption for communication is via HTTPS TLS 1.2. Rankin Climate associates working on the project will have access to the raw data. All Rankin Climate analysts have CITI (Human Subjects) training and approval and have worked on similar projects for other institutions. The server performs an hourly and daily backup and stores the backup on a separate context offsite for safety.

Rankin Climate has conducted more than 200 institutional surveys and maintains an aggregate merged database. The data from the Wake Forest project will be merged with all other existing climate data stored indefinitely on Rankin Climate’s secure server. No institutional identifiers are included in the full merged data set held by Rankin Climate. The raw unit-level data with institutional identifiers is kept on the server for 6 months and then destroyed. Rankin Climate will notify the Executive Steering Committee of any breach or suspected breach of data security of their server.