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Campus Climate Assessment 101: Best Practices for Surveying Your Community

Includes a Live Web Event on 05/19/2025 at 1:00 PM (EDT)

Susan Rankin, Ph.D.

President

Rankin Climate

Dr. Susan (Sue) Rankin retired from Pennsylvania State University in 2013, where she most recently served as an Associate Professor of Education and Associate in the Center for the Study of Higher Education. Dr. Rankin has presented and published widely on the intersections of identities and the impact of sexism, genderism, racism, and heterosexism in the academy and intercollegiate athletics. Dr. Rankin has collaborated with over 200 higher education institutions to implement campus climate assessments and develop strategic plans for social justice issues. In her advocacy work, Dr. Rankin is a founding member of the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals, a network of professionals doing advocacy work for LGBT people on college campuses, and the Statewide Pennsylvania Rights Coalition, a network of individuals and organizations across the Commonwealth committed to securing and defending full civil rights for LGBT individuals. 

Meredith M. Smith, JD, MS Ed

Senior Vice President

Rankin Climate

Meredith Smith spent a decade working in Title IX and nearly two decades in higher education administration overall, serving as the Title IX Coordinator for the University of Virginia and the Assistant Provost for Title IX and Clery Compliance and the Sexual Misconduct Response/Title IX Coordinator at Tulane University. Meredith is a founding member of the Administrator Researcher Campus Climate Collaborative (ARC3) and works for the Victim Rights Law Center as a Department of Justice Violence Against Women grant consultant. She has participated in the Office on Violence Against Women roundtable on sexual violence adjudication and the American Bar Association’s recommendations on college sexual assault investigation and adjudication. She contributed a chapter to Addressing Violence Against Women on College Campuses (Temple University Press, 2017). She was also a guest editor of The Society for Public Health Education’s journal Health Education & Behavior‘s 2020 journal supplement on college sexual assault policy and prevention. She is currently serving on a National Science Foundation grant on sexual misconduct climate surveys. For her work on the Tulane Sexual Misconduct Climate Survey and subsequent culture change initiatives, she was honored with a 2019 Visionary Voice Award from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. Meredith has a BA (magna cum laude) in English-Creative Writing from Miami University, a JD  from The Ohio State University, and a MS Ed in Administration and Policy from Northwestern University.

In the current socio-political climate, there is a concerning clash between government hostility towards “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) work and the increasing use of Title VI to address racial climate concerns similar to Title IX with sexual misconduct. How can schools continue the work around belonging and inclusion and stay on the right side of the ever-evolving legal and administrative lines? Campus climate assessment–quantitative surveys and qualitative assessment methods like focus groups and interviews–are an institution’s most valuable method to understand its community as well as meet compliance concerns raised by Title VI. 

Campus climate refers to the prevailing atmosphere and social environment on a college or university campus. In this webinar, participants will reflect on 25 years of campus climate assessment and research, looking at how it was and continues to be influenced by scholarship, social contexts, and legislation. People will examine what was learned, where campuses are at now, and how campus climate assessments can play a role developing actions that support students, staff, and faculty in achieving academic, personal, and professional success. In understanding its population and its needs, institutions can reframe the DEI discussion by using this well-researched paradigm of increasing engagement, belonging, and retention. This assessment is only as effective as how the data is used, so this webinar will ensure that participants understand how to create action on the insights from assessment to make meaningful change for its community in terms of students, faculty, and staff well-being and persistence. 

Learning Outcomes:

  • Understanding of the longstanding research around campus climate assessment, what it measures, and the different means of climate assessment
  • Articulate the different factors that make up the atmosphere and social environment in an educational community and what can and should be included in a meaningful assessment of campus climate
  • Identify a roadmap of how to take assessment and then target its insights towards creating meaningful action for specific communities and the larger campus.
Components visible upon registration.