Diversity Climate Assessment

Purpose

The responses to the UW SPHCM Diversity Task Force Climate Assessment questionnaire will provide a baseline that enables our School to craft a clearly defined Diversity Strategic Plan. The SPHCM Diversity Strategic plan will outline steps for integrating diversity into the School's faculty and student recruitment efforts, curriculum, research, community outreach, and policy.

The Diversity Climate Assessment is an initiative of the School's Diversity Task Force. The SPHCM Diversity Task Force, chaired by Dean Patricia W. Wahl, was established in 2005 to promote and cultivate diversity in the practice of public health. One of the first charges to the task force was to establish both qualitative and quantitative measures for the School's goals as they relate to diversity and to develop strategies for meeting these goals. This Climate Assessment is the School's most intensive broad-based effort to date to examine and analyze its organizational culture from the viewpoint of faculty, staff, and students.

Link to the SPHCM Climate Assessment Survey

The Climate Assessment survey has now closed.

A list of frequently asked questions about the survey is available.

Privacy

Participants' privacy is important to us. Therefore, the SPHCM is not using CATALYST or requiring the use of a UWNetID for your participation. Instead, the School has contracted with the University's Survey Research Division to administer the survey using their secure server and software in order to keep your identity and responses strictly confidential. No one in the School will have access to the raw data, and all reports of the results will be provided to SPHCM in aggregate form so that no individual's responses can be identified.

SPHCM Diversity Climate Assessment Timeline of Activities

The following table of activities is provided for additional information and background about the SPHCM’s Diversity Task Force Climate Assessment Initiative.

Date	Event
Autumn 2006	Diversity Task Force convened a subcommittee of members to coordinate the efforts of a Diversity Climate Assessment
Winter 2007	Subcommittee prepared the draft objectives of the climate assessment and presented them to the Diversity Task Force
Winter – Spring 2007	The Climate Assessment Subcommittee developed a draft survey instrument
Autumn 2007	The Climate Assessment Subcommittee presented a funding request for outside consultants to administer the survey and conduct the data analysis to the School’s Executive Committee
December 2007 – January 2008	Survey items were finalized and student/staff/faculty contact lists were compiled and provided to the consultants
January 2008	Students, faculty, and staff tested the survey
February 8, 2008	Survey invitations with unique codes sent to students, faculty, and staff
February - March 2008	Survey reminder e-mails sent to students, faculty, and staff
March - April 2008	Consultants conduct survey reminder follow-up calls
April 13, 2008	Survey closes
May 2008	Climate Assessment Survey results posted on this website
May - September 2008	Diversity Strategic Plan incorporating survey results will be drafted by the Diversity Task Force for review by the School’s various governing committees and councils
April 15, 2008	Drawing for student prizes

Key Objectives of the Diversity Task Force Climate Assessment Initiative

Determine whether the climate is perceived as influencing diversity recruitment and retention
Identify perceived strengths, weaknesses, and gaps in our diversity recruitment and retention efforts
Identify norms, behaviors, and practices that affect the diversity climate
Determine how we define diversity as a School
Determine whether it is perceived that the School and UW currently provide sufficient resources and/or opportunities for learning about diversity and cultural competence
Identify new ideas and strategies for systematically promoting diversity

SPHCM Diversity Task Force Climate Assessment Subcommittee

The Climate Assessment Subcommittee aims to develop and implement a process to assess the School-wide diversity climate for the purpose of developing a baseline of awareness of the School’s climate that will inform the development of a Diversity Strategic Plan.

Members

David Yanez, Biostatistics
Bridget Doyle, Dean’s Office (SPHCM)
Christine Edgar, Dean’s Office (SPHCM)
Matt Keifer, DEOHS
James Meadows, DEOHS
Christopher Li, Epidemiology
Kate O’Brien, Epidemiology
Martha Perla, Epidemiology, Health Services
Michelle Williams, Epidemiology
Celeste Chung, Health Services
James Pfeiffer, Health Services
Joseph Daniels, Pathobiology

SPHCM Diversity Statement

Underlying all public health research and training activities is an appreciation of the impact that cultural and socioeconomic diversity has on the health of communities. There must be an understanding of the behaviors, attitudes, and policies that enable public health to work effectively in cross-cultural situations.

We recognize that cultural and socio-demographic diversity enriches the process of discovery by engendering multiple modes of thinking about problems and communicating ideas. The opportunities for enrichment accrue to those institutions that successfully cultivate diversity within their educational, research, and outreach activities. Schools that fail to achieve and maintain a diverse constituency of students, faculty, and staff risk becoming increasingly removed from leading edge educational and research opportunities in public health and relevance in their communities.

All regions of the country, including the Pacific Northwest, are becoming more diverse in racial and ethnic make-up. As the problem of racial and ethnic disparities in health outcomes continues to grow, policy-makers and the general public increasingly look to health professional schools to address these urgent and unacceptable circumstances. Because we are the only accredited School of Public Health west of Minneapolis and north of Berkeley, California, it is particularly important for us to be up to the challenge.

For all of these reasons, the University of Washington School of Public Health is committed to developing a more diverse and culturally competent faculty, staff and student body in order to better serve communities in our region and beyond. Our commitment to diversity is supported by the UW Board of Regents.