Asa Daniels, senior staff writer
On March 3, Berry hosted a Student Fireside Chat discussing the Study Committee for the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) Campus Climate Survey. Faculty and staff had a separate event on March 2. Students received the survey in April 2021, according to Berry’s Campus Climate Survey webpage.
The website says that “the Diverse Learning Environments Survey (DLE) seeks to understand how differences in identity affect experiences and expectations at Berry.”
Additionally, the webpage says that after a student completed the survey, HERI would review the survey and provide Berry with an overall idea of how the college compares to other institutions.
It also says that “a study committee will review the results and present them to the campus in early fall of 2021 with recommendations for potential actions and additional research.”
According to the survey website, 1,378 surveys were submitted, while 88 were still in progress and 440 were not started by the cutoff date of April 30, 2021.
The full online report with the released data can be accessed at https://www.berry.edu/belonging/campus-climate.
Anna Sharpe, associate dean for student success, said that the committee tried to be transparent about the data and their analysis of it in the report.
“We really did try to be transparent,” Sharpe said. “There’s nothing in the data that we found surprising, or we found troubling or we found encouraging that we didn’t put out there. That was our charge, to be transparent about all of this.”
Sharpe said she believes the report does a good job of outlining some of the good things Berry has been doing for students, while also bringing up things to improve.
“I think the report does a pretty good job of laying out some things that we feel like Berry is doing pretty well,” Sharpe said. “By and large, students feel like faculty and staff are taking interest in their success, but, there are also some areas where we’ve got some room for improvement, some things we need to address. I think it does a good job of laying out these most pressing areas that we do need to address.”
One student who attended the event was junior Macilah Taylor, student director for student support services in the Student Diversity Initiatives office (SDI). Taylor explained that she believes the report itself underplayed the raw data collected from the survey.
“The report itself has some pretty significant problems and undermines what the data is really telling us, which is that marginalized students don’t feel welcomed at Berry and I feel like the report itself undermines that,” Taylor said.
Senior Raquel Luna, Goizueta Scholars programming coordinator in the SDI office, attended the Fireside Chat and said that she hopes having concrete data will allow for solid steps to be taken. According to Luna, there was discussion of the interaction of identities, but she believes that it was of little use to the data presented.
“I guess you can only do so much with the data, but I feel like there was a lot more that could’ve been said, perhaps,” Luna said.
LGBTQ+ student coordinator for SDI, Alyssa Prather, sophomore, also attended the event. Prather agreed that the event was helpful in putting numbers to what students have shared.
“I think it brings to light what a lot of students were already saying and I think it puts data to that, so it’s a lot harder to ignore when it’s a large group of people saying the same thing,” Prather said.
A common issue expressed by some students who attended the Fireside Chat was that the presenting committee did not explain clear steps going forward, Luna said.
“For me it felt almost patronizing and kind of condescending that they were like ‘well, we have to keep having these conversations’ and ‘we can only do so much,’ and I think it was very frustrating to see that just because I know some students, in this survey, put their trauma or they put their experiences,” Luna said.
Prather shared this same belief, as she thought it was not clear what is planned for the future.
“It felt like it was more to placate students as opposed to actually changing anything on campus,” Prather said. “They gave us the results on the survey and didn’t give us much on how they were going to change the results of the survey.”
Sharpe said she also felt the room had a sense of wanting next steps and explained that this committee only had the goal of bringing the data out for others to use for next steps.
“I regret not being able to speak to that but that wasn’t our charge,” Sharpe said. “Our charge was to analyze this data and to, again, hand it over to the people who are important to this conversation and, yes, that includes students and yes, that includes student leaders – we’re all a part of this campus-wide conversation about diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging – there shouldn’t be anybody on campus who is not a part of that conversation, right?”
Sharpe added that, though the report is six pages long, that a lot of work was put in to comprehend the raw data provided in the survey.
“[The report’s] brevity maybe belies how much effort and work and thought went into analyzing that data and creating that report – and again as our starting point – for this work to continue,” Sharpe said.
Taylor said that she had hoped for more humility from committee members, as the issues discussed in the data and report are a challenging part of identity.
“I’ve been criticized for the emotion I bring to these conversations, the weight I carry – because it is emotional, this is my life, this isn’t something that can go away as soon as we’re done with this meeting or I go to my dorm – it’s something I carry with me, every single hour of every single day, and I just wish there was a level of humility among the committee members and there didn’t seem to be a level of empathy,” Taylor said.
Luna added that she wishes the mental toll of discussing these topics should’ve been a bigger part of the data examination and the possible steps taken moving forward.
“Even if I’m not surprised at the numbers, it is very heavy that that many people do feel [the way the numbers report] and I don’t think that being discriminated against is something light,” Luna said. “I know that has to have a mental toll on people and I would’ve liked to have seen that effect as well and how Berry can help with that. I think that that, if anything is next, should be a part of that.”
Sharpe said that at both fireside chats, she discussed the issue of student mental health that was shown in the report.
“The students reported a lot of mental health troubles, feeling a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety and feeling that frequently,” Sharpe said. “So, as part of my role in student success here at Berry, working closely with students, that was something wasn’t surprising knowing where we were when this survey was conducted, but it really made pause to think ‘ok, what are some changes that have been made since then? What’s some that should be done to care for students?’”
At the faculty meeting, Sharpe also discussed the relationship between different identities and the stress students reported.
“What we also saw in our LGBTQ+ students, and to some extent our BIPOC students, that, some of these reports of feeling frequently anxious, frequently feeling overwhelmed, frequently feeling depressed, were more pronounced,” Sharpe said. “I think that not only makes it a campus-wide issue, but it also makes it an equity issue and making sure that every student on campus has what they need to feel supported.”
Prather added that she would’ve appreciated more data analysis on disability and the effect it has on students at Berry. Sharpe said she hopes that there will be future work looking into the data for students with disabilities.
“We are able to slice and dice the data down to understand, for example, how are students with disabilities experiencing the frequent feelings of stress, frustration, anxiety, are they experiencing that more, just as often, less often, so, understanding pieces like that,” Sharpe said. “Also, understanding the intersections of different identities, for me that’s the next frontier in this.”
According to Taylor, the committee is planning on initiatives coming out of offices in areas across campus. Organizations such as SDI have been planning initiatives before the results from the survey were announced.
Taylor hopes that active steps will be taken soon in order to address the issues found in the data for marginalized students, especially underclassmen.
Sharpe said that she is proud of the input that students provided at the event and is thankful for their extended help with DEI issues.
“I was so proud of our students,” Sharpe said. “I’m never surprised by how bright and perceptive and candid our students are – never surprised by that, I know that about our students – but I’m always impressed by it all the same. They asked so many amazing questions. Good questions, all of them – not all ones we were equipped to answer – but good questions nonetheless. Sometimes, getting a question out there is the right thing to do, [it] can be a good way to start a conversation and its students who are doing that hard work.”
At the event itself, Luna took notice of the students who arrived at the meeting and thought it was disappointing.
“I saw people I knew were gonna come, it was important, but at the same time, it was still very empty,” Luna said. “More people should be a part of these conversations and even though there were a lot of people, it still felt underwhelming, that emptiness in a sense.”
HERI, as well as UCLA analyzed the data received, as the webpage states, but Prather said that the committee explained their analysis was not useful, as Berry is not easy to compare to other schools.
There is an online version of the report presented at the Student Fireside Chat, and Sharpe hopes students read it.
“I hope that, as students have time, whether they were at the Fireside Chat or not, I hope that every student takes a minute to look at the online version of this report and to really hear one another,” Sharpe said.
Sharpe hopes that students will be able to communicate questions, concerns or thoughts they have about the report soon in order to continue the conversation.
“If there are things that students want to learn from this data, I hope that we will set up a channel for them to be able to communicate that to us,” Sharpe said. “So, it’s really important that this is the beginning. It’s not the final thing we do with it, it’s the first thing. It’s very likely students will see this and say ‘well, what about this,’ and they’re absolutely right, there’s so much that’s not here. The work of the committee will work hard to continue really hearing students, to continue to be transparent about our work and what we’re finding – continue to get the information that decision-makers, stakeholders, departments on campus need to make good decisions towards really building positive culture around diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging at Berry. I feel good about the work we’ve done, I’m eager to see it continue because there is a lot left to be done.”