Research and Resource Center for Campus Climate

Annual Report - 2013-14

Academic Initiatives Oversight Committee

1. Program Overview

Formed in 2005 as a project of Plan 2008, the Research & Resource Center for Campus Climate envisions a campus environment where the individual and collective are committed to welcoming, including, and engaging the experiences and perspectives of all. Through fostering dialogue, respect, critical thinking, personal growth, and social action, we believe in the power of awareness, the strength of understanding, and the potential of bridging cultures across difference. To that end, our mission is to facilitate, sustain and advance an organizational culture and climate that supports principles of social justice, equity, inclusion and community.

With the Campus Climate Council (CCC) and the Diversity Organizations Coalition (DOC) as steering committees for the office, Campus Climate’s mission is built upon four main pillars: Hate/Bias Response, Cross Cultural Training, Recognition & Community Building, Assessment & Research.

The Research and Resource Center for Campus Climate entered its tenth year and receives its entire budget from Academic Initiatives.

2. Program Goals and Outcomes

  1. Communicate to campus the types of trainings and programs the Campus Climate office provides.
  2. We created a space on our website that describes the types of trainings we offer as well as linking to a few videos of those presentations. Additionally, we’ve created a form for people to request a training. These resources can be found at:
  3. Create a service learning opportunity for students.
  4. We created an immersion experience in which we took 14 students to San Diego, CA to study issues related to immigration during spring 2013. We were hoping to provide another opportunity like this, but decided a yearly trip was not feasible at this time, given the large scope of such travel programs.
  5. Collaborate with university and community organizations.
  6. We worked with a variety of University organizations and departments to increase the quality of programs and trainings on campus. We teamed up with LIVE MAROON on their events and our Morale Retreat for University employees. We also collaborated with other campus entities for the TEDx event, a new initiative to give a platform to inspiring students, faculty and staff with “ideas worth spreading.”
  7. Work with campus partners to create action steps based on Campus Climate Survey data.
  8. During the spring of 2013, we launched our third Campus Climate survey (previous surveys were issues in 2004 and 2008). With the leadership of Barbara Stewart and Laurie Cooper-Stoll, we garnered an impressive response rate. After data was analyzed, open forums and task forces were assembled to determine next steps.
  9. Increase awareness/attendance for Partners in Movement, a program to support students on their journey towards understanding and challenging racism and white privilege.
  10. We held two successful 5-hour trainings of “Partners in Movement” during the fall and spring semester. In addition, an abridged version of the program was utilized in a Residence Life training. A Facebook group was also created to provide all participants with a space for continued dialogue. For more information, please visit:
  11. Solidify hate response protocol and increase awareness of the form and efforts surrounding hate/bias incidents on campus.
  12. We saw another increase in completed hate/bias incident forms and focused an increased number of trainings around these efforts. We did hold two successful open forums and plan to evaluate the structure of the team for next year. We are also working on new marketing initiatives and also hope to put together an infographic for the website. For more information on the form and team, please visit:
  13. Create opportunities for student volunteerism within Campus Climate.
  14. We created a link on our website for students to complete an interest form regarding volunteerism (among other opportunities like internships, work study, etc.)

3. Program Usage Rates

Providing the UW-L campus community with training and presentation opportunities has consistently been a primary function of the Campus Climate office. Over the past 3 years, we have averaged around 120 trainings and programs. This year, we were able to provide 142 distinct learning opportunities reaching a total of 6,818 community members. For further information, please see the table below.

2013-14 Campus Climate Sponsored Programs/Trainings/Presentations

# / Program / Topic / Date / Target Audience / Approx. # of
Participants
1 / Non-Binary Identities for Directores Meeting / 7/16/13 / Staff / 10
2 / Trans inclusive language at WTC / 7/17/13 / Western Staff / 25
3 / ASI - Sticks & Stones / 7/26/13 / Students / 24
4 / UU Fellowship - Microaggressions / 7/28/13 / Community / 55
5 / JumpStart / 7/31/13 / Students / 14
6 / Residence Life Pro Staff Training (Diversity) / 8/7/13 / Staff / 30
7 / Residence Life Student Staff Training (Intentionally Inclusive Communities) / 8/22/13 / Students / 115
8 / Department Chairs Workshop / 8/22/13 / Staff / 50
9 / Residence Life Behind Closed Doors / 8/23/13 / Students / 115
10 / Residence Life Training - Partners in Movement / 8/26/13 / Students / 25
11 / Fast Track / 8/26/13 / Students / 35
12 / Office of International Education Orientation / 8/27/13 / Students / 100
13 / College of Business Administration - Campus Climate survey and office training / 8/29/13 / Staff / 40
14 / Awareness through Performance – 1:30 / 9/2/13 / Campus Community / 800
15 / Awareness through Performance – 3:30 / 9/2/13 / Campus Community / 700
16 / Brown Bag Lunch Series -Intersectionality and Multiple Identities / 9/6/13 / Campus Community / 21
17 / UW-L 100 Sticks and Stones Presentation / 9/9/13 / Students / 27
18 / Reuter Hall Staff Meeting Presentation / 9/9/13 / Students / 11
19 / UW-L 100 Sticks and Stones Presentation / 9/10/13 / Students / 25
20 / White Privilege Panel - WGS 230 / 9/12/13 / Students / 30
21 / White Privilege Panel - WGS 230 / 9/12/13 / Students / 30
22 / UW-L 100 Sticks and Stones Presentation / 9/17/13 / Students / 25
23 / UW-L State of Hate Open Forum / 9/17/13 / Campus Community / 75
24 / WGS 100 Presentation / 9/19/13 / Students / 35
25 / WGS 100 Presentation / 9/19/13 / Students / 35
26 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 9/19/13 / Students / 5
27 / ATP at Saint Mary’s University / 9/19/13 / Campus Community / 50
28 / UW-L 100 Sticks and Stones Presentation / 9/23/13 / Students / 25
29 / UW-L 100 Sticks and Stones Presentation / 9/23/13 / Students / 25
30 / SAA 706 - CARE / 9/24/13 / Students / 15
31 / White Hall Council Meeting - Hate/Bias / 9/24/13 / Students / 30
32 / Angell Hall Council Meeting - Hate/Bias / 9/24/13 / Students / 25
33 / UW-L 100 Sticks and Stones Presentation / 9/25/13 / Students / 25
34 / Better Man Series: How to be a Better Drinker / 9/25/13 / Students / 40
35 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 9/26/13 / Students / 4
36 / UW-L 100 Sticks and Stones Presentation / 9/30/13 / Students / 25
37 / UW-L 100 Sticks and Stones Presentation / 10/1/13 / Students / 25
38 / Coate Hall Council - Hate/Bias Response / 10/1/13 / Students / 25
39 / Laux Hall Council - Hate/Bias Response / 10/1/13 / Students / 25
40 / Mental and Emotional Health class / 10/2/13 / Students / 35
41 / UW-L 100 Sticks and Stones Presentation / 10/3/13 / Students / 25
42 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 10/3/13 / Students / 6
43 / Brown Bag Lunch Series - The 3 D’s / 10/4/13 / Campus Community / 25
44 / UW-L 100 Sticks and Stones Presentation / 10/7/13 / Students / 25
45 / Sociology Class Presentation / 10/8/13 / Students / 25
46 / Student Affairs Information Meeting / 10/8/13 / Students / 35
47 / UW-L 100 Sticks and Stones Presentation / 10/9/13 / Students / 25
48 / UW-L 100 Sticks and Stones Presentation / 10/10/13 / Students / 25
49 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 10/10/13 / Students / 5
50 / EFN 205 White Privilege Panel / 10/10/13 / Students / 30
51 / UW-L 100 Sticks and Stones Presentation / 10/14/13 / Students / 25
52 / Awareness through Performance Encore / 10/14/13 / Campus Community / 300
53 / Reuter Hall Diversity Statement / 10/15/13 / Students / 20
54 / UW-L 100 ASI ATP Panel / 10/17/13 / Students / 22
55 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 10/17/13 / Students / 5
56 / WCPA Conference Presentation / 10/17/13 / Regional Colleagues / 10
57 / Athlete Diversity Training - Eagles 101 / 10/24/13 / Students / 100
58 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 10/24/13 / Students / 3
59 / ATP at Domestic Violence Taskforce / 10/25/13 / Community / 70
60 / Sanford Hall Council - Hate/Bias Response / 10/28/13 / Students / 40
61 / White Hall Floor Presentation / 10/29/13 / Students / 50
62 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 10/31/13 / Students / 5
63 / Brown Bag Lunch Series - Student Parents / 11/1/13 / Campus Community / 16
64 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 11/7/13 / Students / 4
65 / ATP Open Mic Night / 11/7/13 / Campus Community / 40
66 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 11/14/13 / Students / 2
67 / Sanford Hall Privilege Walk / 11/14/13 / Sanford Hall / 15
68 / Partners in Movement / 11/17/13 / Campus Community / 45
69 / Morale Retreat / 11/19/13 / Staff / 200
70 / Gender Presentation / 11/19/13 / Students / 20
71 / Laux -Leading with Multiple Identities / 11/20/14 / Students / 15
72 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 11/21/13 / Students / 5
73 / SAA 700 Presentation / 11/21/13 / Students / 16
74 / Melt Away Ignorance Hall Program / 11/21/13 / Hutch Hall / 25
75 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 12/5/13 / Students / 4
76 / Brown Bag Lunch Series: Sizeism / 12/6/13 / Campus Community / 40
77 / Sanford Hall: Inclusive Language / 12/8/13 / Students / 15
78 / Leading through Discomfort: Coate Hall / 12/10/13 / Students / 15
79 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 12/12/13 / Students / 3
80 / Admissions: Microaggressions / 1/9/14 / Staff / 15
81 / Western Technical College - Microaggressions / 1/14/14 / Staff / 30
82 / Onalaska School District Training / 1/20/14 / Community / 60
83 / Partners in Movement: Residence Life / 1/23/14 / Students / 10
84 / Partners in Movement: Residence Life / 1/23/14 / Students / 25
85 / Partners in Movement: Residence Life / 1/21/14 / Students / 30
86 / Awareness through Performance –4:00 / 1/26/14 / Campus Community / 400
87 / Awareness through Performance –7:00 / 1/26/14 / Campus Community / 200
88 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 1/30/14 / Students / 3
89 / Diversity Dialogues / 2/5/14 / Campus Community / 600
90 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 2/6/14 / Students / 5
91 / White Privilege Panel / 2/6/14 / Students / 40
92 / White Privilege Panel / 2/6/14 / Students / 40
93 / Brown Bag Lunch Series - Disability Issues / 2/7/14 / Campus Community / 10
94 / Broadening Horizons Panel - Bullying / 2/12/14 / Students / 30
95 / WGS 100 Classroom Presentation / 2/13/14 / Students / 30
96 / WGS 100 Classroom Presentation / 2/13/14 / Students / 30
97 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 2/13/14 / Students / 4
98 / Learn to Love Conference / 2/15/14 / Students / 40
99 / Mental and Emotional Health Classroom Presentation / 2/19/14 / Students / 15
100 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 2/20/14 / Students / 2
101 / YWCA Teen LEAD / 2/26/14 / HS Students / 8
102 / Meeting with Men’s Track Team / 2/26/14 / Students/Staff / 70
103 / Viterbo Sociology Class - Race / 2/27/14 / Students / 25
104 / White Privilege Panel / 2/27/14 / Students / 30
105 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 2/27/14 / Students / 4
106 / Google Calendar Presentation / 2/28/14 / Staff / 50
107 / UW-L State of Hate & Bias / 3/4/14 / Campus Community / 20
108 / Sanford Hall Leadership Institute: Inclusive Leadership / 3/4/14 / Students / 12
109 / Women and Leadership - WGS Class / 3/5/14 / Students / 20
110 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 3/6/14 / Students / 5
111 / ATP Open Mic Night / 3/6/14 / Campus Community / 50
112 / Inclusive Language: Hutch Hall Program / 3/6/14 / Students / 15
113 / Brown Bag Lunch Series - Financial Wellness / 3/7/14 / Campus Community / 15
114 / Laux Hall Privilege Walk / Bead / 3/8/14 / Students / 15
115 / Awareness through Performance Encore / 3/10/14 / Campus Community / 200
116 / Microaggressions Panel - ERS Class / 3/11/14 / Students / 12
117 / YWCA Teen LEAD / 3/12/14 / HS Students / 6
118 / ESS 725 Presentation / 3/12/14 / Graduate Students / 20
119 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 3/13/14 / Students / 2
120 / Broadening Horizons - Hate/Bias Incidents / 3/26/14 / Students / 20
121 / Communications & Race class 9:25 (SDM) / 3/27/14 / Students / 25
122 / Communications & Race class 11:00 (SDM) / 3/27/14 / Students / 20
123 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 3/27/14 / Students / 3
124 / Athletics Follow-up / 3/28/14 / Students / 50
125 / Hate/Bias Presentation for SOC class (LCS) / 4/3/14 / Students / 30
126 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 4/3/14 / Students / 6
127 / Brown Bag Lunch Series - Rape Culture / 4/4/14 / Campus Community / 30
128 / Partners in Movement / 4/6/14 / Students / 20
129 / Leading through Multiple Identities / 4/3/14 / Students / 5
130 / White Privilege Panel: Broadening Horizons / 4/9/14 / Students and Staff / 35
131 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 4/10/14 / Students / 2
132 / White Privilege Training: Residence Life / 4/17/14 / Staff / 25
133 / Better Man Series: Better Lover (masculinity) / 4/17/14 / Staff / 30
134 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 4/17/14 / Students / 5
135 / ATP Graduation / 4/22/14 / Students / 20
136 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 4/24/14 / Students / 4
137 / Trans* Issues Training: Residence Life / 5/1/14 / Staff / 25
138 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 5/1/14 / Students / 4
139 / Brown Bag Lunch Series - Masculinity / 5/2/14 / Campus Community / 20
140 / ATP Orientation - Fall 2014 Troupe / 5/6/14 / Students / 20
141 / Multicultural Talking Circle / 5/8/14 / Students / 5
142 / Upward Bound Microaggressions Training / 6/19/14 / Students and Staff / 12

4. User Satisfaction and Program Successes

Feedback on ATP

To date, the Campus Climate office has offered 49 ATP performances with internal and external (community) requests for many more opportunities. Over 2,000 students, faculty and staff attend ATP each year. Research completed on the impact of ATP on students’ sensitivity to cultural issues, indicated that there was a correlation between those students who attended ATP and their understanding and respect for cultural diversity (Hayes, 2008). In 2009, Dr. Carmen Wilson, a UW-L professor and administrator, conducted research on ATP performers which indicated that all performers showed a significant increase in sensitivity towards the issues of race and ability. A new evaluation is currently being developed to assess the effectiveness of ATP on performers and audience members alike. All in all, the research on ATP clearly indicates that there is a positive impact not only on the audience, but on the performers as well.

Further feedback on the program includes many awards. Awareness through Performance was selected by RHAC for the “Best All Campus Educational Program of the Year” in 2006-07 and 2010-11, and, most recently, “Outstanding Diversity Program” in 2011-12. Additionally, ATP has won awards at the state level including the 2009 “Program Achievement Diversity Award” from the State of Wisconsin’s Council on Affirmative Action and Office of State Employment Relations, and 2012 “Best Diversity Program” from the Wisconsin College Personnel Association. We believe these awards speak highly of the quality and impact of ATP, one of the many quality programs offered by the Campus Climate office.

Program Evaluation Information

As stated in the previous section, our programming and training efforts have reached almost 7,000 community members. Although we do work hard to assess the campus climate every 4-5 years, we have not found an effective tool to assess our actual office on a large scale. However, we do try to evaluate individual trainings/presentations. This feedback typically suggests that we are having a positive impact on student and employee learning around social justice, diversity and inclusion topics across campus. We also believe the consistent yearly increase in hate/bias incident reports shows that we are making progress with educating the campus about this resource and that people trust that the information reported will be taken seriously. In regards to retention, our office is still deciding how to pursue this information for the various populations of students we serve. We do know, unofficially, that our retention rate among ATP performers is very high, but would like to understand if our office plays a direct role in the retention of the greater campus.

5. New Initiatives and Student Success Impact

  1. Hate/Bias Response Team: Open Forums
  2. As a leader of the Hate Response Team, we have been looking for ways to not only expand training and awareness of the hate/bias incident reporting form, but also what we are seeing. Through proactive marketing (screen cleaners, chapstick) of the Hate Response Form, we have seen a significant increase in its usage over the past few years. To better communicate our efforts, elicit feedback, and answer questions, we hosted a semesterly open forum open to the campus community during the 2013-14 academic year and hope to continue these for the 14-15 school year.
  3. Collaborate with university and community organizations.
  4. We worked with a variety of University organizations and departments to increase the quality of programs and trainings on campus. We teamed up with LIVE MAROON on their events, collaborated and presented at the Employee Enrichment day, and co-hosted the TED event in Fall of 2013. We plan to continue these events and partnerships for 2014-15 and will work to establish closer ties with and offer support to Student Association, student organizations, Residence Life, and faculty.
  5. Work with campus partners to disseminate Campus Climate Survey and reignite campus-wide Inclusive Excellence efforts.
  6. In February, 2013, after a lot of hard work and collaboration, we launched our third Campus Climate survey (previous surveys were issues in 2004 and 2008). With the leadership of Barbara Stewart and Laurie Cooper-Stoll, we garnered an impressive response rate. We have worked hard to disseminate the findings and are currently using them to provide guidance to 3 ongoing campus-wide Inclusive Excellence committees.
  7. Expand our diversity and inclusion timeline to show our progress.
  8. We have made huge progress in assembling a diversity and inclusion timeline on the “Diversity and Inclusion” webpage, which can be found at: also hope to compile a timeline for the Campus Climate office for internal use and historical perspective.
  9. Expand Partners in Movement
  10. The “Partners in Movement” mini-conference debuted March 2013 with 40 attendees. We have since facilitate 2 more mini-conferences, and provided several abridged versions to the campus community. Additionally, we have pulled together classroom panels which utilizes personal stories to educate the campus community about white privilege. For 2014-15, we would plan to offer a session for employees as well. For more information, please visit:

6. Funding Decreases/Increases and Impact

The allocated budget amount for FY13 was $219,741 and $234,588 for FY14. The increase was largely made up from Amanda Goodenough moving into an Assistant Director role and a University-wide salary equity adjustment. This increase directly coincides with director responsibilities Amanda has held over the past several years and the need for more formalized office leadership.

7. Anticipate Funding Decreases/Increases for new budget cycle

We anticipate that we will request a steady level of funding for the upcoming academic year. This may vary slightly depending on where fringe benefit levels fall, which is entirely out of our control. We realize that funding levels across the board will remain flat and we will continue to do what we can to create new programs and initiatives. However, at current staffing levels, we are running as efficiently as possible and output is at a maximum.

8. Program goals for the upcoming year

  1. Increase proactive programs and trainings
  2. Develop and employ additional proactive trainings and programming on campus. One of our ideas revolves around the idea of random acts of kindness days. We will be working with our student workers, ATP troupe, graduate assistants and volunteers to identify themes for these days and how best to roll this out.
  3. Further develop a system to coordinate volunteer opportunities with the Campus Climate office. There are a lot of students, faculty and staff interested in helping support a positive campus climate.
  4. Develop and implement protocol for protesters/uninvited guests
  5. Occasionally, uninvited guests will come on campus to share their messages. Sometimes those messages can be hurtful and come close to harassment. Our goal is to go beyond giving information to students, faculty and staff. We would like to also have ideas and counter/peaceful protest materials to those who would like them.
  6. Create a Campus Climate open house
  7. In an effort to increase visibility and utilization of the Campus Climate office, we will be creating an open house for students, faculty and staff to visit and learn about our resources.
  8. Start an alternative to the Morale Retreat
  9. For the last five years, Campus Climate has sponsored on a Morale Retreat for University faculty and staff twice a year. This was a day where we provided programming aimed at making employees feel valued and boosting morale. While this program was very successful, we have decided to discontinue it for now in order to explore other ways to provide a more impactful service for employee morale.
  10. Restructure of Hate/Bias Response Team; UW System Gathering
  11. Due to the increase in hate/bias incident reports, we have restructured the Hate Response Team for the 2014-15 school year to better meet the needs of the campus.