Brock respectful, survey respondents say

More than 80 per cent of faculty, staff and students consider Brock to be respectful and accepting of diversity.

These statistics come from three surveys conducted by the university’s Respectful Work and Learning Environment Policy (RWLEP) review committee in early December.

The surveys asked members of the Brock community to report whether they had seen discriminating or harassing behaviour in the last year, and other questions about respectful work environments. There were 578 students who answered the survey, as well as 267 staff and 112 faculty.

The following is a thank-you letter from the committee, along with survey results. The complete data (numerical only) is available at the Library reserve desk as of Wednesday, May 19 at 12 noon. The name of the data set is “RWLEP Survey Feedback 2009/10.” To protect confidentiality, individual comments explaining the answers will not be released.

The members of the RWLEP review committee thank the Brock community for their help in fulfilling its mandate over the past academic year, and are pleased to share survey feedback data from the three surveys (students, staff and faculty) completed by members of the Brock community in early December 2009.

The members of the RWLEP review committee over the last academic year were as follows: Carol Sales (Faculty of Business and committee chair), Lianne Bradley (president, Brock University Students’ Union), Thomas Dunk (Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences), Troy Brooks (Academic Integrity officer), LeeAnn Cayer (Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation), Brad Clarke (Off-Campus Housing Services), Kim Meade (Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President, Student Services), Daniel Crow (CUPE 4207), Marion Hansen (recorder), Judith Knight (Aboriginal education program and graduate student), Pauline McCormack (Associate Vice-President, Human Resources), Jocelyn Murtell (Graduate Students’ Association), Janice Walker (CUPE 1295) and Vince Wilson (non-unionized staff). Others who contributed as committee members earlier in the RWLEP review process were Anna Lathrop (Interim Dean, Applied Health Sciences), Carol Merriam (past-president, Brock University Faculty Association), Cathie Closs (Associate Vice-President, Student Services designate), and Dolana Mogadime (Faculty of Education).

Below are three brief overviews of selected results of the survey for each of the three “constituencies” i.e., students, staff and faculty.

A. Results from surveys completed by students:

Participants: Total=578; female (70 per cent); undergraduate (84.5 per cent); full-time (90 per cent); international students (5 per cent); persons with a disability (6 per cent); Aboriginal persons (2 per cent); members of racialized group (11 per cent) and members of marginalized group (9.5 per cent).

Overview of Results:

87 per cent perceive the Brock community to be respectful (very + moderately).
86.5 per cent perceive the Brock community to be accepting of diversity (very + moderately).
14.5 per cent report experiencing behaviour(s) at Brock which fall under the RWLEP i.e., discrimination, harassment, bullying.
17 per cent report witnessing behaviour(s) at Brock that fall under the RWLEP.
74.5 per cent were not aware that Brock had a Respectful Work Policy.
80 per cent did not know where to find a copy of RWLEP.
Of those (234) who ventured a judgment about the effectiveness of the RWLEP, 93 per cent (217) rated the RWLEP as effective in some measure (extremely + very + moderately+ slightly).
41 per cent (201) agreed (strongly + moderately), while 14 per cent (68) disagreed (strongly + moderately) with the current practice in the RWLEP of using internal (persons from Brock) investigators versus external (persons external to Brock) investigators.
74.5 per cent did not know where the Office of Human Rights and Equity Services (OHRES) was on campus.
61 per cent were not aware that Brock had an OHRES; however, 37 per cent said that now that they know about the OHRES they would use it.
91.4 per cent of those who ventured an answer (other than “not sure”) agreed that the OHRES should report directly to the President.

B. Results from surveys completed by staff:

Participants: Total=267; female (71 per cent); administrative/professional (64 per cent); OSSTF (18 per cent); persons with a disability (7 per cent); Aboriginal persons (3 per cent); members of racialized group (7 per cent) and members of marginalized group (12 per cent).

Overview of Results:

82 per cent perceive the Brock community to be respectful (very + moderately).
87 per cent perceive the Brock community to be accepting of diversity (very + moderately).
35.5 per cent report experiencing behaviour(s) at Brock which fall under the RWLEP i.e., discrimination, harassment, bullying.
40.5 per cent report witnessing behaviour(s) at Brock that fall under the RWLEP.
79 per cent were aware that Brock had a Respectful Work Policy.
62 per cent knew where to find a copy of RWLEP.
Of those (196) who ventured a judgment about the effectiveness of the RWLEP, 92 per cent rated the RWLEP as effective in some measure (extremely + very + moderately+ slightly).
30 per cent (61) agreed (strongly + moderately), while 29 per cent (59) disagreed (strongly + moderately) with the current practice in the RWLEP of using internal (persons from Brock) investigators versus external (persons external to Brock) investigators.
58 per cent knew where the OHRES was on campus.
73.5 per cent of those who ventured an answer (other than “not sure”) agreed that the OHRES should report directly to the President.

C. Results from surveys completed by faculty:

Participants: Total=112; male (67 per cent); Tenured (71.5 per cent), Probationary (18 per cent), LTA (4 per cent), ILTA (7 per cent); Professor (28.5 per cent), Associate Professor (42 per cent), Assistant Professor (21.5 per cent), Lecturer (9 per cent); years at Brock: Less than 5 years (24 per cent), 5-9 years (29.5 per cent), 10-14 (10 per cent), 15-19 (8 per cent), more than 19 years (28.5 per cent); persons with a disability (5 per cent); Aboriginal persons (0 per cent); members of racialized group (6.5 per cent) and members of marginalized group (16 per cent).

Overview of Results:

94 per cent perceive the Brock community to be respectful (very + moderately).
97 per cent perceive the Brock community to be accepting of diversity (very + moderately).
51.5 per cent report experiencing behaviour(s) at Brock which fall under the RWLEP i.e., discrimination, harassment, bullying.
54.5 per cent report witnessing behaviour(s) at Brock that fall under the RWLEP.
78 per cent were aware that Brock had a Respectful Work Policy.
66 per cent knew where to find a copy of RWLEP.
Of those (53) who ventured a judgment about the effectiveness of the RWLEP, 77.5 per cent (41) rated the RWLEP as effective in some measure (extremely + very + moderately+ slightly).
Of those (84) who ventured a judgment about the value of the RWLEP as an avenue to address member-to-member (BUFA) conflicts, 93 per cent (84). [Given that BUFA members cannot grieve each other i.e., including department chairs.]
77.5 per cent agreed the RWLEP should provide an avenue to address member-to-member (BUFA) conflicts. [Given that BUFA members cannot grieve each other i.e., including department chairs.]
31.5 per cent (n=30) agreed (strongly + moderately), while 33.5 per cent (n=32) disagreed (strongly + moderately) with the current practice in the RWLEP of using internal (persons from Brock) investigators versus external (persons external to Brock) investigators.
58.5 per cent did not know where the OHRES was on campus.
73.5 per cent of those who ventured an answer (other than “not sure”) agreed that the OHRES should report directly to the President.