DEI Campus Climate Survey - Office of the Vice Provost for Institutional Inclusive Excellence

In Spring 2022, Tufts conducted its first university-wide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Campus Climate survey.

Nearly 5,200 students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty (including adjunct faculty), and staff participated in the anonymous survey, making the response rate just over 29%.

Survey goals

Tufts community members created this survey collaboratively to identify priorities and opportunities for change, growth, and improvement. The survey explored individual experiences of belonging and inclusion; bias, harassment, and discrimination; and academic, professional, and financial stress. It also collected a wide range of demographic data, including some information not otherwise gathered and reported at Tufts.

Initial findings

We conducted a preliminary analysis in the spring of 2022. What is abundantly clear from the initial survey findings is the discrepancy in the lived experiences among our Tufts community members, with respondents from historically excluded and underrepresented groups reporting less positive experiences than their peers.

From the initial findings, we understood the need to perform further analysis of the data to better understand the results and better inform our next steps. To achieve this, Tufts partnered with the Center for Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education (CDIHE), an external data research and assessment firm based at the University of Maryland led by Dr. Roger Worthington, to conduct a secondary analysis and to produce a full report of the findings. This review is now complete.

The key findings from this work have been presented to the Academic Council (March 5, 2024) and the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees (March 6, 2024).

Next phase

As the next phase in this work, we offered a number of community presentations to share the key findings, our plan for moving forward to address key findings, and pathways for all to deeply engage in co-creating a more inclusive future at Tufts. These presentations will be followed by many more opportunities for community engagement in the summer and fall of 2024.

Many Tufts community members joined us for community presentations on the Boston Campus (April 3, 2024), SMFA Campus (April 3, 2024), Medford/Somerville Campus (April 4, 2024), and Grafton Campus (May 7, 2024).

This work will continue to be led by the Provost's Office, under the leadership of Vice Provost Monroe France and the Office of the Vice Provost for Institutional Inclusive Excellence (IIE), with the full support of university leadership and also in deep collaboration with schools, administrative units, deans, associate and assistant deans for diversity and inclusion, student and faculty leaders, and other key partners across the university.

Visit the links in the sidebar (or if on mobile, below) to access the executive summary, report, and other related resources. To view the May 31st webinar, click the button and then select the SSO option at the bottom to log in to Zoom using your Tufts credentials. We will continue to update this website throughout the summer as we engage the community in the institutional inclusive excellence visioning and goal-setting process.