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The Academic Senate approved a campus survey to guide the spring town hall meeting at its February 24 meeting despite objections from the administration.

“This is one more opportunity to hear the faculty and staff’s voices stemming directly from some of our discussions that we’ve had and opening that up to the rest of the campus in terms of getting a consensus on positive solutions,” Melissa Michelson, chair of the Town Hall Committee, said.

“We’re trying to find a way to bridge a gap between the administration and faculty,” said town hall committee member Kristin Pilon. “There seems to be a big rift. There are bad feelings, there is mistrust, and there is a sense of fair play not being honored. This is an opportunity for people of different backgrounds to get together.”

The administration’s response to the survey was that it is unnecessary.

Valerie Wardlaw, interim director of public relations, said the distribution of the campus climate survey is duplicative and outside of any consultation or involvement of the Institutional Planning and Research Office (IPRO).

On March 19, the college will distribute a survey of its own: a staff-wide campus climate survey.

“I’m not measuring campus climate,” Michelson said. “Theirs is going to do that. Ours is to get information to help guide us in the town hall.”

Senator Gloria Horton was concerned about survey fatigue and the number of surveys the faculty has been asked to complete this year.

“I feel that there is an advantage being taken here, where I am being used just to be a warm body for a statistic,” Horton said.

Senator David Cuatt disagreed.

“I have heard about survey fatigue, but I have also heard people tell me ‘thank goodness I can finally say what I think about all this.’ It’s nice that we’re being heard,” he said.

Wardlaw said that IPRO is the college’s resident resource and expert on the development of surveys and the Board of Trustees would ask that the Academic Senate work within the existing system.

“The reason why I can’t go through IPRO is because it’s very problematic getting information from them,” Michelson said. “My requests are often met with hostility, unprofessionalism and unwillingness.”

At the College Council meeting, Dr. Rocha knocked the Campus Town Hall Survey for not being independent while discussing the administration’s upcoming climate campus survey.

“Any survey that comes out of the campus community whether faculty, staff or administration is not independent,” Rocha said. “It is important of any survey to ensure the integrity of the survey both in terms of whether the questions are independent and who are the surveyors.”

Michelson said that the Academic Senate has every right to conduct town halls and surveys.

According to Michelson, 170 surveys have been received as of Friday March 7.

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6 Replies to “Senate proceeds with survey despite administration objections”

  1. It does not matter why the Board of Trustees wanted to remove Mark Rocha’s performance review from the light of day, the Senate has a responsibility to do its work, and his ratings will be made known.

    (Every member of the PCC — staff/student/faculty — is charged to share in the governance of the college.)

    This Eval, the climate survey, and even Admin’s “me, too” survey will underline that “Something is rotten in the state of PCC,” and no amount of stalling or denying will help.

    1. Three votes of no confidence have already underlined that. Rocha’s not going anywhere; he’s too convenient a hatchet man for the BOT.

  2. The administration is hiring an independent group called Modern Think to conduct a survey this month. The administration is labeling this survey “Campus Climate” survey. In 2011 it was called an “Insight Survey” and the standardized questions on it are the same ones given to all the schools that participate:
    https://pasadena.edu/IPRO/research/Documents/Great_Colleges/2011_Great_Colleges_to_Work_For_Results.pdf
    The results get compared to other colleges and it seems to be a contest as to which school is a “great college to work for.”

    The questions on the Campus Climate survey that IPRO and Crystal Kollross do are completely different and measures the climate at PCC and was more fine tuned and relevant to climate specifically at PCC. https://pasadena.edu/IPRO/research/Documents/Campus_Climate_Summary_Fall_2010.pdf It should be done every 2-3 years according to IPRO’s online calendar, but the last time they did it was 4 years ago.

    The Academic Senate’s Town Hall campus survey is composed of 90% IPRO’s survey, It’s heavily based ON IPRO’s past survey. Therefore, it is not outside of IPRO. It’s also not duplicative since the questions on it are different from the administration’s contracted independent survey.

  3. I would love another survey, but is really not necessary. If you want to learn the “Climate of the Campus”….just look at the folks who work here. You don’t need a survey, just an average vision. In the event you never spend any time here (like the Board of Trusless), then perhaps I may be of assist. First, we have a VP who wears a nose condom to keep his sinuses clear when following the president around. Second, we employ persons known to be thieves. Third, we have a head-nurse so immersed in the smoking policy; she has forgotten how to apply a Band-Aid. Lastly, we employ coaches who recruit from local jails where real community college athletes are born. There’s your weather report. No charge.

    L.O.C.

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