2023 Campus Climate Survey on Diversity and Equity
Important
You must complete the survey using the link that was emailed to your pitt.edu email address. It is a single-use link; please do not forward it to anyone else.
The email, sent on Jan. 16, is called “Tell us about diversity and equity at Pitt.” It was sent on behalf of the HEDS Consortium (hedsconsortium.org). If you do not see the survey in your pitt.edu email folder labeled “Inbox,” check your “Junk” or “Spam” folders.
Frequently Asked Questions (updated 1-17-2023)
A message from the Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer
Dear Pitt Community Members:
The University of Pittsburgh is committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive environment that makes every student, faculty and staff member feel welcomed and that prioritizes support and respect.
On Jan. 16, each member of the University community should have received an email invitation from the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium (HEDS) with a link to participate in a Diversity and Equity Campus Climate Survey designed to gauge:
- Perceptions of Pitt’s climate,
- Perceptions of how Pitt supports diversity, inclusion and equity, and
- Experiences with discrimination and harassment here at the University.
This survey is an important tool for informing and improving support, policies and practices related to equity, diversity and inclusion, including those to prevent or respond to discrimination and harassment.
Every member of Pitt’s community — including undergraduate students, advanced degree students, faculty, staff and administrators — is encouraged to participate. Completing the online survey takes about 15 minutes.
The survey will be open for responses for three weeks between Jan. 16, 2023, and Feb. 10, 2023.
The survey asks many demographic questions to develop a better sense of diversity at Pitt. However:
- Responses are anonymous
- Personal information, including respondents’ names, email addresses, student or employee identification numbers, and IP addresses, will be removed from the data the University receives
- Data and responses are aggregated into broad categories to maintain the anonymity of respondents.
The survey asks questions about experiences of discrimination and harassment you may have experienced. Recalling and discussing these experiences can be difficult. As a reminder, you can skip any questions, and resources — including OEDI, the University Counseling Center (for students) and Life Solutions (for employees) — are available if you’d like to seek support.
It is central to the University’s mission and continued excellence that we create and sustain a University-wide culture that embraces and advances equity, diversity and inclusion. Your feedback on how this work is going is essential. Thank you for taking time to complete the survey.
Sincerely,
Clyde Wilson Pickett, Ed.D.
Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Chief Diversity Officer
P.S. If you have been affected by sexual assault and misconduct, I encourage you to reach out to Pitt’s Office of Civil Rights & Title IX.
Frequently Asked Questions
(Updated 1-17-2023)
Is this survey voluntary?
Yes. Although we hope everyone will complete the survey, no one will be penalized if they decline.
How did you get my contact information?
The survey was sent to every person with an active Pitt email address — including more than 35,000 students, 15,000 employees, as well as some retirees — in order to sample opinion as comprehensively as possible, at every campus, and at every level of engagement with the University.
Why was I selected to complete this survey?
Everyone with a Pitt email address received the survey.
How did you know my name?
Each person was addressed by the chosen first name affiliated with their Pitt email account.
If the survey is anonymous, why do I have to login with my user name and password?
The survey is being conducted on behalf of the University of Pittsburgh by an outside vendor, the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium. You need to log-in using your Pitt account so that HEDS can do its utmost to assure that:
- only members of the Pitt community are completing the survey;
- each member of the Pitt community completes the survey only once; and
- each member of the Pitt community receives the appropriate survey depending on whether they are a student, faculty member, or staff member.
Logging in with your Pitt user name also enables the answers that are collected to be associated with the appropriate campus or location (for example, Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown, or Oakland).
Who or what is the HEDS Consortium?
The HEDS Consortium is a non-profit corporation located at the Center of Inquiry at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind. It has 40 years of experience conducting research designed to gather information on behalf of colleges and universities. Comprised of more than 100 colleges and universities across the United States, HEDS regularly conducts surveys to help institutions of higher learning assess their teaching practices, educational outcomes, employment outlooks for graduates, college loan debt, campus life satisfaction, and a variety of other important topics.
Who will see my answers?
No one at the University of Pittsburgh will have access to the data as it's being collected. HEDS will remove user names from each survey and anonymize the results before they are shared with the University of Pittsburgh.
I'm retired from the University. Do I have to take the survey?
We are interested in your opinions and your perceptions of the Diversity & Equity climate at the University of Pittsburgh. However, if you feel you do not have enough information to complete the survey, you may ignore the email and delete any follow-up reminders.
Questions or Concerns?
If you have questions about this survey, you may contact Katie Pope at diversity@pitt.edu or Jenna Thomas, Research Analyst and Data Manager at the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium, at jenna.thomas@hedsconsortium.org.