The Iowa State administration is ready to listen, but only 8 percent of students have taken the opportunity to be heard. 

Iowa State opened up the first campus climate survey since 2004 and after a month, less than 10 percent of students have participated which is statistically insufficient to get accurate results. 

If the university can’t get a large enough sample, the student voice may not be heard. The deadline has been extended to Tuesday, leaving five days for more students to take the survey. 

Kate Gregory, senior vice president for university services, said the survey is a way for “ideas and recommendations to be communicated in a broad and consistent way to the leadership of the university in order to make change happen.” 

The 2004 survey brought changes to the university still seen today such as the implementation of the Ombuds Office which offers impartial, confidential conflict management assistance. 

Other additions to the university include the Principles of Community, the creation of a university-level diversity committee and the Multicultural Center found in the Memorial Union. 

“Their previous campus survey … many of the things that students and faculty and staff, but especially students, have become reality like the Multicultural Center and things like that,” Gregory said. “I’ve taken the survey, it’s easy to take, it’s quick to take … and it really covers a lot of things about just how people feel at Iowa State. Diversity is one element of that, but only one element.” 

In a letter from interim President Ben Allen, he urged students to get involved stating the survey helps the university identify successful initiatives, uncover current climate roadblocks or inconsistencies and develop the current programs. 

Reginald Stewart, vice president for diversity and inclusion, was a major part in implementing the campus climate survey. The website offers resources for those affected by the survey’s sometimes difficult subject matter and a frequently asked questions page.

“To make it very clear and transparent, the most important piece I think with the climate survey is take the survey and encourage your classmates and friends or co-workers to take it because that information is critical in moving forward,” Stewart said. 

Stewart said some of the information will be the anecdotal experiences shared by community members, as well as data points that show areas of strength as well as areas of weakness. 

“It’s an opportunity to take a very clear comprehensive sort of pulse check and campuses need to do that. The important thing is, our last survey was in 2004, so we’re sort of behind the bar in doing these,” Stewart said. 

He said the frequency of the surveys needs to improve so they can look at which of the outcomes of the previous survey have improved or not improved the campus climate. 

“If students want to have the opportunity to change things at Iowa State and make a difference, then taking the survey, getting their voice heard is the best way to do it,” Gregory said. 

“So having one person out of 36,000 say something in the survey, it’ll get documented and noted and heard, but the more people who say it, the more people who present ideas, the louder that concern becomes and the more it is validated and the more powerful of message it sends to leadership”

Megan Frisvold, senior in global resource systems, took the survey after finding out the numbers were low. After learning what came out of the 2004 survey, she said she thinks more people would participate if they knew the impact it could have. 

“I had no idea that from the 2004 survey that the [Multicultural Center] was created, that other agencies and offices were created. I think providing that information would’ve been really helpful,” Frisvold said. 

Salary staff have the highest percentage of participation with 37.9 percent, followed by tenure eligible faculty at 33.9 percent and nontenure eligible faculty at 30.6 percent. Out of the entire Iowa State community, 13.2 percent have participated in the survey.

The survey can be found at https://www.campusclimate.iastate.edu/survey.

“The survey can be a tool that a person can use to really voice whatever they are concerned about,” Gregory said. “Climate is a word that covers really just everything about how a person feels.”