University of California Systemwide Campus Climate Survey
Problem
The University of California seeks to understand students’ experiences with discrimination and harassment based on national origin, shared ancestry, and race and ethnicity.
The University of California (UC) has commissioned a comprehensive, systemwide survey to assess students’ knowledge, experiences, and awareness related to discrimination and harassment based on actual or perceived national origin, ancestry, and race and ethnicity. As the UC system advances institutional and systemwide initiatives to address these issues, student perspectives are essential to shaping effective, inclusive responses.
To support this work, UC requires rigorous, methodologically sound data on students’ experiences and perceptions of campus climate. This effort is driven by both requirements of a Voluntary Resolution Agreement between UC and the U.S Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the UC system’s broader commitment to fostering safe, respectful, and welcoming environments for all students.
NORC at the University of Chicago is partnering with UC Office of the President (UCOP) to design and implement this critical research. Leveraging our deep expertise in survey methodology and social science research, NORC will deliver trusted, actionable insights that empower UC leaders to make informed decisions, enhance institutional responsiveness, and enhance institutional responsiveness and support student well-being across all campuses.
Solution
NORC will design and administer a systemwide survey to assess students’ experiences, knowledge, and reporting of discrimination and harassment.
NORC is developing a novel survey instrument for UC that combines methodological rigor with the flexibility needed to ensure comparability across institutions. A central challenge is crafting survey measures that meet federal compliance standards while authentically reflecting the diverse lived experiences of UC’s student body.
Experts from NORC’s Higher Education Analytics and Climate Center are collaborating closely with UC to design a tool that assesses student knowledge of complaint procedures and captures experiences of discrimination and harassment across multiple dimensions of identity—including shared ancestry, national origin, and race. NORC’s approach integrates campus-specific needs with systemwide priorities, ensuring that findings are both locally actionable and broadly comparable.
Through deep methodological expertise and a collaborative design process, NORC will deliver more than compliance data. We will generate insights that drive meaningful change—informing prevention strategies, enhancing institutional accountability, and improving campus climate. This project exemplifies NORC’s ability to apply technical excellence to complex, nuanced topics in an increasingly diverse higher education landscape.
Result
NORC will share findings with UCOP to inform anti-discrimination prevention, education, and response efforts across the system.
NORC’s findings will provide UC with robust, evidence-based insights to inform anti-discrimination policies and procedures across the system. These results will support institutional efforts to foster inclusive environments, ensure regulatory compliance, and strengthen accountability in addressing discrimination and harassment.
Project Leads
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Erin Knepler
Senior Research DirectorProject Director -
Lisa Davidson
Senior Research ScientistCo-Principal Investigator -
Zoe Slowinski
Senior Research MethodologistMethodologist -
Karen Grigorian
Vice PresidentCorporate Oversight
Frequently Asked Questions
In December 2024, UC entered into a systemwide Voluntary Resolution Agreement (VRA) with the U.S Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to resolve complaints filed with OCR alleging discrimination, including harassment, based on actual or perceived national origin, including shared Jewish, Israeli, Palestinian, Arab and Muslim ancestry.
The VRA requires UC to conduct a climate survey for all UC students to evaluate not only the climate at each campus and within the university more broadly with respect to actual or perceived national origin/shared Jewish, Palestinian, Muslim and/or Arab ancestry or association with these national origins/ancestries, but also the extent to which students are subjected to or witness discrimination, including harassment, based on these actual or perceived national origins/ancestries.
While the VRA is the impetus for the survey, the survey will also explore whether students feel accepted for other personal identities, such as race and religion, as well as broader campus climate issues affecting students’ sense of safety and belonging, including issues related to cultural and political expression.
UC has partnered with NORC at the University of Chicago. NORC is a nonpartisan research organization used by various nonprofits and governments to deliver analysis that informs critical decisions by leaders and policymakers. They were identified based on their reputation in the field for climate survey work with peer institutions, including Columbia University, the University of Michigan and the CUNY system.
The survey will be made available to all UC students—those enrolled in undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools across the campuses.
No, participation in the survey is completely voluntary, but a robust response rate from students helps the university in its effort to address campus climate.
For those taking the survey using a shared device (for example, a mobile device or computer used by multiple people), we recommend completing the survey in a single session to protect your privacy. If you are the only user of the device, then you can pause and return to the survey.
The information gathered during the survey will be used to guide future action that UC takes toward fostering a safe and supportive campus environment for all students by measuring both successes and challenges. This survey will collect information to help understand and address student experiences and perceptions related to discrimination and harassment, as well as students’ broader sense of safety and belonging at UC. The survey will provide UC with robust, evidence-based insights to inform anti-discrimination prevention, education, and response efforts across the system.
As required by the VRA, UC also will provide OCR a report summarizing the results of the survey and a description of any further action that UC proposes to take in response to the survey results.
The privacy and confidentiality of participant responses are central to this project. NORC maintains rigorous protocols to promote confidentiality and anonymity.
Per NORC’s general protocols and in accordance with applicable laws: NORC will treat participation in this survey as confidential. While your responses are temporarily linked to you for survey administration, NORC will remove identifying information (your name, email, and IP address) before analysis, will not include such identifying information in reports, and will not share such identifying information with any UC institution or UC Office of the President. Only NORC research staff will have access to linked survey responses during data collection, and all survey responses will be securely stored by NORC.
Findings from this survey will be reported in ways that ensure that no participant can be identified based on their survey responses. This means that NORC will report findings in aggregate (e.g., summarized findings for all respondents from specific demographic groups or in specific roles) or suppressed (e.g., if particular respondent groups are small, where someone could potentially be identified, NORC will not report fewer than 10 responses).
At the completion of the survey, we anticipate publishing an executive summary of the report results, and each UC school will receive a report specific to that campus.
Speaking about your lived experiences, particularly as they may relate to harassment or discrimination, can be difficult. Please reach out to your campus Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) for mental health needs.
Each UC campus has an office responsible for responding to reports of discrimination and harassment on the basis of protected categories (e.g., race, national or ethnic origin, religion, disability, etc.) under the UC Anti-Discrimination Policy. A list of campus civil rights offices can be found on the Systemwide Anti-Discrimination Office website.
All survey responses will be securely stored by NORC and accessible only to NORC research staff conducting data analyses. To ensure the highest standards of privacy and data protection, NORC employs rigorous security protocols. View the Privacy Commitment to find out more about NORC's commitment to the privacy of research participants.
