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Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
the student voice since 1960
Thursday, December 1, 2022 Vol. 76 No. 12
Results of campus climate survey discussed by key figures in safety and inclusivity at SIUE BRUCE DARNELL reporter
SIUE’s campus climate survey saw hundreds of responses from students, faculty and staff, provoking questions on issues ranging from freedom of speech to diversity in hiring. Jessica Harris, Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, hosted a panel at the MUC with other stakeholders involved in making SIUE safer and more inclusive. “We’re going to cover five today,” Harris said. “Freedom of speech and diversity of thought, fairness in hiring, belonging, bias incident report and response and campus safety. Approximately 3200 staff, faculty, administrators and students responded total, from all of SIUE’s campuses. The survey had a section for written responses that people could fill out. These comments were discussed early in the panel. “I pulled out some of the comments that were found throughout SIUE’s survey reports from our faculty, staff and students,” Harris said. “I think that you’ll find that these comments are very telling in terms of where we are as a campus community and speak to the work we have in front of us.” Some of the comments came from people holding conservative or Christian beliefs, many of whom criticized SIUE for not making them feel welcome on campus. “A comment from a student, ‘I don’t like how nonchalantly some professors treat viewpoints they don’t agree with, in particular one of my professors is very anti-Christian and [anti-right-wing],’ and again I’ve just pulled several comments, but they reflect patterns if you read through all of the feedback in the survey,” Harris said.
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Jerrica Ampadu, an assistant nursing percent disagreed to being treated equal. professor and Director of Student Nurses Of those, 82 percent of respondents stated Achievement Program, felt uncomfortable that they had not reported those incidents. after hearing these comments. Ampadu said this is because they don’t feel “We started talking about the an- safe reporting these incidents. ti-racist fatigue and that was quite discour“The issues identified in this survey are aging for me,” Amnot issues that can be padu said. “Because solved by one group, the person who tells rather [a pairing of all the story controls groups] to ensure that the narrative. SIUE we have meaningful is a predominantly actions that will impact white institution, I these issues,” Ampadu even pulled some insaid. formation from the Many respondents fact book; in 2018 to said that the campus is 2021 we only hired more welcoming to 14 Black faculty memwhite students rather bers out of 105.” than to Black students. Ampadu is a At least 55 percent of healthcare professtaff of color respondsional that works pried that they were not marily at SIUE’s East treated equally to their St. Louis Campus. white counterparts. She explained how Racial discrimdiversity in healthination was not the care can play a maonly problem highjor part in the safety lighted by the survey. of patients. LGBTQ+ faculty ” “The lack of members also reported Jerrica Ampadu, assistant nursing professor diversity results in that they did not feel and director of SNAP someone’s life,” Amsafe on campus. padu said. “Research Nick Niemerg, says that if you’re a assistant director of Black high-risk infant, constituent relations, and you don’t have a Black provider, you discussed how respondents were unhappy will die. If you have a Black provider, you with SIUE’s resources and how the Queer are four times more likely to survive. This Staff and Faculty Association has had trouis what I see when I see diversity.” ble getting attention among LGBTQ+ A large percentage of both staff and staff and faculty. students responded that they often didn’t “The satisfaction of services providfeel safe on campus. ed to LGBTQIA+ employees had a very Approximately 50 percent of adminis- resounding similarity to [other staff],” trators reported experiencing some form of Niemerg said. ”Thirty percent of faculty discrimination, bias or harassment, and 87 responded that they were dissatisfied with
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SIUE is a predominantly white institution, I even pulled some information from the fact book, in 2018 to 2021 we only hired 14 Black faculty members out of 105.
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services for our transgender individuals and mental health services.” Niemerg said that much of the services for the LGBTQ+ community are centered around students rather than faculty and staff. “Through work with the Safe Zone committee, there is a continuous list of both on-campus and off-campus resources that are updated, but it’s all through a website and not many people know it’s there,” Niemerg said. The Queer Staff and Faculty Association has had trouble getting members, as knowledge of it has mainly been passed through word of mouth. “There currently is no office or centralized location for faculty and staff that identify as LGBTQIA+ to go to,” Niemerg said. “It’s a great opportunity I think for the university to figure out how we use the resources we currently have and what offices and organizations we should partner with to create a safe space.” There are currently 35 members of the Queer Staff and Faculty Association. Niemerg wants to expand the association to provide a better safe space for members of the community but has run into difficulty. “It’s a little tricky,” Niemerg said. “The loss of access to the announce list has proved to be a little bit of an issue to get the word out that the group exists.” Sheila Caldwell, Vice President for Anti-racism, Diversity, Equity for SIU, stated that while not everyone at SIUE filled out the survey, the ones that have something to say typically do, as someone that has had an incident occur to them would be more likely to respond to the survey than one who didn’t. This gives a general idea of what action needs to be taken by the school and how organizations can better focus on how to combat these issues.
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