Ithaca College has extended the deadline to complete the Campus Climate Survey to midnight Nov. 17. 

In an email to the campus community, President La Jerne Cornish encouraged students to take the survey during the Common Hour, which happens between 12:10 and 1:05 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday.

“The many great insights we have already received will improve the Ithaca College experience for years to come, but we would still like to hear from more of you,” Cornish said.

Cornish said the survey takes about 20 minutes to complete, and there are prizes available for some respondents to win. 

At the college’s Faculty Council meeting Nov. 7, Belisa Gonzalez, professor of sociology and dean of faculty, equity, inclusion, and belonging, said the response rate of the survey was about 15% at the time, which was considered low. When the survey was last conducted in 2016, the response rate was 46%. 

Gonzalez serves as one of the co-chairs of the Campus Climate Survey working committee. Gonzalez said while addressing respondents’ concerns about anonymity that the raw data collected from the survey is not seen by anyone except Rankin Climate — a company that assesses institutional climate and specifically works with the college’s working committee — who do not report on this.

“A number of people who have multiple targeted identities [have raised concerns about being identified] … which I think is a super valid concern, one that I would have as well,” Gonzalez said at the meeting.  

The survey collects both qualitative and quantitative data and serves as an important way to plan to make the college’s climate more equitable and inclusive, according to the survey website. After the survey administration ends, data will be coded and managed in December. From January to February 2024, the data will be administered and in March 2024, data will be translated into reports. In April and May 2024, the results will be presented and action planning will be initiated. 

The survey can be found here.