What is Campus Climate? (FAQs)

The University of Hawaii (UH) is dedicated to creating a safe and supportive environment where students can flourish academically and personally, with a particular focus on enhancing gender equity and campus safety. In 2015, UH established the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) to oversee gender equity initiatives. That same year, UH developed a survey instrument as part of a year-long planning process to assess student attitudes, behaviors, and standards regarding efforts to prevent and address sexual harassment and gender-based violence.

The first UH Student Climate Survey on Sexual Harassment and Gender-Based Violence was launched in January 2017. These campus climate surveys, conducted in 2017, 2019, 2021, and most recently in January 2023, are crucial for preventing sexual assault and other forms of gender-based violence by measuring their prevalence and understanding students’ perceptions and experiences of sexual misconduct. The surveys have enabled UH to evaluate the campus environment, the effectiveness of its response mechanisms, and the awareness of available resources and reporting options for victims, contributing to continuous improvements in campus policies and procedures. Insights from these surveys also led to the creation of Action Plan Committees on each campus, tasked with addressing specific issues identified.

In a strategic reorganization in 2021, OIE merged with the UH Mānoa Office of Title IX and the UH System EEO/AA Office, forming the Office of Equity Assurance (OEA), under the leadership of Jennifer Rose, the former Director of OIE and current Executive Director of OEA. This newly structured office continues to advance the gender equity initiatives established in 2015.

UH’s biennial series of campus climate surveys, from 2017 through 2023, aligns with the mandates of Act 208, Session Laws of Hawai‘i 2016, which requires UH to conduct an initial campus climate survey by March 31, 2017, and every two years thereafter. UH is on track to launch its fourth survey in January 2025, continuing its important work in fostering a safer and more supportive educational environment for all students.

Climate Survey Frequently Asked Questions

Campus climate surveys are important tools to gauge students’ current attitudes, behaviors and standards.

UH’s climate survey focused on measuring students’ attitudes, behaviors and standards in the context of trying to address and prevent sexual harassment and gender-based violence. More specifically, the UH survey gathered information from students about:

  • The overall campus environment related to sexual harassment and gender-based violence.
  • How well UH responds to and addresses their concerns.
  • Awareness of resource and reporting options for those experiencing sexual violence, sexual harassment, stalking, and interpersonal violence (domestic and dating violence).
  • Prevalence (e.g., how widespread) and incidence (e.g., how often) of sexual violence, sexual harassment, stalking, and interpersonal violence on campus.

The results of the survey are available on the Office of Institutional Equity website under Survey Results & Methodology.

The survey is being coordinated by UH’s Office of Institutional Equity (OIE).

Consultants
UH contracted with OmniTrak Group, Inc. to undertake the survey. OmniTrak, an independent Hawai‘i-based market research company is led by the Honorable Patricia M. Loui, a former United Nations social development planner with 35 years of expertise researching sensitive subjects in the State.

Researchers
For this survey, OmniTrak teamed with two well-known national subject matter experts: Professor Sandra L. Martin, Ph.D., and Professor Bonnie S. Fisher, Ph.D., who consulted on the Association of American Universities (AAU) 2015 Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct. They joined OmniTrak’s team in the pre-planning stage, and they have remained actively involved through analysis, writing and presentation of results.

A customized link to the online survey will be emailed to all UH students at their hawaii.edu email address.

Students who prefer to respond to paper copies of the survey or surveys with key sections (Consent Form and Key Instructions) translated into Tagalog, Korean, Mandarin or Japanese, may call the OmniTrak survey hotline at: (808) 536-4880.

Translated sections are also available on the Taking the Survey & Translations page.

Hard copies of the survey (including translated sections) will be mailed to the student upon request. The student can complete a hard copy and return the survey via mail.

The survey represents President Lassner’s and UH’s continuing commitment to raising awareness about sexual harassment and gender-based violence, addressing students’ experiences and concerns about their personal safety, and ensuring a safe learning and working environment.

The survey also fulfills the requirements of Section 304A-120 of the Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes (Act 208 (2016)), which has mandated UH to conduct a campus climate survey of students by March 31, 2017 and to repeat the survey every two years.

For consistency and comparison, the publicly available and previously tested survey questions developed by the Association of American Universities in its 2015 study for 27 Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) formed the base of the survey design, particularly the questions asking about incidence and prevalence of sexual harassment and gender-based violence.

The 2023 survey instrument included 149 questions organized into 12 sections. The questions were designed to identify conduct which UH is interested in preventing, and for student accessibility.

While the questionnaire has generally remained consistent period to period to permit longitudinal tracking and changes, some revisions were made to align definitions to U.S. federal definitions or to reflect changes in national best practice.

After careful consideration of the costs and benefits of a census versus a sample survey, UH decided to proceed with a census survey. A large part of the decision was because of UH’s diverse community, and a desire to remain inclusive of all of the various sub-populations on UH’s campuses.

Data from the survey will be analyzed and presented in aggregate form in a report. The results will be compared against data collected in prior UH Climate Surveys, which will continue to be used to assess UH’s progress as it addresses these issues. The results will also serve as a resource to sustain the community’s commitment to working together to ensure safe and inclusive campuses.

The aggregate data will also be incorporated in campus action plans, which will guide future programmatic, education and training initiatives as well as the development of policies and procedures regarding sexual harassment and gender-based violence.

Students who want to receive assistance or information in a confidential, private setting on their campus or in their community can find the right resource for them by going to: https://www.hawaii.edu/titleix/confidential/

Students who are ready to make a formal report about their experience to the University should contact their campus Title IX Coordinator by going to: https://www.hawaii.edu/titleix/coordinators/

If researchers require data beyond information available in the report, researchers can submit a request to the Office of Institutional Equity at institutional.equity@hawaii.edu. The request should include:

  • Researcher’s Full Name
  • Job Title
  • Department/Agency (if applicable)
  • Contact Information (phone number, email address, address)
  • A list of all data elements needed for analysis