About the ARC3 Campus Climate Survey
September 1, 2015
Dear Colleague,
On this webpage you will find information to request the revised campus climate survey developed by the Administrator-Researcher Campus Climate Collaborative (ARC3). This survey is the result of ongoing efforts by student and legal affairs professionals, campus advocates, students, campus law enforcement, and sexual assault and harassment researchers, groups of whom met in Atlanta, Georgia in October 2014 for the Georgia State University Forum on Campus Sexual Assault and in February 2015 in Madison, Wisconsin for the Madison Summit on Campus Climate and Sexual Misconduct.
The survey is organized into modules that will provide campuses with the flexibility in survey length and content they have indicated they need. The module order is intentional, and it is based on our collective experience with survey and institutional research. The survey was pretested during the summer of 2015 with over 2,200 students attending 1 of 4 universities across the US. The full survey takes students an average of 30 minutes to complete; students who report experiencing sexual misconduct only take an additional 1 minute to complete the full survey, on average. Additionally available at https://www.arc3survey.org/about are
technical documents, which contain module summaries, scoring information, reliability estimates, and references for each measure adapted for the survey;
A series of documents containing guidance for implementing a campus climate survey; and
A Qualtrics version of the survey that can be imported to any Qualtrics account.
This survey is based upon a set of guiding principles that emerged from the Georgia State Forum and the Madison Summit, shared below.
The Georgia State Forum was supported by funding from Georgia State University’s Department of Psychology, Division of Student Affairs, Human Resources Administration, and Office of Research and Economic Development. The Madison Summit was made possible by a generous donation from the firm of Galarnyk and Associates, Ltd. to the University of Wisconsin Foundation, for the purpose of combatting sexual violence and harassment. Please see the list of contributors on page 3 of the survey document and address correspondence to campusclimate@gsu.edu.
Guiding Principles
When crafting this survey, ARC3 was guided by the following principles:
Inclusiveness, mutual respect, and collaboration
Where the voices of researchers, college and university administrators, and students will all be heard
Engaging in an iterative and transparent drafting process
The authors invite and encourage peer review and revision of the survey.
Administrators should give support, feedback and consultation to researchers so that the survey will be as useful and relevant as possible.
Scientists in turn should consider the feedback in developing a survey that meets institutional needs
The adoption of a civil rights approach grounded in Title IX
Our work focuses on the range of acts that constitute student on student incidents an institution must respond to and process under guidelines of Title IX, the Violence Against Women Act, the Clery Law and other applicable local, state, and federal law and guidelines
Ensuring independence and integrity in research
Guided by the ethics of science and recognizing and taking steps to remove the influence of bias
A commitment to use of the best scientific evidence as the foundation of the survey
There is a scientific knowledge base and a transparent scientific process must guide this work if the research is to have integrity and accuracy
Peer reviewed studies are the basis for determining survey content
Equal focus on surveying victimization and perpetration
Meaningful prevention rests on identifying the reasons sexual misconduct is perpetrated and the environments that foster it. Data that are focused on both victimization and perpetration creates a scientific foundation for administrative work.
Framing our efforts with the principles of The Belmont Report
Respect for persons: Ensure that students are informed and participate voluntarily
Beneficence: Participation in a campus climate survey is an educational opportunity and an intervention
Justice
As stated in the Belmont report, address “Who ought to receive the benefits of research and bear its burdens?”
A sensitivity to the unique issues faced by various diverse populations and higher education institutional types
Addressing the intersectionality of identities and the multiple contextual factors affecting risk
Conducting a Survey
This document from justice.gov shares key concepts and best practices for conducting a climate survey as a part of a comprehensive effort to address sexual assault on campus.
Provide Feedback
To provide feedback with your experience using the ARC3 Campus Climate Survey, click the link below. The data will be used to improve ARC3.
To take the survey, click here or copy and paste the link below
Survey link: https://gsu.qualtrics.com/SE?Q_DL=0r1ZIhGBIKAKwmx_9S6yWsZ2XYwOpCZ_MLRP_1MuDdbVPmXI0gAJ&Q_CHL=emai