In the spring of 2023, Boston University administered the Belonging & Culture Survey, a first-of-its-kind, University-wide assessment that measures students, staff, and faculty’s sense of belonging and culture at BU and identifies successes and opportunities for improvement. More than 11,000 community members responded, and the results will help guide our strategic committee and academic units to address areas of concern at the University and build on our existing strengths. The Belonging & Culture Survey initiative is led by the Community & Inclusion Unit in the Office of the Provost.
Belonging & Culture Survey Timeline
2023-2024
Fall 2024
- Fall 2024 and beyond: Information about strategic objectives and action items will be shared with the BU community via the survey website. The university and individual units will begin to implement action items and track progress.
- 2026: Proposed time to repeat the survey administration to measure progress on climate, culture, and sense of belonging.
Spring/Summer 2024
- January: Deans and senior executive unit leaders submitted reports to the provost and president regarding areas of focus in their unit’s data around which to design initiatives to improve culture and belonging in their units.
- February: The Office of the Provost developed the charge for and constituted the Belonging and Culture Strategic Committee (BCSC) to work in concert with the Rankin Climate Team on determining university-wide areas of focus and action items, as well to support deans and senior executive unit leaders in identifying unit-level areas of focus and designing initiatives to improve culture and belonging in their schools, colleges, and units.
- March: The BCSC began meeting regularly to work on its charge.
- April-August: The BCSC will work to develop strategic objectives, action items, and measures of success for university-wide, unit-specific, and population-specific actions for improvement.
Fall 2023
- October: On October 18, the survey results report is presented and published on a website accessible to all BU community members with login credentials. (The survey results are not available to the general public.) On the same day, Rankin Climate and university executive leadership presented the survey results during two town hall meetings on the Charles River Campus and Medical Campus, which were open to all members of the BU community.
- November: Raw data from the survey is released through data dashboards by school, college, and unit to deans and senior executive unit leaders for their review of unit-level data.
- December: Deans and senior executive unit leaders review their data dashboards and begin determining areas of focus and designing initiatives to improve culture and belonging in their unit.
2022-2023
Summer 2023
- July–August: Rankin Climate develops the survey results reports and presentations.
Spring 2023
- February 21: The Belonging & Culture Survey launches University-wide to all students, staff, and faculty.
- February 22: Survey Administration Launch Party in the George Sherman Union, Metcalf Hall, 9 am-5 pm. Respondents can begin taking the survey on this date.
- April 7: The survey closes, and no further responses are collected after this date.
- April: Survey response data coding by Rankin Climate begins.
- May: Data analysis and interpretation by Rankin Climate begins.
Fall 2022
- September: The University president and University provost announce the launch of the Belonging & Culture Survey initiative through an all-University email letter.
- October: Rankin Climate conducts multiple focus groups comprised of students, staff, and faculty from key BU communities; their honest feedback will guide the creation of the Belonging & Culture Survey.
- November: Survey development begins.
- December: The survey is finalized.
Summer 2022
- July: The University contracts with Rankin Climate to facilitate the Belonging & Culture Survey.
- July: The working group co-chairs identify students, staff, and faculty to join the working group.
- August: The Belonging & Culture Survey working group convenes to begin planning the survey.
Spring 2022
- May: The University president and University provost charge working group co-chairs to lead planning, development, and implementation of the Belonging & Culture Survey.
Committees
Get to know the different committees working on the administration, analysis, and response for the Belonging & Culture survey. Learn more here.
