Town hall continues climate study discussion

Committee members charged with creating action plans following the 2011 campus climate survey reported their recommendations during a town hall February 11 in the Kirkhof Center.

Dwight Hamilton, associate vice president for Affirmative Action, said data from the survey was analyzed and three committees representing students, faculty members and staff members were asked to recommend strategies to further improve the campus climate. The recommendations from the Gender Identity and Expression Committee (GIEC) were also discussed.

All action plans are online and can be viewed at www.gvsu.edu/mygvsu. Highlights are below.

• Faculty Subcommittee: Develop training for effective personnel management, address bullying/retaliation behaviors, develop best practices regarding tenure/promotion, and address expectations for faculty members with children and those without children.

• Staff Subcommittee: Improve communication of policies regarding salaries and promotions, create an overall diversity program (formal/informal opportunities), benchmark best practices for supervisor training, and focus efforts on climate and staff retention.

• Student Subcommittee: Increase cross-cultural learning experiences, expand opportunities to address financial hardships, improve mentoring programs, define bullying and develop policies to address such behavior, and increase financial efforts to address sexual violence concerns.

• GIEC: Incorporate preferred name/pronoun into all university records and software, provide gender-neutral restrooms in all campus buildings, and provide training for faculty and staff members on transgender issues.

Sean Huddleston, assistant vice president for Strategic Implementation, said next steps include creating collaborative efforts to address and implement the recommendations.