Santa Fe College is approaching racial equity by asking its students about it.
The college will be participating in the newly developed National Assess- ment of Collegiate Campus Climate Sur- vey, which was created in Fall 2018 to assess diversity issues on varying cam- puses, said Cheryl Calhoun, Santa Fe College Dean of Access and Inclusion.
Santa Fe College is one of the rst few higher education institutions to par- ticipate in the survey nationwide in or- der to gure out what equity gaps exist on campus, Calhoun said.
“No matter the result, this gives us some tools to work with as we think about how we can do better in closing the equity gaps that might exist,” Cal- houn said.
The survey opened for students on Feb. 5 and will close on March 19, said Santa Fe College Student Body President Alejandro Puga. The results of the sur- vey will be available in Fall 2019 .
The National Assessment of Colle- giate Campus Climate Survey is anony- mous and takes students about 15 min- utes to complete, Calhoun said. The questions fall into six content areas: ap- praisals of institutional commitment, im- pact of external environments, mattering and af rmation, racial learning and lit- eracy, encounters with racial stress and cross-racial engagement.
Students are happy that the survey gives them a chance to anonymously give feedback to administrators, Puga said.
“We’re obviously not perfect,” Puga said. “We’re always looking for new op- portunities to serve more students.”
Pictured is the Santa Fe College clock tower.
