CALS ODEI explains confidentiality of CALS Climate Survey
What does it mean for the CALS Climate Survey to be confidential?
The CALS Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (ODEI) has had the opportunity to visit many, but not all, CALS centers, departments and units throughout fall 2024 to discuss the 2024 CALS Climate Survey. The most frequently asked questions the ODEI team received were about survey confidentiality. So, what does confidentiality look like for the CALS Climate Survey?
- Only the UW Survey Center knows who has responded to the survey. The Survey Center is managing the collection of the survey responses. ODEI does not know who has completed the survey, nor does any other CALS unit. ODEI does know the overall and unit-level response rates. The survey invitations and weekly survey reminders with unique individual survey links are sent by the Survey Center. If for any reason you need to go back to your survey responses, Nathan Jones (nrjones@ssc.wisc.edu) at the Survey Center will help you.
- Data will not be reported for groups with fewer than 10 people. The CALS Overall Report and unit-level reports will likely not include cross-tabulations by race/ethnicity, unless there are at least 10 individuals in a racial/ethnic identity group. In addition, unit-level reports will not cross-tabulate results by demographic groups unless the minimum threshold is met by all groups with a demographic grouping. For example, if there are only three women in the unit who responded to the survey, the unit will not receive a report that breaks down information by gender.
- CALS leadership, centers, departments and units will only be provided with data that is aggregated, never for individuals. The Survey Center and ODEI are committed to upholding the promise and principle of confidentiality that was put forth in the climate survey. No CALS individual or group is entitled to receive the raw data collected.
- CALS ODEI will only receive survey results and data that are deidentified from the UW Survey Center.
- The UW Survey Center will aggregate and analyze the quantitative data with guidance from ODEI. Guidance from ODEI may include identifying groupings for reporting, interpreting “other” responses, and requesting cross-tabulations to examine possible differences between groups.
- ODEI will aggregate and analyze the qualitative data from the responses to the open-response questions. Open-ended responses will be categorized into themes, and frequency of each theme will be reported. Direct quotes, specific narratives, etc. will not be shared. If you are interested in learning more about reporting incidents, please contact the ODEI team at odei@cals.wisc.edu.
The ODEI team hopes this helps you get a better understanding of what confidentiality looks like for the 2024 CALS Climate Survey. If you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact ODEI (odei@cals.wisc.edu). They would love to hear from you and help if possible.