In March and April, 170 randomly selected members of the Westchester Community College community participated in a survey of workplace satisfaction. Survey respondents included full-time faculty, adjunct faculty, exempt and non-exempt professional staff, and administrators. Results of The Chronicle of Higher Education’s annual “Great Colleges to Work For” national survey were published by The Chronicle on July 18, 2016: http://www.chronicle.com/interactives/greatcolleges16
A full five months later, on December 14, the WCC Administration finally released our own local summary data. The survey process and results are strikingly informative. They reveal that when WCC faculty, staff, and even mid- and lower-tier administrators are assured of confidentiality and anonymity, i.e. when they are free from the fear of retribution by top administrators, they express a remarkable degree of discontent, demoralization, and disillusionment with the current Administration.
Data compiled from survey questionnaires completed by this large and representative sample of WCC employees give low rankings in such crucial categories as:
- Communications;
- Collaboration;
- Faculty, administration, and staff relations;
- Fairness;
- Policies, resources, and efficiency;
- Respect & Appreciation;
- Senior leadership;
- Shared governance;
- Teaching environment.
Perhaps most informative about the current state of affairs is the fact that the lowest overall scores were given by respondents in these three categories:
- Senior Leadership (only 25% positive responses),
- Shared Governance (only 23% positive), and
- Faculty, administration, and staff relations (only 23% positive).
When these overall “Topline Results” are broken out by job category, an even more striking number emerges. Only 15% of the 73 responding fulltime faculty expressed confidence in “Senior Leadership” of this institution.
See the report below:
Great Colleges Topline Survey Results