Climate survey results 2023
The 2023 Geoscience Community Climate Survey took place in January and February 2024 to gather information regarding our community climate for calendar year 2023. The survey was composed of multiple choice questions and free-response comments. Themes across free-response comments are summarized below in an effort to ensure anonymity. We also report tabulated results for multiple choice questions.
Free-response common themes
- While there are still requests for increased community building across our Geoscience Community, there is broad awareness of efforts put forth thus far.
- Community members feel there is a lack of recognition in regards to leadership and involvement in community-building efforts.
- Community members feel that there is an uneven distribution of the workload for community-building efforts, with too few people actively doing this work.
- Some individuals reported a lack of motivation to report concerns due to a perception or fear that reports would not be acted on or properly addressed.
Tabulated responses of individual questions
Below are tabulated results from individual questions from our community climate survey. We are presenting all data in both graphical and text format to increase accessibility. In the tabulated text data, all numbers refer to the number of individuals (not percentages). Note that when sorting responses by affiliation, we only included affiliations with ten or more respondents in order to ensure anonymity.
Faculty: 10
Graduate students: 15
Undergraduates: 3
Community members: 1
Staff: 1
Alumni: 0
Other: 1
Prefer not to answer: 3
Total respondents: 34
For reference, we have ~30 graduate faculty members combined in the Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering (DGSE), the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology (NBMG), the Nevada Seismological Lab (NSL), and the Desert Research Institute (DRI). We have ~45 graduate students and ~75 undergraduate students. NBMG and NSL also employ several non-academic staff.
No: 17
Yes: 11
Prefer not to answer: 6
Responses to Question 1 sorted by affiliation
No: 8 faculty, 6 graduate students
Yes: 2 faculty, 8 graduate students
Responses to Question 1 sorted by identification as a first-generation student
No: 6 first-generation, 11 non-first generation students
Yes: 5 first-generation, 6 non-first generation students
Responses to Question 1 sorted by sense of being valued within our community
No: 1 ‘I don’t know’, 0 ‘not at all or not so much’, 16 ‘somewhat or very much’
Yes: 0 ‘I don’t know’, 3 ‘not at all or not so much’, 8 ‘somewhat or very much’
Responses to Question 1 sorted by how important is it to you to have a strong sense of community and community cohesion
No: 0 ‘not important’, 1 ‘neither important nor not important’, 16 ‘important’
Yes: 1 ‘not important’, 1 ‘neither important nor not important’, 9 ‘important’
Responses to Question 1 sorted by over the past calendar year, have you felt that the sense of community and cohesion is
No: 1 ‘poor’, 3 ‘acceptable’, 9 ‘moderately positive’, 4 ‘strong and positive’
Yes: 2 ‘poor’, 2 ‘acceptable’, 5 ‘moderately positive’, 2 ‘strong and positive’
Responses to Question 1 sorted by presence/absence of a negative experience related to our community climate
No: 0 with a negative experience, 16 without a negative experience, 1 not sure
Yes: 2 with a negative experience, 8 without a negative experience, 1 not sure
Responses to Question 1 sorted by awareness of efforts to improve our community climate
No: 1 unaware of efforts, 15 aware of efforts
Yes: 3 unaware of efforts, 8 aware of efforts
No: 21
Yes: 12
Prefer not to answer: 1
Responses to Question 2 sorted by affiliation
No: 6 faculty, 9 graduate students
Yes: 4 faculty, 6 graduate students
Responses to Question 2 sorted by sense of being valued within our community
No: 0 ‘I don’t know’, 3 ‘not at all or not so much’, 18 ‘somewhat or very much’
Yes: 1 ‘I don’t know’, 4 ‘not at all or not so much’, 7 ‘somewhat or very much’
Responses to Question 2 sorted by how important is it to you to have a strong sense of community and community cohesion
No: 4 ‘not important’, 0 ‘neither important nor not important’, 17 ‘important’
Yes: 0 ‘not important’, 2 ‘neither important nor not important’, 10 ‘important’
Responses to Question 2 sorted by over the past calendar year, have you felt that the sense of community and cohesion is
No: 1 ‘poor’, 2 ‘acceptable’, 11 ‘moderately positive’, 4 ‘strong and positive,’ 3 'I'm not sure'
Yes: 2 ‘poor’, 4 ‘acceptable’, 3 ‘moderately positive’, 3 ‘strong and positive’
Responses to Question 2 sorted by presence/absence of a negative experience related to our community climate
No: 3 with a negative experience, 17 without a negative experience
Yes: 3 with a negative experience, 9 without a negative experience
Responses to Question 2 sorted by awareness of efforts to improve our community climate
No: 3 unaware of efforts, 18 aware of efforts
Yes: 3 unaware of efforts, 8 aware of efforts, 1 prefer not to answer
I don't know: 1
No, not at all: 4
No, not so much: 3
Yes, somewhat: 8
Yes, very much: 17
Prefer not to answer: 1
Responses to Question 3 sorted by affiliation
I don’t know: 0 faculty, 1 graduate student
No, not at all / not so much: 1 faculty, 1 graduate student
Yes, somewhat / very much: 9 faculty, 13 graduate students
Responses to Question 3 sorted by how important is it to you to have a strong sense of community and community cohesion
I don't know: 0 ‘not important’, 0 ‘neither important nor not important’, 1 ‘important’
No, not at all / not so much: 3 ‘not important’, 1 ‘neither important nor not important’, 3 ‘important’
Yes, somewhat / very much: 1 ‘not important’, 1 ‘neither important nor not important’, 23 ‘important’
Responses to Question 3 sorted by over the past calendar year, have you felt that the sense of community and cohesion is
I don't know: 0 ‘poor’, 1 ‘acceptable’, 0 ‘moderately positive’, 0 ‘strong and positive,’ 0 'I'm not sure'
No, not at all / not so much: 2 ‘poor’, 1 ‘acceptable’, 0 ‘moderately positive’, 1 ‘strong and positive,’ 3 'I'm not sure'
Yes, somewhat / very much: 1 ‘poor’, 4 ‘acceptable’, 14 ‘moderately positive’, 6 ‘strong and positive,’ 0 'I'm not sure'
Responses to Question 3 sorted by presence/absence of a negative experience related to our community climate
I don’t know: 0 with a negative experience, 1 without a negative experience
No, not at all and No, not so much: 6 with a negative experience, 1 without a negative experience
Yes, somewhat and Yes, very much: 0 with a negative experience, 23 without a negative experience, 2 not sure
Responses to Question 3 sorted by awareness of efforts to improve our community climate
I don’t know: 0 unaware of efforts, 1 aware of efforts
No, not at all and No, not so much: 1 unaware of efforts, 6 aware of efforts
Yes, somewhat and Yes, very much: 5 unaware of efforts, 19 aware of efforts, 1 prefer not to answer
Not important: 4
Neither important nor not important: 2
Important: 28
Responses to Question 4 sorted by affiliation
Not important: 0 faculty, 1 graduate student
Neither important nor not important: 0 faculty, 1 graduate student
Important: 10 faculty, 13 graduate students, 2 undergraduate students
Responses to Question 4 sorted by presence/absence of a negative experience related to our community climate
Not important: 3 with a negative experience, 1 without a negative experience
Neither important nor not important: 0 with a negative experience, 2 without a negative experience
Important: 3 with a negative experience, 23 without a negative experience, 2 not sure
Responses to Question 4 sorted by awareness of efforts to improve our community climate
Not important: 1 unaware of efforts, 3 aware of efforts
Neither important nor not important: 1 unaware of efforts, 1 aware of efforts
Important: 4 unaware of efforts, 20 aware of efforts, 1 prefer not to answer
Poor: 3
Acceptable: 6
Moderately positive: 14
Strong and positive: 8
I'm not sure: 3
Responses to Question 5 sorted by affiliation
Poor: 1 faculty, 2 graduate student, 0 undergraduate students,
Acceptable: 1 faculty, 4 graduate students
Moderately positive: 7 faculty, 6 graduate students
Strong and positive: 1 faculty, 3 graduate students
Responses to Question 5 sorted by awareness of efforts to improve our community climate
Have had a negative experience: 1 unaware of efforts, 6 aware of efforts
Have not had a negative experience: 7 unaware of efforts, 38 aware of efforts
No: 26
Yes: 6
I'm not sure: 2
Responses to Question 6 sorted by awareness of efforts to improve our community climate
Have had a negative experience: 0 unaware of efforts, 6 aware of efforts
Have not had a negative experience: 6 unaware of efforts, 19 aware of efforts, 1 prefer not to answer
*Sub question: If you have had a negative experience, and you feel comfortable, please share with us if your negative experience(s) was(were) related to any of the below options:
Gender / gender identity: 2
Age: 1
Disability status: 1
Race / Ethnicity: 1
Other: 6
No: 6
Yes: 27
Prefer not to answer: 1