myCSUSM
Spring 2025 Survey
The Spring 2025 Campus Climate survey is currently open to take between February 18, 2025-March 21, 2025. Students, staff, faculty, and administrators were sent an email on February 18 with a link to take the survey. Below, you will find information on survey incentives, frequently asked questions, and the Campus Climate Survey Advisory Council.
Incentives
All participants will be eligible to download an exclusive Voices of CSUSM virtual background. Participants will also be invited to enter a random drawing* to win one of the prizes listed below.
- 1-month designated parking space** at select locations on campus! (1 space awarded to students/1 to employees)
**Must have valid CSUSM parking permit to be eligible for the designated space. Location of parking space will be determined with consideration for the winner’s preferences and subject to availability.
- One of five (5) department store of food delivery gift cards (students only)
- One of five (5) CSUSM Yeti Travel tumblers (employees only)
- One of one hundred (100) exclusive Voices of CSUSM shirts (50 awarded to students/50 to employees)
Contact information will not be connected to the survey responses.
This drawing will be offered to all student, staff, faculty, and administrators who complete the CSUSM Campus Climate Survey between February 18th, 2025 to March 21st, 2025. Winners will be randomly selected on or before Monday, April 7th, and will be notified via their CSUSM email.
Questions about the opportunity drawing, survey process, or campus climate initiatives may be directed to campusclimate@csusm.edu.
FAQ
- Why is CSUSM administering a campus-wide climate assessment?Research shows that people who feel connected and supported by their campus communities have a higher likelihood of success in every area of their lives. The purpose of the survey is to gather data about Student, Faculty, Staff and Administrator/MPP experiences and perceptions of the climate for learning, living, and working at CSUSM. Data collected will be used to inform initiatives to support student and employee success at CSUSM.
- Why is CSUSM administering a campus climate survey now?
At Cal State San Marcos, we are deeply committed to fostering an environment where everyone – students, faculty and staff alike – feels valued, respected and supported. Now, more than ever, a welcoming and inclusive campus climate is essential to who we are as a university and aligns with our strategic plan goal of sustaining a culture of care grounded in mutual respect, meaningful dialogue and thoughtful interactions.
Historically CSUSM has administered student campus climate surveys every 2-4 years. Following the last survey administration in Spring 2021, survey results were shared on the campus climate website in the form of summary reports, infographics, and interactive dashboards. In Fall 2022 the Office of Inclusive Excellence in partnership with Institutional Planning and Analysis invited the campus community to participate in a Campus Climate Forum to share updates on the work conducted to that point.
In Fall 2023 a Campus Climate Actioning Workgroup was convened to action around the results collected. On September 23, 2024 a Campus Climate In Review event was offered to the campus community to learn about actions taking place directly related to the results of the last survey administration. It was announced at that event that the next survey administration would be taking place in Spring of 2025 to ensure the campus had up-to-date, relevant data to continue to inform next steps in fostering a positive and welcoming environment at CSUSM.
- How is the survey being administered?
The survey will be live February 18-March 21, 2025 and will take at least 15 minutes to complete. CSUSM is working with partners at Rankin Climate, LLC to administer the survey. An email will be sent from the Office of Inclusive Excellence inviting currently active students, staff, faculty, and administrators to take the survey.
- How will my data be used?
Your data will be used to understand our current campus climate and to create a plan to address issues that we may be facing on campus. The goal of reporting these results is to be able to create an action plan to make CSUSM a more inclusive and welcoming place.
The survey results will be submitted directly to a secure off-campus server hosted by and accessible to only Rankin Climate. Rankin Climate will perform checks to remove duplicate submissions, if applicable. Once available, aggregate results will be shared with CSUSM stakeholders and posted publicly to the campus climate website. Deidentified data will also be added to Rankin Climate’s database (which includes data from other institutions that have administered Rankin Climate surveys) and may be used in future research studies not specific to CSUSM.
Efforts will be made to include the voices of all survey respondents; however, when reporting specific numbers, results will not be reported for groups of fewer than five individuals, which may be small enough to compromise confidentiality. Instead, groups will be combined to eliminate any potentially identifiable demographic information. To give “voice” to the quantitative data, some anonymous comments may be quoted in reports related to this survey.
- How will CSUSM protect my data?
Confidentiality is vital to the success of well-being assessments, and CSUSM in partnership with Rankin Climate has taken multiple precautionary measures to protect participants' confidentiality.
- No information already protected through regulation or policy (e.g., Social Security number) is requested in the survey.
- There is one link for everyone to access the survey, so no personal identifiers are in the database of responses.
- The survey is accessed behind the CSUSM firewall, so only CSUSM faculty, staff, & students have access to the survey.
- No IP addresses (computer identifications) are collected.
- Rankin Climate will NOT report any data for groups of fewer than 5 individuals as those numbers may be small enough to compromise respondents’ confidentiality.
- Any comments submitted in response to an open-ended survey question will be separated from demographic information so they are not attributed to the respondent.
- All personally identifiable information submitted in the comments will be removed (redacted) or generalized.
- What if I experience problems accessing the survey site?
- What will happen with the results?The Presidential Administrative Team (PAT), Office of Inclusive Excellence, Institutional Planning & Analysis (IPA) and the Campus Climate Actioning Workgroup will gather feedback, identify priority areas of action, share the findings and develop an action plan.
- Why is CSUSM partnering with Rankin Climate?
CSUSM is committed to protecting the confidentiality of survey respondents. CSUSM has partnered with Rankin Climate to design a survey instrument tailored to our context, and ensure a secure and anonymous survey administration process. The survey results will be submitted directly to a secure off-campus server hosted by and accessible to only Rankin Climate. Deidentified data and reports will be shared with CSUSM stakeholders after the administration.
After the survey closes, Rankin Climate will work collaboratively with CSUSM on analysis, interpretation, and reporting of quantitative and qualitative data, and provide additional support and expertise to our campus during the actioning phase.
Please see FAQS How will my data be used? and How will CSUSM protect my data? for more information.
- Is the survey anonymous?
Your results will remain completely anonymous. Respondent confidentiality is a paramount concern to CSUSM and Rankin Climate, given the sensitive nature of the questions and responses. Single sign-on (SSO) is being utilized to ensure that only individuals in the campus community can access the survey. No personal identifiers or contact information will be connected to responses.
Please see the FAQ How will CSUSM protect my data? for more information.
- I received a reminder, but I already took the survey. Do I need to take the survey
again?
If you have already submitted the survey, please do not take the survey again. To achieve complete anonymity a generic survey URL is being used for the survey administration. This means that we do not have a way to see who has already completed the survey, which requires us to send out blanket email reminders to the campus community.
- How is the oppportunity drawing being conducted?
In appreciation for your time and the valuable information you provided, all survey participants will be given the opportunity to win prizes. After submitting the survey, respondents will be redirected to a separate Qualtrics form and asked if they would like to enter the opportunity drawing. The form will ask for contact information so what we can follow-up with the winners. Submitting your contact information for the opportunity drawing is optional. Contact information is not connected to the survey responses you previously provided. Winners will be randomly selected on or before Monday, April 7th, and will be notified via their CSUSM email. The odds of being randomly selected depend on the number of students, staff, faculty, and administrators who complete the survey.
In addition, all participants can also download an exclusive Voices of CSUSM virtual background after submitting the survey. You do not need to enter the opportunity drawing to download the backgrounds.
Questions about the incentives can be directed to survey@csusm.edu.
Campus Climate Survey Advisory Council
In Fall 2024 a Campus Climate Survey Advisory Council was formed to advise and help construct a customized survey instrument for our next campus climate survey administration in Spring 2025. Led by Institutional Planning & Analysis alongside the Office of Inclusive Excellence, the Advisory Council is working with partners at Rankin Climate to develop a tool that will help to meaningfully drive action to improve campus climate at CSUSM.