17 Percent of Students Have Experienced Hostility at NYU, Being@NYU Survey Reveals
April 24, 2018
President Andy Hamilton delivered a remark before the Being@NYU results presentation on April 24 in Kimmel Rosenthal.
Senior Vice President for Global Inclusion, Diversity, and Strategic Innovation and Chief Diversity Officer Lisa Coleman also delivered remarks before the presentation.
Executive Associate Genevieve Weber unveiled the Being@NYU climate survey results
Results for the Being@NYU campus climate survey conducted this past November and December in partnership with Rankin & Associates Consulting were released Tuesday, April 24 at an event in the Rosenthal Pavilion of the Kimmel Center for University Life. The results were presented by Rankin Executive Associate Genevieve Weber, who worked closely with NYU throughout the climate survey.
Across NYU’s global sites, 21,699 students, staff and faculty responded to the survey, constituting approximately 31 percent of the NYU community. The minimum community participation percentage set by Rankin was 30 percent.
Thirty percent of faculty, 55 percent of staff and administrators, 33 percent of undergraduate students and 24 percent of graduate students responded.
The survey aimed to assess opinions, attitudes and behaviors of students and staff at NYU.
Seventeen percent of respondents said they had personally experienced exclusionary, intimidating, offensive or hostile conduct at NYU within the last year. Thirty percent of all respondents have seriously considered leaving NYU. Eighty-one percent said they were comfortable with NYU’s climate. Twenty-one percent of students said they felt they had to hide their identity or background to succeed at NYU.
“Racism, sexism, they’re happening here,” Weber said.
Thirty-seven percent of gender non-binary students experienced exclusionary conduct. Fifty-five percent of those said it was due to their gender identity. Twenty-four percent of black students experienced exclusionary conduct in the past year. Sixty percent of those students said that conduct was because of their race.
A full report that is over 600 pages will be released in May.
President Andrew Hamilton and Senior Vice President for Global Inclusion, Diversity and Strategic Innovation and Chief Diversity Officer Lisa Coleman were among the dozens of students, administrators and faculty in attendance. They delivered remarks before the presentation.
“These data will help us to engage in the work that has already been ongoing,” Coleman said.
The Being@NYU survey is borne out of the 2015 listening session held in the now-closed Coles Sports Center where high level university officials listened to historically marginalized students. The survey is the most expansive equity, inclusion and diversity project conducted by NYU since Coleman arrival in the fall of 2017.
“I can assure you, we will not be forgetting the 17 percent,” Hamilton said, referring to the 17 percent of respondents who said they experienced hostile conduct within the last year. “That may have been a smaller number than other institutions, but 17 percent is still far too high for a university like NYU that prides itself on openness and diversity and inclusion.”
Email Sayer Devlin at [email protected].
James Spencer • Apr 25, 2018 at 1:51 am
Curious, did the 17% transgender population encounter hostility by other students or faculty? Did the gender bias population who said their gender was a factor in exclusionary behaviors also suffer hostile conduct? In reality do not make gender and female gender also experience exclusionary behavior by their own gender as well as the newly identified gender identification population. In reality have we all not experienced some for of exclusion? Is it not ones own right to decide who they want to include or exclude in their circle of friends? While hostile conduct towards another for any reason is uncalled for, no amount or “programming” or new policies will change the human nature of exclusion.