Faculty Survey on Leadership
April 26, 2021 Update
We are writing to inform you that the Faculty Senate Executive Committee has prepared a response to the faculty survey results. This will be presented as Resolution 21/17 in a Faculty Senate Special Meeting on April 30, 2021, at 2pm. The resolution and the agenda for the meeting are available online.
If you have any questions, please let your Senators know.
With warm wishes,
The Faculty Survey Team
April 8, 2021 Update
Thank you for your support of the Faculty Survey. We have now released quantitative results (Feb 22, 2021) and a report summarizing the qualitative data results (April 4, 2021). If you have not yet checked out these results, please click on the link below:
https://gwu.box.com/v/FacultySurvey
Please note that this link works only for full-time faculty, leadership, and trustees authorized to view the materials. You are asked kindly not to share the contents of these files.
As per the Faculty Assembly resolution, the Senate has appointed a Recommendation Committee. It is charged with reviewing the quantitative and qualitative results to draft a resolution to the Senate Executive Committee (based on the data from the survey). The Senate plans to vote on this resolution in a Special Session by the end of April 2021. Please check the status of this resolution by contacting Senators in your respective schools.
We would like to thank many people for their valuable contributions to the survey, including Joel Kuipers (CCAS), who led the qualitative analysis of the faculty comments, Sylvia Marotta-Walters, (GSEHD), Melissa Perry (GWSPH), and Sarah Wagner (CCAS), who assisted with the coding, and several others who contributed to (for example) the survey design and Qualtrics set-up. We couldn’t have completed the process of data collection and analysis without their support.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Arthur Wilson
Shaista E. Khilji
Jamie Cohen-Cole
Susan Kulp
March 31, 2021 Update
Dear Faculty Colleagues,
In our last update, we estimated that we would be releasing the summary of qualitative comments by the end of March. We are almost done. We have a complete draft version of the summary report. We expect to release the final version in the next few days. We thank you for your patience.
March 1, 2021 Update
Dear Faculty Members,
We hope that you have reviewed and received the faculty survey results. We have now started analyzing the qualitative data, which cover more than 120 pages of comments. We hope to release a report of the qualitative components of the data within the next 3-4 weeks. We will keep you all posted if there is any change in the timeline.
Please email us if you have any questions.
The Faculty Survey Team
Arthur Wilson
Shaista E. Khilji
Jamie Cohen-Cole
Susan Kulp
February 19, 2021 Update
Dear Faculty Colleagues,
We write today to provide you with an update on the faculty survey. Since the survey closed on January 31, 2021, we have been working on analyzing the data. We want to thank you all for your active participation and for the robust response rate.
We are planning to share the survey results with full-time GW faculty via an email sent to their GW email account on February 22, 2021. This email will contain a link to the GWU Google folder (entitled Faculty Survey 2020). Please click on the link to get access to the survey results. For security reasons, you are only able to view documents in this folder. You can neither download nor print the results, nor are you permitted to share the link with others.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at [email protected].
Arthur Wilson
Shaista E. Khilji
Jamie Cohen-Cole
Susan Kulp
January 25, 2021 Update
Dear Faculty Colleagues,
We hope that your semester is off to a great start. We are writing with an update on the faculty survey. As of today, we have already received a large response from the faculty. As announced at the January Faculty Senate meeting, we will be closing the survey on January 31, 2021, to ensure that every faculty member is given ample time to respond. If you have not yet filled out the survey, please make sure to do so before January 31, 2021.
Those who have not yet completed the survey will receive two final reminders this week.
If you have not received a survey link, please:
- Check your mail folders. Several faculty have discovered that the survey message had been received but ended up in a “junk,” “bulk,” “mass mail,” “archive,” or “spam” folder. Please search across your folders for mail with subject “faculty survey” and/or from [email protected].
- Add "[email protected]" to your account’s address book.
- Contact us to see if we have your email address already. If so, you can expect to receive another email shortly as a part of the reminder process. Reminders are currently set to go out twice this final week.
We will be analyzing the quantitative and qualitative responses in early February and plan to make results available via the Faculty Senate website by February 22, 2021. Please note that we have been posting all faculty survey updates on this website.
Please let us know if you have any questions. You can reach us at [email protected]. Thank you for your participation in the survey.
Arthur Wilson
Shaista E. Khilji
Jamie Cohen-Cole
Susan Kulp
January 7, 2021 Update
Dear Faculty Colleagues,
A very happy new year to you all. We hope that you had restful holidays with your families and loved ones.
Thank you to everyone who has completed the survey thus far. The response rate has continued to stay healthy. So far, we have received 802 completed responses.
We plan to keep the survey open until (at least) January 15, 2021. We will evaluate the response rate on January 15th, and, if needed, we will keep it open for another week. If you have not filled out the survey, please make sure to do so as soon as you can.
We have continued to send reminders every Monday and we will distribute additional reminders starting today. Once you complete the survey, you will not receive any reminders.
Please note that each faculty member has received an anonymized individual survey link. Hence, do NOT share your survey link with anyone.
If you have not received a survey link, please:
- Check your mail folders. Several faculty have discovered that the survey message had been received but ended up in a “mass mail” folder or “spam.”
- Add "[email protected]" to your account’s address book.
- Contact us to see if we have your email address already. If so, you can expect to receive another email shortly as a part of the reminder process. Reminders are currently set to go out on Mondays.
While you can revisit the survey in more than one sitting, please do not select "submit" until you are completely done. That will end your access to the survey. In that case, we will not be able to regenerate a new link because each faculty member has been assigned an anonymized individualized link.
If you misplace or lose the survey link, wait for the reminder email. All respondents who have not submitted their responses will receive reminders.
Finally, please note that open-ended text boxes are restricted to a 500-character limit. If you would like to submit more extended responses (as a few faculty members have indicated to us), please let us know.
Please note that we will post all updates related to the survey to this site, including reports and the status of the survey.
Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. We wish you a great start to the semester.
Arthur Wilson
Shaista Khilji
Jamie Cohen-Cole
Susan Kulp
December 21, 2020 Update
Dear Faculty Colleagues,
Thank you for your patience with us as we programmed and distributed the Faculty Survey. Thus far, the response rate has been strong (see below).
In the interest of full transparency, this update describes the method used to design and distribute the survey. We have already shared some of this information in our prior communication with you.
Methods Explanation
We started working on this survey in late summer, using faculty (including our peers and other faculty senators) input and feedback. Hence, it has gone through several iterations. The Faculty Senate Executive Committee was also kept abreast and reviewed the survey a few times before it was distributed.
To develop the survey, we have used a combination of standard measures: leadership surveys, Association of Governing Boards guidelines, and President LeBlanc’s position announcement.
In October, we shared the survey with the Board of Trustees. While we have not received their support in conducting this survey, we have included some of the questions they proposed. Before distributing the survey, we also shared the survey instrument with President LeBlanc.
On November 18, 2020, the Faculty Assembly passed a resolution asking the Faculty Senate to conduct a survey of the faculty, with both quantitative and qualitative responses possible, regarding its views of the leadership and communication abilities of the President.
We have used Banner to gather the distribution list of faculty. By using this list, Qualtrics, our survey platform, is preventing the possibility of ballot-box stuffing. Qualtrics is distributing a unique and anonymous ballot to faculty members that the GW administration has identified in Banner as having faculty status.
We plan to keep the survey open for 4-5 weeks and send reminders every Monday until January 11, 2021. We will evaluate the response rate the week of January 11th, and if needed, we will keep it open for another week.
If you have filled out the survey, you will not receive the reminder.
Challenges Experienced
- The link has expired before the survey is submitted:
- Please check your browser and make sure you are using Chrome. Sometimes Safari doesn't work well with Qualtrics surveys. If you still experience difficulties, check your browser settings. If nothing works, please let us know.
- I am a full-time faculty member, and I have not received the survey:
- Check your mail folders. Several faculty have discovered that the survey message had been received but ended up in a “mass mail” folder or “spam.”
- Add [email protected] to your account’s address book.
- Contact us to see if we have your email address already. If so, you can expect to receive another email shortly as a part of the reminder process. Reminders are currently set to go out on Mondays.
Please do NOT click “submit” before you want to submit the survey; else, the system will automatically assume you have completed the survey. In that case, we will not be able to regenerate a new link because each faculty member has been assigned an anonymized individualized link.
If you misplace or lose the survey link, wait for the reminder email. All respondents who have not submitted their responses will receive reminders.
Call for Volunteers
We are expecting a solid response rate. With both quantitative and qualitative comments, we are calling for volunteers with the following expertise:
- Strong Qualtrics expertise, with an ability to troubleshoot as well as run quantitative analyses
- Strong content/textual analysis to assist with the analysis of qualitative comments.
If you are able and willing to help us, please email us (refer to our personal emails linked below).
Response Rate
Mass Distribution: Dec 17, 2020
Distribution List: 1690 faculty members
Response rate as of December 21, 2020 (8:51AM): 365 (at 76% completion rate)
Please note that we will post all updates related to the survey on the Faculty Senate webpage, including reports and the status of the survey. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. We can be reached at [email protected]
We wish you and your families happy holidays.
On November 18, 2020, the Faculty Assembly accepted a petition asking the Faculty Senate to "conduct a survey of the faculty, with both quantitative and qualitative responses possible, regarding its views of the leadership and communication abilities of the President."
Charged with this task, the Faculty Survey Team has designed a survey for all full-time faculty members to fill out.
This survey comprises questions about the current campus climate and President LeBlanc’s leadership. The results of this survey will be communicated with the Board, President LeBlanc, and the GW faculty and staff members.
The survey consists of two sections. The first section is focused on the campus climate. Respondents are asked to respond to questions about their experiences with various policies and culture at GW. When a question refers to “University leadership” in this section, respondents are asked to consider the central administration, outside their respective schools, departments, and programs. The second section consists of questions that directly refer to President LeBlanc as a leader, his leadership approach, and performance. The questions posed in this section focus on the President’s ability to develop diverse teams and relationships, engage in effective decision-making and transparent communications with stakeholders, and demonstrate an inclusive and collaborative leadership style that inspires and earns the confidence of GW faculty and staff. This survey is based on a combination of standard measures: leadership surveys, Association of Governing Boards guidelines, and the position announcement used to hire President LeBlanc.
Faculty participation in the survey is important but voluntary. Respondents may decline to answer any question and also have the right to withdraw from participation at any time. The Faculty Survey Team has taken all reasonable measures to protect respondents’ identity and responses. This survey is anonymous, and the questions in this survey do not ask respondents to reveal any personally-identifying information. Additionally, findings will be reported at the aggregate level, with no identifiers.
This survey allows faculty members the opportunity to provide quantitative as well as qualitative comments.
A link to the survey will be shared with faculty members across the different schools at GW by December 15, 2020. The survey will be open for a period of 4-5 weeks.
Please feel free to contact members of the Faculty Survey Team with any questions.
The Faculty Survey Team