YSU survey reveals workplace complaints

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State University’s full-time staff and faculty like their relationship with their supervisors and department chairs, but say senior leadership, such as the president, provost and board of trustees, do not value, respect or trust faculty, staff or students.

The opinions and feelings were revealed in a “campus climate survey” conducted last spring and discussed and explained Wednesday at a meeting of the YSU Academic Senate meeting chaired by Dr. Chester R. Cooper Jr., department of biological sciences. About 130 attended.

Data about the likes and dislikes about YSU as a place to work is contained in the Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Great Colleges to Work For” Campus Climate Survey, conducted March 16-April 15. It reflects “significant challenges to the quality of the workplace experience,” according to a presentation on the survey by Hillary Fuhrman, YSU’s director of assessment.

The results of the survey, done in preparation for a visit to YSU in 2018 by the Higher Learning Commission, which accredits degree-granting post-secondary educational institutions in the North Central region of the United States. A second campus climate study will be conducted in 2017, said Dr. Martin A. Abraham, university provost and vice president for academic affairs.

Read more reaction to the survey in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.