Empowering Inclusive Excellence at LAS

The campuswide climate study and the college-level climate study are both valuable tools for assessing and understanding the overall climate and culture at our institution, but they differ in their scope and focus. The campuswide climate study aims to capture a broad and comprehensive view of the institution’s climate and culture. It considers the experiences and perceptions of students, faculty, staff, and administrators across campus. It will address general and overarching topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and include a wide range of questions. The College of LAS climate study is more focused and tailored to our college's and units' specific needs and concerns. It delves deeper into issues related to specific aspects of academic units. The primary goal of the College of LAS climate study is to gain insights into the specific challenges and strengths of the academic unit being studied, which can lead to targeted strategies and improvements within the college and its units.

Based on the responses, there was insufficient data to assess the undergraduate experience comprehensively. The College of LAS plans to disseminate an undergraduate students-specific climate study after the campus climate survey. 

The frequency of the climate survey can vary, but we aim to conduct a climate study every 3-5 years.

Ensuring anonymity is crucial for the Inclusive Excellence team. The LAS climate study has Institutional Review Board approval, and everyone involved in handling the data has received the appropriate training. The LAS Office of Inclusive Excellence has also worked closely with CITL to ensure that respondent’s privacy and confidentiality are a priority. Comments provided in the survey are heavily scrutinized by members on the research team before any release to the department.

The relative harmony that exists between the Department of Communication’s faculty members may stem from a deeply rooted culture of collegiality. From the moment that candidates apply, they are introduced to the culture and the expectation for everyone (students, staff, and faculty) to contribute to an environment of respect and support.

Every research area and method of inquiry receives equal support. Colloquia topics rotate to ensure equal representation. Grants are celebrated based on their weight in the field rather than their dollar amount. Junior faculty are assigned two mentors — someone in their domain to help guide them as researchers and someone who is not to help with other aspects of life as a professor in the department.

Using both formal and informal systems, the administration regularly checks in with everyone to offer support when needed. Rather than a top-down approach, the head consults with an advisory committee, whose members meet one on one with the entire faculty to listen to concerns and convey them to the head. This ensures that everyone feels heard, especially those who aren’t as comfortable speaking up in large faculty meetings, according to Leanne Knobloch, associate head and leader of the department’s pre-tenure faculty development program.

This process relies on trust—faculty members know that their concerns or opinions have been heard and considered in decision-making, even if the outcome wasn’t what they had hoped.

“We're so lucky, I can't even tell you. It's luck— but it's also hard work,” said Knobloch.

“It takes a lot more time to consult with everybody. I think it’s a lot of time, but the payoff is incredible.”

Can you share some insight as to what programs/activities/etc. you have in place for grad students that have helped foster a positive environment in Slavic? 

David Cooper, head of the Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures:

We’re very pleased at our rating on this measure, of course, but I think the department has to share credit with the graduate students themselves for the creation of a fair and equitable department. Our Slavic Graduate Student Association is active and works hard at keeping open lines of communication in the department, among students and between students and faculty. We have a graduate student liaison to the faculty who attends our faculty meetings, so students know what courses the department is planning and how it is responding to other initiatives in the school and on campus, and we always ask the representative to report to the faculty on what is happening among the students. The association hosts a bi-weekly pub night social activity, which is attended by many students and friends from outside the department. Grad students also participate in the Russian studies circle, the kruzhok, where faculty and graduate students from multiple departments read and give feedback on articles and book/dissertation chapters in progress. This is an opportunity for engaging with faculty in a more informal setting and to see how the writing process works for faculty and other students.

Graduate student financial support is one area where there is potential for the appearance of favoritism and inequality, so we work hard to ensure that all of our grad students have at least the equivalent of a 50% appointment. We try to limit their teaching load to 33% so that they have enough time for their studies as well. Here, too, we’ve been fortunate that our students have sometimes been entrepreneurial and found support outside of the department. Funding from the federal Title VI programs through REEEC and the EU Center, and FLAS Fellowships through several area studies centers have also been an important part of that funding picture that has enabled us to maintain an equitable level of support in our grad program.

Can you share some insight on what's been working well from a graduate student's perspective, and how the association/students in the program have helped foster this positive environment in Slavic?

Shannyn Bald (president of the Slavic Graduate Student Association):

We are a very small department—in terms of grad students, there are only twelve of us (only eleven on campus). Many of us are in the same stages of our research and class requirements, so we all end up spending a lot of time together both inside the classroom and outside it. Luckily, we all get along very well, and because of this, we’ve all become very close. This year, the Slavic Graduate Student Association has hosted fortnightly pub nights, which are just casual get togethers for the sake of seeing one another more than we already do! We also began hosting monthly “writing afternoons,” which was a block of two hours in which people could drop in and do a bit of work in a quiet, relaxed environment following a “pomodoro” study technique. Within the broader department, many of us feel strongly supported both academically and personally by the professors. They have showed compassion and patience towards our struggles, and we know that they always keep our best interests in mind.

The Department of Climate, Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (CliMAS) at the University of Illinois has made notable strides in cultivating a positive and inclusive departmental culture—efforts that helped the unit score particularly high on measures of civility, collegiality, and sense of belonging in the recent campus climate survey. Faculty members initiated much of this progress in 2016 by launching a grassroots effort and distributing a recurring departmental survey to graduate students, motivated by prior survey results and a desire for a more supportive environment. That early effort laid the groundwork for the Department Affairs Committee, formally established in 2020 in response to student feedback and a broader cultural reckoning within higher education.

Initially led by Professor Nicole Riemer, the committee includes faculty and graduate student representatives, including an international student liaison, and serves as a key channel for open dialogue and shared problem-solving. Riemer describes the committee as designed “to identify issues and find solutions and help maintain the family-like atmosphere in the department.” Graduate students contributed directly by drafting a document outlining departmental concerns and priorities, which faculty took seriously. Over time, a strong feedback loop developed between students and faculty. Riemer explained, “The students get the message that if they raise issues, they’re listened to and things happen.”

Among the initiatives born out of student feedback are a peer mentoring program for first-year graduate students, integrating student input in shaping seminar speaker lineups, and creating a student ambassador program. The latter has strengthened recruitment and has had a lasting impact on new students' sense of inclusion. “The new student ambassadors always say this program convinced them to come to Illinois because they felt supported even before joining the department,” Riemer noted. These programs demonstrate how student agency and early engagement help foster a sense of investment and belonging from the outset.

What sets CliMAS apart is not just its willingness to listen, but its consistent follow-through. With regular surveys, ongoing committee work, and peer-led initiatives, the department maintains a real-time pulse on student experiences. The result is a culture grounded in collaboration, mutual respect, and trust—attributes that translate directly to the high scores seen in measures of collegiality and civility. Riemer said, “We try to take this seriously and react. These things are done in a dialogue with the students.”