Diversity initiative ongoing with community survey
Researchers involved in the Vision 2010 diversity initiative are continuing their work with a survey seeking to better understand the community’s diversity climate through interviews with 400 randomly chosen Isabella County residents.
The telephone survey, which began in March, explored people’s experiences with and attitudes about diverse people and organizations in the community and provided community members an opportunity to share their views on the topic.
“This study will help CMU better understand the way in which it communicates with the local community,” said Mary Senter, chair of CMU’s sociology, anthropology, and social work department and head of the study. “Providing this type of information to CMU will help the university enhance its role in the community and vice versa.”
This survey is part of a larger project that began in the spring of 2007 with similar surveys of CMU students and employees. CMU faculty members also are conducting focus groups and one-on-one interviews in order to explore these issues further.
The majority of the telephone surveys were to be conducted by students who are learning to do interviews and analyses as part of their degree programs. •
