November 8, 2023: Calling All Faculty to Complete the NACCC

Whitman College is part of the Liberal Arts Colleges Racial Equity Leadership Alliance (LACRELA). Through LACRELA we have partnered with the USC Race and Equity Center, to administer the National Assessment of Collegiate Campus Climates (NACCC).

The NACCC is an assessment of campus racial climates, which is not to diminish other identity categories, but recognizes the complexity of identity and the unique manner in which race operates in the workplace and interacts with other identities. In 2021, Whitman administered the student version of the NACCC and last spring our staff completed a modified version of that survey. A summary of the student results is available online and a summary report of the NACCC staff results will be released to the campus later this month. 

The NACCC poses questions that allow us to focus on the racialized nature of higher education spaces and how it is experienced by staff of color. The NACCC includes measures of Workplace Mattering, Workplace Equity, Racial Learning and Literacy, Encounters with Racial Stress, Appraisals of Institutional Commitment, and Impact of External Environments. The work of education scholars such as Daniel Solarzano, Alma Flores, Bettina Love and several others point to the way that predominantly white academic institutions can enact climates that function as spaces of harm for people of color who are routinely exposed to microaggressions and various indignities that undermine their overall health. Our ability to be excellent as an institution is tied to our ability to be diverse. If our climate conditions result in the inability to recruit and retain diverse students, faculty or staff, excellence will elude us.

More than 74% of Whitman staff provided responses to the NACCC staff survey last year. We hope to see an even higher response rate among the faculty. All faculty members at Whitman College have responsibility and accountability in creating an environment where everyone feels safe, welcomed and included. The survey takes 20 minutes to complete and each faculty member should have received a unique link to access the survey. Faculty should check their inbox and possibly their spam folder for an email from helpdesk@nacccsurvey.org. Have your voice heard about the racial climate on campus. Complete the NACCC today!