The Student Affairs Staff Experience Initiative is an initiative within the larger Division of Student Affairs Strategic Plan – specifically under our priority area of Creating a Culture of Equity and Belonging.
It is led by our Staff Experience Initiative Committee: Daisa Pimentel, Luis Rodriguez, Marvin Floyd, Tiffany Melendez, Meryl Motika, and Liz Seal.
The goal of our initiative is to improve staff satisfaction and retention throughout the Division of Student Affairs.
Student Affairs Staff Experience Survey
The Student Affairs Staff Experience Survey was the first major step of our initiative. We hope to use this survey data to gather baseline feedback about our Division’s policies, training, and staff resources. It will serve as a foundation to help us determine what improvements can be made. As Student Affairs staff your insights will be invaluable to us in our work on improving our culture of inclusion and belonging.
The survey closed October 2024.
Divisional Survey Results
We’ve completed the analysis of the divisional survey data. The results reflect a wide range of insights and experiences, and we are grateful for your honest and thoughtful input. Major highlights from our gathered data include the following:
- Love for the mission of our work and relationships with colleagues and students were the top themes that arose from our open comments section.
- There is a lot of interest, not only in professional development, but also the need for support to make time to engage in these learning opportunities.
- There is a request to continue to improve communication and build trust – specifically, transparency with decisions that affect day-to-day work.
View our presentation and our data dashboard that further summarize the division-wide results.
Special shout out to the survey team for the time and energy put into analyzing the data, including the coding of all of the responses: Daisa Pimentel, Meryl Motika, Liz Seal, Luis Rodriguez, Marvin Floyd, and Tiffany Melendez.
Next Steps
1. Meet with key stakeholders: complete!
We have wrapped up our process of meeting with key stakeholders, including Student Affairs Executive Leadership, the Student Affairs DEIBJ Advisory Board, People & Administrative Services, and Senior Council + Senior Leadership to present our divisional findings.
2. Share unit-level results with unit leaders: in progress
Our team will next share unit level results with each unit leader. These unit sessions also serve as opportunities to discuss ways unit results will be shared with you and the development of units’ short and long term action plans.
3. Develop and implement divisional action steps: upcoming
After our unit sessions are complete, we’ll begin developing and implementing targeted divisional action steps and will continue to update you on divisional progress.
We’re committed to making this a meaningful process—not just a survey, but a tool for ongoing improvement and collaboration.
Thank you for your engagement, and stay tuned for more updates.
I have questions: who do I go to?
If you have any questions about the survey or how your response was handled, please contact Meryl Motika (Divisional Assessment and Research Analyst) directly at mimotika@berkeley.edu.
Questions about action planning and implementation as a result of the survey data can be directed at Donna Vivar (Senior Advisor on Equity and Belonging) at dvivar@berkeley.edu.