Dear Observer Editors,
We are writing today to encourage all students to take a moment and share their thoughts and perceptions in the HEDS Climate Survey.   This survey provides valuable insight into your perceptions about our campus climate on unwanted sexual contact and sexual assault as well as your perceptions on how the college addresses and responds to sexual assault.
It’s an important topic and providing your insight will inform the college’s leadership on needed changes and focused improvement.  Whether or not you’ve experienced unwanted sexual conduct or sexual assault, your experiences, perceptions and thoughts are valued.
This survey is administered by the HEDS consortium and can only be accessed by an email you received with a link to the survey.  A search of your email inbox with the word HEDS will take you to the original message or a reminder you may have received.  Your response will not be associated with your name and will not be used to investigate specific individuals or incidents.  Is should take about 15 minutes to complete.  At present, HEDS reports a 12% response rate from Augustana students, while many of our peer schools have a 25-35% response rate.  We are hoping to have a response rate of 40% or higher.
Results from this national survey will be provided to the college this summer and we plan to share the executive summary of the survey results in the fall.  PLEASE take a moment to search for this email and complete the anonymous survey.  Your feedback is essential as we continue to improve our campus culture and climate.
If you have questions about this survey, you may contact Tšooane Molapo, Institutional Research Analyst, at tsooanemolapo@augustana or (309) 794-7148, or Lisa Kidd, Research Analyst and Data Manager at the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium, at [email protected].  All members of the Augustana Title IX team and Title IX Student Advisory Group are available to answer questions as well.
 
Augustana Title IX Team
Laura Ford, Laura Schnack, Jessica Schultz, Chris Beyer
Co-Chairs of the Augustana Title IX Student Advisory Committee
Kaitlyn Watkins, Krishna Marme,
Cat Priebe, +Impact