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The survey will provide Queen’s University with information about students’ perceptions and experiences of diversity and inclusion.

The survey includes questions on the following themes: 

• General campus climate, including feelings of safety and belonging
• Experiences with diversity and inclusion including community actions and attitudes, perceptions of connectedness and inclusivity, experiences with discrimination and harassment, and experiences with food and housing insecurity

We recognize that there are many demands on your time and we appreciate the time and attention you give this survey. The time of year was selected to not interfere with common school breaks or final exam schedules and other all student surveys being conducted across campus.

The Queen’s Shift Survey is a valuable tool for gathering information from Queen’s students about overall campus culture and climate, including experiences, perceptions, and behaviours with respect to diversity, and inclusion at the university. This information is critical to creating an inclusive campus environment, tailoring policies, and programming, and improving services and the campus response to discrimination and harassment. A survey of student experiences and perceptions of sexual violence will follow in 2024.

Information from this survey will be critical to creating an inclusive campus environment, tailoring policies, and programming, and improving services and the campus response to discrimination and harassment.  The data collected will be used to inform a publicly available report that will reflect students’ views, feelings, and experiences. This report will be available Fall 2023.

The Queen’s Shift Survey draws from the EAB Campus Climate Survey, an anonymous online instrument that assesses students’ perceptions of and experiences with diversity and inclusion. Through the survey data, institutions can better understand students’ perceptions and experiences, identify strengths and areas for improvement, and measure year-over-year progress on key initiatives. 
 
Since EAB launched the survey in 2015, the EAB Campus Climate Survey Instrument has been used by more than 80 unique institutions who have used the results to improve the campus experience and outcomes for students.  
 
The survey was developed using best practice recommendations from leading subject matter experts in diversity and inclusion, survey design, and available policy recommendations. Questions are time-bound and ask respondents to reflect on what has occurred within a specific period.

Yes. Student representatives including the Rector and an Undergraduate Student Senator were consulted on the survey content.

Yes. All student voices are important in this survey. It is important that all students share their views for us to better understand prevailing campus cultures and support safer campuses. We appreciate participation from everyone.

Queen’s plans to survey the student population on overall experiences of campus climate every 2 years. 

All active Queen’s students (undergraduate and graduate) may participate in this survey. 

Participation is voluntary and you are free to withdraw at any time. In cases of withdrawal, no new data will be collected or linked to other data from that point on. If you do not want to answer some of the questions you do not have to, but you can still be in the study. Your decision whether to be part of the study will not affect your academic standing or your access to university support services.

If, during the course of completing the survey, you wish to no longer complete the survey, you can simply close your web browser or select the ‘End Survey’ button located on the survey screen. However, if you wish for your data to also be removed from the study, you must contact the Office of Institutional Research and Planning at irpsurv@queensu.ca and request that your data be removed from the study. You will be asked to supply your student ID number for identification.
If you have completed the survey and wish to have your data removed, you can do so by also contacting irpsurv@queensu.ca . You will be asked to supply your student ID number for identification.  You must request to have your data removed no later than (February 20th). Note - it is impossible to have data removed following publication of the results. 

Your participation in this study is strictly confidential. The investigators will take all reasonable measures to protect the confidentiality of your records. Please be assured that your survey answers and linked data are strictly confidential. While we may include quotations from open-ended questions in reports, we will never include any personally identifying information with quotations.

Survey data will be collected through Qualtrics, which is the university’s supported secure data collection platform. The study data will be stored in three secure locations: (1) on an encrypted hard drive on a Queen’s University server; (2) on Qualtrics Enterprise Software System, which is the same software you used to complete the survey; and (3) the secure Qualtrics data centre in Toronto, Canada. Back-up data from Qualtrics is stored in the Amazon Web Service, which is stored in Montreal Canada. The data will only be accessible by the research team, including staff members from the office of Institutional Research and Planning (IRP), Queen’s University, through a password protected login. All data downloaded from the system will be stored in an encrypted, password protected drive for subsequent analysis. Data will remain on the drive for the designated period before being removed or archived according to protocols.

Yes.

A pre-populated sample file will be used to create your unique link to access the survey. This sample file will include your email for contacting purposes, and your student ID. The purpose of using this confidential data is to connect other data sources (year of study, faculty etc.) to your responses. You will be given a unique identifier code that will only be connected to your identifying information in a secure, password protected file that only the Office of Institutional Research and Planning can access. At no point will your identifying information be directly linked to your survey responses. Individual identifying information will never be used in the reporting of results. 

Further as acknowledgement for participation in this study, students will be offered an opportunity to submit their contact information, which the Shift Survey team will use to distribute a token of appreciation. At the end of the survey, participants will be asked if they would like to receive an acknowledgement reward. If the participant selects ‘yes’, they will automatically be redirected to a separate survey where they will be invited to enter their contact information. This collected contact information will be saved in a separate file from the survey responses and at no point will the two files be combined.

In broad terms, diversity is any dimension that can be used to differentiate groups and people from one another.  It refers to differences in ethnicity, gender, age, national origin, ability, sexual orientation, faith, socio-economic status and class. But it also includes differences in life experiences, learning and working styles and personality types that can be engaged to achieve excellence. 

Inclusion is the active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with diversity, where each person is valued and provided with the opportunity to participate fully in creating a successful and thriving community. It means recognizing the value that comes from the distinctive skills, experiences, and perspectives of all members of our community. Definitions for this and other important terms are also available within the survey.

The survey will be administered between January 23, 2023, and February 13, 2023.

When the survey opens, you will be sent an email inviting you to participate in the survey. The invitation will include a unique link to access the survey directly. 

Yes. The online survey may be completed on a mobile device, such as a smartphone, using an internet browser.

The online survey is set up to be consistent with web accessibility guidelines and is compatible with computer-assisted reading support systems such as read&write, Zoomtext, Kurzweil, JAWS, NVDA, and Orca. If you require another format beyond this, please contact Queen’s Accessibility Hub.

Yes. Participation in this survey is completely voluntary. Students are not required or obligated to participate.

For questions on the survey, you may be given a set of responses from which to choose. Sometimes you will be asked to select one response and at other times you will be asked to select all responses that apply. Sometimes, you will be asked to enter your response.

The survey is estimated to take an average of 20 minutes to complete, depending on your experiences.

No. You can choose which questions you want to answer and are not required to complete the survey once you start it. You do need to answer 65% of the questions you are asked to receive a token of appreciation/acknowledgement.

If at any time during the survey you feel upset or experience anxiety, the following options will be available to you through the online survey:

• Quick exit button: This will take you out of the survey. You can choose to re-enter the survey later. If you do not go on to complete the survey by pressing the ‘submit’ button at the end of the survey, your responses will automatically be saved.

• Support / Resources button: This will provide you with information about the support services available to Queen’s students.

If you do not go on complete the survey by pressing the ‘submit’ button at the end of the survey, your responses will automatically be saved and recorded one week later.

You can leave your survey and then using the same computer / device, re-enter where you left off when you click on the survey link again. This functionality uses cookies to save your progress, so it will only work if you return to the survey on the same internet browser on the same computer / device to finish the survey, and you haven’t deleted cookies. 

Yes. If you need technical support while completing the survey, email irpsurv@queensu.ca.

Yes.

To acknowledge your participation in the survey, you may be offered a token of appreciation when you complete the survey. This is an important survey, and we ask that you complete all the questions that you can. Although you can skip any individual question, you must answer at least 65% of the questions to receive this token of appreciation.

After the survey is submitted, you will be forwarded to a separate form where you can select your token of appreciation.

To acknowledge your contribution, all survey respondents will be able to enter a draw to receive one of ten, $100 gift certificates to Skip the Dishes.

If you are one of the first 2000 respondents, we would like to offer you the choice of the following tokens of appreciation:

You may choose to ask Queen’s to donate $5 to the campus food bank

OR 

You may choose to receive a $5 FLEX (dining) credit to be used any time in the future at a Queen’s Hospitality Services retail location on campus.

Queen’s University will protect the privacy of students and is committed to ensure that your responses to this survey are confidential. To ensure this, the information and process for managing tokens of appreciation / acknowledgement will be kept separate from the survey responses. Your email address and the record of whether you have received a token of appreciation / acknowledgement will be saved in a separate file from your survey responses.