Last summer, Georgia State received the results of the Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey that the university initiated in collaboration with Harvard’s Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE). Since then, the university has engaged on numerous occasions with the university community to explore the results and identify the university's path forward.
In September 2020, university administration presented the preliminary results for the downtown and Perimeter campuses in a virtual university-wide meeting. In October, another session was held on the findings related to underrepresented minority faculty at Georgia State. Since then, each of the colleges has received college-level reports from COACHE. With the assistance of the Implementation Steering Committee for the Next Generation of Faculty and the participation of faculty affinity groups, the university also solicited faculty feedback in 21 small group sessions.
While the colleges are finalizing their action plans, the Office of the Provost has launched the COACHE website at https://provost.gsu.edu/coache/ and the Georgia State COACHE action plan, Building a Path Forward Together.
This plan identified five overarching areas for improvement:
- Service
- Mentoring
- Appreciation & Recognition
- Faculty Recruitment, Retention and Belongingness
- Support for Research/Creative Work
The action plan will be implemented next year as part of the three-year COACHE cycle, with a new survey administered to faculty in 2023.
— Jeremy Craig, Communications Manager for the Office of the Provost
(Note From the Editor: Staff climate surveys are conducted separately by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, and more information about them is available here. A student campus climate survey is tentatively planned for Fall 2021.)