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Penn State Survey Of Employees, Students Has Mixed Results

Old Main building at Penn State
WPSU

Penn State’s Values and Culture Survey was sent to all faculty, staff and students in fall 2017. It followed up on one done in 2013.

Among the findings are that more faculty, staff and grad students reported observing some type of misconduct in the past year.

This time, a third of faculty saw “abusive or intimidating behavior that creates a hostile environment,” such as bullying. That’s up from 27 percent.

Seventeen percent of grad student respondents said they saw that type of misconduct.

Among staff, 28 percent said they saw acts of bias or discrimination, up from 17 percent.

University ethics officer Tim Balliett said in a news release: “We’re hopeful that our survey results mean people are more aware and are much more willing to take action to report misconduct.”

More than half of faculty respondents think the university’s culture puts too much emphasis on athletics. But, most staff and undergrads who responded to the survey don’t.

And, 83 percent of faculty, staff and students are satisfied or very satisfied with their experiences at Penn State.

Anne Danahy has been a reporter at WPSU since fall 2017. Before crossing over to radio, she was a reporter at the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pennsylvania, and she worked in communications at Penn State. She is married with cats.