On November 23, standing and associated faculty in our school received an email from the Office of Institutional Research & Analysis [surveys@exchange.upenn.edu] inviting participation in a survey of all faculty across the University.

As you may recall, faculty were asked to complete brief “COVID-Check-Ins” in Fall 2020 and Fall 2021.  Longer and more comprehensive surveys – providing a more complete picture of the workload, perceptions, experiences, and characteristics of Penn faculty – were administered in 2011-12 and 2015-16.

Results of the 2022-23 survey will provide a current understanding of the experiences of faculty members at Penn.  This information is critical to the University, as well as to our School/Department, as we all work together to advance faculty recruitment, retention, and climate.                          

The survey originates from the Association of American Universities Data Exchange, a consortium in which Penn and its peers participate.  Over the course of the three administrations, some questions have been refined, a few have been removed, and new questions have been added to address issues of current concern and interest, including topics discussed in the Faculty Senate’s yearend reports.  The administration of the survey has been carefully designed to ensure that faculty identity will never be disclosed to anyone outside the Office of Institutional Research & Analysis. Responses to the survey will be shared only in an aggregated form, and no responses will be shared if the number of respondents to a given question is fewer than five, as a small number of responses could inadvertently disclose the identities of one or more of the respondents.  

The school strongly encourages you to participate.  Each faculty member has a unique link to the survey, which you are asked not to share. These were sent 11-23 by the Office of Institutional Research & Analysis.  Completing the survey should take no more than twenty minutes.

Thank you in advance for your participation in this important initiative.