The Transparency Project committee held a forum Thursday to share results of a campus-wide survey that gauged faculty, staff and student opinions on the transparency of decision-making processes at NMU.

The full survey report and video of the forum are available at  https://share.nmu.edu/moodle/course/view.php?id=167 (log in and click on "news forum"). There is also a comment box for sharing ideas for resources or changes to current decision-making and communication procedures that might enhance transparency.

More than 300 employees and 675 students responded to the survey, which was distributed in November. Jessica Thompson, committee co-chair and associate professor in Communication and Performance Studies, delivered the results at the forum. She said the major themes that emerged from the analysis were: people want opportunities to be sincerely involved in issues and decisions that matter most to their work or experience on campus; they want information about decisions being made communicated in a timely manner; and they want clear and consistent rationale for executive decisions already made.

“In responding to the statement, ‘I believe there is a climate of trust on our campus,’ 83 percent of employees either disagreed or strongly disagreed,” Thompson said. “The reality is, when times are tough with a budget crisis and you layer in lack of trust on top of that, it can be painful. There’s some adversarial tension and the gap widens. But of the students who had an opinion on the topic, 48 percent agreed there’s a climate of trust on campus; 41 percent disagreed.”

A majority of employee respondents indicated they trust the decisions made by their immediate supervisors, but expressed less trust in decisions made by executive leadership.

Thompson said while both employees and students who completed the survey made it clear by a large margin that campus-wide decision-making matters to them, 66 percent of employees reported they are not satisfied to some degree with the current decision-making processes.

“Examples repeatedly cited as poor decision-making processes included the ‘fearless’ branding and marketing effort, cutting of classes and term positions, specific restructuring and relocation decisions, how the enrollment crisis is being managed and how the budget crisis is being communicated,” Thompson said. “By comparison, respondents were happy with the level of input and transparency related to hiring decisions and some mentioned President Erickson’s hiring in particular as being handled well. People also appreciate the clear rationale for the CUP process and the tenure and promotion process. And Northern does a great job of communicating inclement weather.”

Thompson said the survey presents an opportunity to build a holistic decision-making and communication system that lives beyond a single administration. The next step in the Transparency Project will be to identify specific tools, processes or strategies that might improve campus-wide decision-making and communication.

The Transparency Project committee is composed of a diverse representation of faculty, staff and students. The initiative is one of three action projects underway at NMU as part of the Academic Quality Improvement Program (AQIP) method of accreditation through the Higher Learning Commission. For more information, visit nmu.edu/aqip and view current action projects.