ADL, in partnership with Gratz College, has developed a short, validated campus climate survey instrument aimed at helping campus stakeholders assess the experiences of Jewish students on their college and university campus. This initiative was born out of the need for colleges and universities to utilize tried-and-tested survey questions, developed by academics, researchers and experts in antisemitism studies to accurately capture experienced antisemitism.
This survey instrument was created and endorsed by leading academics at ADL’s Center for Antisemitism Research (CAR). Widespread use of the ADL-Gratz Campus Climate Survey instrument can help college and university administrators, staff, faculty and students to standardize data collection efforts, helping scholars and practitioners to more directly compare experiences of antisemitism from campus-to-campus.
Gratz College and ADL are proud to offer the ADL-Gratz Campus Climate Survey free of charge, with no obligation to the developers. However, we strongly encourage institutional partners to maintain transparency in both data collection and with the release of survey results to ensure all campus stakeholders can benefit from understanding the state of campus antisemitism. If you are looking for support, either with distribution, analysis or personalization of the survey instrument, we kindly ask that you reach out to campus@adl.org. We will get back to you with a response within two business days.
Get the Survey
The ADL-Gratz Campus Climate Survey instrument has been pre-downloaded on Google Forms or you can use the sample instrument on the platform of your choice.
Guidance for Using the Survey
Gratz College, in partnership with ADL, has developed a model campus climate survey instrument aimed at assessing the experiences of Jewish students on college and university campuses.
College and university administrators, staff and faculty members, Jewish campus organizations and other campus stakeholders are encouraged to integrate this short model survey into their broader campus climate assessments or use it as a standalone tool for those solely interested in measuring the experiences of Jewish students.
The survey is structured to assess multiple dimensions of the experiences of Jewish students on campus, including, but not limited to:
- feelings of safety;
- perceived prevalence of anti-Jewish prejudice on campus; and
- experiences with anti-Jewish prejudice on campus.
In addition to providing more granular detail about the extent and type of antisemitic incidents students are experiencing and/or observing on campus, the survey includes questions that comprise a statistically validated measure of perceptions of a hostile environment toward Jews on campus.
The survey instrument also provides a series of relevant demographic questions to allow for improved data analysis that can result in the identification of trends and patterns among specific demographic groups.
The following are some recommendations for use of the survey instrument:
- To simplify your dissemination of the survey, the survey instrument has been pre-downloaded on Google Forms but you can use this sample on the platform of your choice. Whichever platform you select for dissemination, ensure that you are familiar with the terms of use and the confidentiality of information submitted through the platform.
- It is recommended that the survey instrument is utilized on an annual basis to monitor trends and track changes over time.
- Ensure that the survey is widely disseminated on campus, through regular communications and promotions (e.g., through printed QR codes on campus, through a mass email to students) during the fielding process.
- Transparency in communications – including indicating how the survey data will be used and what steps are being taken to ensure anonymity for respondents – can increase response rates.
- Consider the use of incentives (e.g., gift card lottery) to increase response rates.
If you’re unsure how to distribute the survey to respondents, use these guides:
- Qualtrics: Distributions Basic Overview
- Google Forms: Send Out Your Form
Analyze the data with different demographic factors in mind to ensure trends and patterns specific to certain demographic groups can be captured.
Leverage opportunities to analyze trends in campus climate over time by making efforts to field this survey on a systematic basis. To maximize this capability, survey data might be collected at the same time every year, with efforts made to re-survey previous respondents to collect longitudinal data.
If utilizing the survey instrument on an annual or more regular basis, ensure you are comparing the data sets to track trends over time. Record dates of survey distribution and data collection to ensure both methodological transparency and to facilitate deeper analysis of trends within the context of events on campus or in the community (i.e., if the survey was distributed in the week following a high-profile event about antisemitism on campus or amid widespread campus protests).
Be transparent with your campus community regarding the findings from the survey by releasing the data in anonymized, aggregated formats (i.e., x% of Jewish-identifying students indicated that they had experienced an antisemitic incident on campus in the prior year).
Use the insights from the survey to inform policy and administrative action changes.
Consider weighting your data to increase representativeness if your sample is skewed strongly toward one segment of the campus population.
This instrument is free of charge and comes with no additional obligations to the developers. However, we strongly encourage institutions to maintain transparency in both data collection and the release of survey results to ensure all campus stakeholders can benefit from understanding the state of campus climates.
In the event that this tool is used for experimental purposes, ADL encourages researchers to obtain approval from the relevant Institutional Review Board (IRB) and to ensure strict adherence to ethical standards and protection of human subjects.
Institutions who would like to partner with ADL on the customization of the survey instrument (e.g., design of additional questions) or the analysis of the data, can reach out to campus@adl.org to discuss the terms of such an agreement.