Preliminary Interviews & Focus Groups

Over the last several years, UMass Lowell faculty have provided feedback about specific experiences, needs, and desires to help better understand the issues. Our aim from those interviews and focus groups is to provide a summary of what we have heard and what we are working on for the future.

The main concerns that we heard fall into broad categories:

  • Feeling invisible and/or not valued
  • Daily interactions that marginalize (& reduce access to important resources)
  • Lack of clarity about expectations
  • Inequity in demands experienced by women vs. men across departments and colleges
  • Work-life balance issues

The WAVES initiative was designed to address these concerns.

Subtle Gender Bias

To adjust changes in campus climate over time, the WAVES team has utilized the Subtle Gender Bias Index (SGBI). The SGBI is designed to measure the presence and impact of microaggressions experienced by faculty at UMass Lowell, and to examine how experiences may differ by gender, race/ethnicity, rank, and discipline. The biannual survey was administered in 2015 and 2017. The survey will be administered again in 2019.

Summaries of results are shared at feedback sessions with the UMass Lowell faculty community to increase awareness of concerns and to set goals for continual improvement.


Campus Climate Reports – SGBI & Focus Groups

The results of the 2019 and 2017 Gender Bias in Academia (GBAI) climate surveys are shown below.