In March, 2000, the D.R. Dept sent a survey to approximately 6385 plus UNM employees (regular, probationary and temporary).  Entitled "The University of New Mexico Dispute Resolution Department (D.R. Dept.) Effectiveness Survey," the questionnaire included 31 items and many sub-items.  One thousand fifty-six (1056) surveys were returned, a return rate of 16.5% , a higher than usual response on  survey instruments.  This may indicate that there is a greater interest in the D.R. Department than there often is in the topic of survey instruments.

The survey items fit into the following categories: accessibility of D.R., perceptions of D.R., reasons employees might have contact with the D.R. Department, reasons employees have had contact with the D.R. Department, evaluation of D.R. services when contacting the department, and chances of referring others to the department.  In addition, several demographic items were included.

Respondents to the survey include just over 75%  females and just under 25% males; and 39% are managers.  Since about 61% of the staff are female, this over-represents women by about 14 per cent. White (Non-Hispanic) employees are also somewhat over-represented in the respondents.  The UNM staff is approximately 55% White (Non-Hispanic), while the just over 66% of the survey respondents said they are White (Non-Hispanic).  Hispanic staff members number about 33% on the campus; they represent just over 27% of the survey respondents.  Native American and Alaska Native staff total about 5% of the UNM staff and just under 3% are represented in the survey.  Similarly, African Americans (Non-Hispanic) make up about 3% of UNM's staff population, while they number 1.5% in the survey respondents.

Some of the findings are summarized below.

1.  Many employees answered "don't know" to several items. Eleven items and sub-items (covering accessibility and perceptions of the department) offered "don't know," "strongly agree," "agree," "disagree" and "strongly disagree" as answer options.  For this summary of the results, "strongly disagree" and "disagree" are combined as "disagree," while "agree" and "strongly agree" are combined as "agree."    For these eleven items, "don't know" was selected in a range of 47-82% of the time, with the average "don't know" response  being 70%.  This high percentage of "don't know" responses suggests that many, if not most, employees (who are staff) lack information about the D.R.Department and its services.  (See Table 1 and Table 2)

2.  Employees who had knowledge of the D.R. Department generally answered positively about accessibility.  The accessibility items included location on campus, physical layout of building, hours of service, parking and making special accommodations.   More respondents agreed than disagreed that the department is accessible in all the above categories except one.  In the parking item, 22% disagreed with the statement "The D.R. Department is accessible in availability of parking," while 11% agreed with this statement. This may simply reflect the general campus frustration with the parking situation.  (See Table 1)

3.  Employees who had knowledge of the D.R. Department generally had a positive perception of  the  D.R. Department.  The perception items included statements that said "The D.R. Dept.has a positive image on campus; the D.R. Dept. staff are sensitive to cultural diversity, practice strict confidentiality, are neutral, are non-judgmental, and make appropriate referrals to other campus offices.  Responses to all but one perception item resulted in more agrees than disagrees. More of those who answered the "D.R. Dept. has a positive image" item disagreed with the statement (26%) than agreed (18%) with it.
(See Table 2.) (See Table 2)

4.  In item 10, The survey said, "If the D.R. Dept. provided the following resources, I would take advantage of them:" and listed three options.   Most respondents said they would take advantage of resources in the form of mailings from and presentations by the D.R. Department.  (See Table 4).

5.  The survey listed 20 reasons that employees might have contact with the D.R. Department.  Four items were identified by at least 50% of the respondents as reasons they "would contact" the D.R. Department.  They are "perceived harassment," "perceived retaliation," "suspension," and "termination."  For all other items except one,  10-27% of the respondents said they would contact D.R.  Standing out with 37% saying they "would contact" D.R. was "unequal treatment of employees."   (See Tables 6, 7, 8)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

.