Department Climate

Associate Professor of
Industrial and Systems
Engineering Tonya Smith-
Jackson advising students

"Creating a Positive Departmental Climate at Virginia Tech: A Compendium of Successful Strategies” was created as part of the AdvanceVT Departmental Climate Initiative. The compendium is available on the web or in .pdf format. AdvanceVT's Department Climate Committee collected successful strategies for developing and maintaining a positive work environment and shared them with participants at the fourth annual Advancing Women at Virginia Tech workshop.

In the spring of 2007, Virginia Tech participated in the COACHE survey of pre-tenure faculty. The COACHE survey asks faculty to assess their experiences regarding promotion and tenure, the nature of their work, policies and practices, and the general climate, culture and level of collegiality on their campuses. Responses from Virginia Tech faculty are compared with those of faculty at five selected peer institutions and the entire population of research university respondents. Summaries of these data have been shared with new department heads and university leaders and promotion and tenure committee chairs.