Dick,

I contacted our two offices that primarily report employee data, Human Resources and Equal Opportunity
Employment.  Here's what I was told.

After employees are hired we send them a post card requesting self identification of their race/ethnicity
information.

According to our Coordinator of Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action, Steve Lucivjansky, the Affirmative
Action software our office uses does not allow for "unknown".  Currently, all our employees fall under one
of the traditional categories.  Steve has only been with us for four months, so he is unsure as to if any
"unknowns" had been submitted and how in the past they were handled.  However, he said that if he received
any "unknowns", he would probably call the employee and request that he/she try to identify with one group
so that we can maintain complete records on employees for EO/AA purposes.

Steve said that he feels most people in protected groups would want to complete the information so that the
group could receive the recognition it deserves.

In regards to surveys, Steve said that he hasn't encountered any that had "unknown" on them.

I hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Becky Geltz
Coordinator of Institutional Research
Youngstown State University
One University Plaza - Tod Hall Room 224
Youngstown, OH  44555
(330) 742-3053 (phone)
(330) 742-7169 (fax)
[log in to unmask]

"Richard W. Stratton" wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
>     First I am please to announce that Dr. Thomas Gaylord has joined the
> University of Akron as Vice President for Information Technologies,
> Libraries, and Institutional Planning. Part of his responsibilities will
> be Institutional Research so I now report to him. He has long a varied
> experience in IR and I look forward to exciting times ahead.
>     Now for my questions:
> 1)    A recent change in our software system now allows the
> race/ethnicity of employees to be unknown. In the past we apparently
> assigned a race/ethnicity category to those who left it blank. A query
> of the HEI database indicates the number of employees reported with
> race/ethnicity as unknown varies greatly. Is there good reason to try to
> minimize the number of unknowns? If so how do you accomplish a high rate
> of self identifications? If you have a large number of unknowns, how o
> you treat them on surveys and reports that do not provide for an unknown
> category?
> 2)    I am compiling a list of possible Key Performance Indicators for a
> new Decision Support project. Is there any widely accepted source for
> KPIs that I could consult to be sure I am not missing an obvious
> candidate? OH by the way I need this before my 4 pm meeting Friday. (I
> got the request yesterday)
>
> As always I appreciate the collegiality and friendliness of this
> organization and thank each of you for you help. Hope to see many of you
> on Monday at the Spring Conference.
>
> Dick
> --
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Richard W. Stratton             http://www.uakron.edu/ips
> Director
> Institutional Research          Voice:  (330) 972-7897
> The University of Akron         FAX:    (330) 972-5989
> Akron, OH 44325-4712            e-mail  [log in to unmask]