Action summit will give update on UO workplace culture and climate

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The University of Oregon is committed to becoming a place where all can flourish—where every single individual can thrive thanks to conditions that promote growth, well-being, trust and belonging. This goal is nothing less than a strategic priority.

An upcoming summit will provide an update on progress toward this goal.

Amplifying Action 2025: A Summit on Employee Engagement and Flourishing takes place April 29 in the Erb Memorial Union. Faculty, staff and graduate employees whose work and service include enhancing workplace climate and culture are encouraged to register for the afternoon sessions, including lunch at noon, followed by workshops from 1:30 to 4:15 p.m. This event is hosted by the Division of Equity and Inclusion, Office of the Provost, Office of Human Resources and the Division of Student Life. DEI leaders, Abigail Leeder and Charlotte Moats-Gallagher, will facilitate the sessions.

At the summit’s plenary luncheon, attendees will hear about the actions that university leaders in units, schools and colleges have taken. They will also have an opportunity to reflect on the lessons that were learned along the way. Provost Christopher P. Long will provide opening remarks, followed by a panel discussion featuring Vice President of Division of Equity and Inclusion Yvette Alex-Assensoh, Vice President of Human Resources Mark Schmelz and Senior Gallup Consultant Tim Hodges. 

Afternoon workshops highlight the 17 faculty and staff members who received IDEAL Grant Awards for innovative resources, programming and tools to enhance workplace culture in their respective units and across campus. Topics include:

  • Launch Committees: A Multi-Mentor Support Model for New Faculty.
  • The Power of Intentionality: The Art, Heart and Science of Faculty and Staff Retention.
  • Outliers and Outlaws: A Documentary and Model for Building Community in Challenging Times.
  • Empowerment, Engagement and Change: Fostering Inclusion and Eliminating Disparities.
  • Reimaging Spaces for Well-Being through Physical and Virtual Realities.
  • Creating an Engaging Workplace: It Takes All of Us.
  • Managing Faculty Service Equity in UO Academic Unit.
  • Growing a Positive Climate by Embracing New Perspectives and Discomfort.
  • IDEAL Innovations: Building Flourishing Communities for Faculty, Staff and First-Generation Students with Academic Residential Communities. 

 UO leaders will gather in the morning at an invitation-only session for deans, vice presidents and their leadership teams. Schmelz and Kaia Rogers, chief of staff and senior director of HR programs and services, will discuss plans for supporting units, schools and colleges in efforts to enhance employee engagement. They will also address the 2026 employee engagement survey, which will once again be administered by Gallup.

With the IDEAL Climate Survey, the Division of Equity and Inclusion established a baseline of knowledge regarding the strengths and challenges of the UO’s workplace environment. With a 55 percent participation rate, far better than the average 30 percent for similar surveys, the survey provided faculty, staff and graduate employees with an opportunity to give feedback on a variety of workplace issues. This effort was an incubator for new ideas for continuously improving the employee experience and informs the university’s next survey to be led by Human Resources in 2026.

The work resulted in more than 100 unit-level actions that fell into four categories: Pathways to Professional Growth, Onboarding and Ever-boarding Interventions, Eliminating Disparities in Workplace Culture and Processes, and Belonging and Wellness.

Additionally, the UO administration responded by creating new processes, policies, resources and staffing to address some of the issues raised in the survey, including, but not limited to institutional responsiveness to employee concerns and equity, enhancing manager and supervisor skills, and launching an employee wellness initiative. 

The year’s summit also features an element of placemaking an “Art Cart” and a mobile performance/exhibition space presented by Stephen Rodgers, Edmund A. Cykler Chair in the School of Music and Dance. The compact structure, which opens to reveal a small performance/exhibition stage, will be set up on the EMU Green to provide live music ranging from jazz to roots music, as well as art exhibitions, poetry readings and more. The day will conclude with a networking mixer at 4:15 p.m. in the EMU Ballroom.