Report on MIT’s 2022 Quality of Life Survey highlights responses from the Department of Architecture

Strategy and Equity team takes a closer look at department climate, workload, health and wellness

A new report, compiled by the MIT Architecture Strategy and Equity (S&E) team, introduces results of MIT’s 2022 Quality of Life Survey for the Department of Architecture. The MIT Quality of Life Survey is an Institute-wide survey aimed at understanding the lives of MIT faculty, staff, postdoctoral scholars, and students. Conducted every two years, the survey has been running since 2012. The 2022 survey included two versions–one for faculty and staff and one for students–with similar or corresponding questions. The S&E report synthesizes some of the main results of questions pertaining to issues related to the Department of Architecture.

Overall, 113 responses to the survey were received from our department, for a 35% response rate. The report takes a closer look at nine questions from both versions of the survey, with a focus on Climate, Workload and Arrangements, and Health and Wellness. Topics range from whether units or majors are a good fit, to the fostering of a collegial, supportive, and caring environment by supervisors and advisors, and recent experiences of acts of bigotry or disrespect based on social identity, among others. 

People in our department responded mostly favorably about quality of life issues within our department. In aggregate, respondents were mostly positive about the environment of the department, with a majority agreeing that the department is a good fit for them and creates a collegial and supportive environment, that their supervisor/advisor cares about them as a person, that their unit is diverse, with a very large majority of respondents indicating that they never or only occasionally experienced bigotry or disrespect based on social identity. Responses to themes related to inclusion in informal networks and comfort raising personal issues were more balanced. Respondents were  less positive overall about their workload. Among students, some of the more negative responses about both the department environment and workload came from graduate students, while some of the more positive responses about the department environment came from undergraduates.

Although the response rates to the survey questions are not representative of our entire staff, student, or faculty populations, the results in aggregate suggest that the department is doing well along several dimensions of quality of life. Importantly, however, they also point to several areas where essential, targeted work needs to be done to improve particular quality of life issues for members of our community.

Read the full report.