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Message from the Provost
Dear Colleagues,
With my thanks to the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) 4.0 Task Force, I am pleased to share the preliminary overview of the results from 2025 JMU COACHE survey which can be found by logging in to the secure link above. JMU’s response rate was 46% of the approximately 1022 faculty members who were surveyed based on the Harvard COACHE research design and eligibility. This exceeds the cohort institutions’ response rates by 5 percentage points. An average survey took approximately 51 minutes to complete, so this report constitutes approximately 369 hours of your time and, more importantly, your candor and care for improving the workplace at JMU. Thank you!
I have previously shared that the COACHE faculty satisfaction survey is a validated and collaborative instrument designed by and administered through the Harvard University School of Education. It is one of the most comprehensive tools JMU employs in our efforts to collectively strive to enhance the faculty experience and further strengthen our academic community. COACHE is committed to improving the academic workplace and advancing the success of a talented and diverse faculty, and through our previous participation, we have found the results to be very good guidance for our future efforts.
The survey assesses 25 benchmarks of faculty job satisfaction within the academic workplace. Areas of strength are defined as a benchmark where JMU scores first or second among our selected comparison group and in the top 30 percent of this year’s COACHE 85-member cohort. Our areas of strength are:
- Appreciation and Recognition
- Departmental Collegiality
- Departmental Engagement
- Departmental Quality
- Facilities and Work Resources
- Health and Retirement Benefits
- Interdisciplinary Work
- Leadership: Faculty
- Nature of Work: Service
- Promotion to Full
- Tenure Expectations: Clarity
- Tenure Policies
These results are encouraging, as they indicate that our efforts to address areas of concern identified in past COACHE surveys have had an impact. Still, there are areas we have to continue to work on. Current areas of concern are:
- Governance: Adaptability
- Governance: Productivity
- Governance: Shared Sense of Purpose
- Governance: Understanding the Issue at Hand
While I commend Faculty Senate, Academic Affairs leadership, and all of those who have worked on shared governance in the last few years, we still have work to do. I look forward to continuing these important efforts. We’re moving ahead on two critical initiatives—advancing core curriculum reform and an overhaul of the Faculty Handbook—and I’m committed to continuing the open and transparent conversations that moved us here.
Thank you again to the faculty who participated in the COACHE survey and to all of you for the many ways you support JMU’s mission.
Sincerely,
Bob
Bob Kolvoord, Ph.D.
Professor and Interim Provost/Vice President of Academic Affairs
James Madison University
(540) 568-3429
He/Him/His