Based on a post hoc, in absentia review of the survey by IRB members, the president prohibited my use or sharing of the data from the survey. Since the survey was designed to focus on the attitudes and opinions of the Berea College community (not the general population), required no direct interaction with respondents, and kept responses entirely anonymous; the survey should not have been subject to IRB review and approval in accordance with our Faculty Manual and the relevant Combined Federal Regulations. Having spent much of the last decade working with psychology majors in conducting applied research, much of which led to recognition and awards at state and regional undergraduate conferences, I can assure you that poorly-designed and sloppily-executed studies seldom yield results of any significance (statistical or otherwise). However, as you will see, the results of this survey are substantial and relevant to the questions of academic freedom and hostile environment protections at Berea College. In fact, the negative correlation between respondents’ ratings of scenarios relating to alleged violations of hostile environments and academic freedom protection (r2=-.85) is exceptionally strong. My hope was that these scenarios might provide useful material for developing an effective educational program designed to acquaint members of the campus community with the diversity of opinions and complexity of the issues relating to academic freedom and hostile environment protections.
