Resurvey is under way for federal changes in reporting race and ethnicity of faculty, staff, and students

Paula Varnes Fussell, Vice President for Human Resource Services

Beginning today, the University of Florida will be resurveying individual faculty, staff, and students to give them the opportunity to identify their race and ethnicities using new federal guidelines.

As I wrote to you last spring, on October 19, 2007, the federal government issued guidelines for changes in the reporting of race and ethnicity status of individuals. The goal of the federal reporting changes is to capture a more accurate picture of diversity of the U.S. population. The 2000 U.S. Census was the first experiment with the new coding structure. Educational institutions and other recipients of DOE contracts and grants are required to utilize the new standards and aggregation categories for collection and reporting of racial and ethnic data.

Beginning in 2010, federal and state data reporting will include new choices to describe race and ethnicity. The new reporting structure separates race and ethnicity data into two sections. The first section allows individuals to reclassify their ethnicity from two choices; “No, not Hispanic or Latino” or “Yes, Hispanic or Latino”. The second section allows individuals to choose one or more race descriptors. In the past, only one race descriptor could be selected.

Faculty and staff will have the opportunity to reclassify their race or ethnicity by choosing from one of two options. The first option is for individuals to logon to my.ufl.edu and navigate to My Self Service > UF Ethnicity and Race Survey. The second option allows individuals to update this information when prompted to re-set their GatorLink password.

The student resurvey will begin October 15, 2009, and students who wish to reclassify their race or ethnicity may do so through ISIS.

Additional information may be found online at: http://www.ir.ufl.edu/OIRApps/ethnic_code_changes/info.html