A campus climate study, completed in April, shows a positive reaction to the UA environment, a UA administrator told about 25 people yesterday at an executive summary.

Campus climate refers to what students experience on campus, associate dean Carol Thompson said in the Arizona Daily Wildcat earlier this year.

The Tucson-based research company Field Market Research Associates, Inc. conducted surveys to help administrators learn what students think about the university, said Bruce Fohr, president of FMR Associates, Inc.

The information was compiled by the Dean of Students Office, said Dean of Students Melissa Vito.

"The primary purpose of the study was to benchmark as much as possible what the current 'student experience' is on campus," Vito said in an electronic message. She said surveys have not been done on this broad of a spectrum of students before.

Vito said that according to the survey 68 percent of respondents were anglo, 17 percent were Hispanic, 9 percent Asian, 2 percent African-American, 2 percent Native American, 1 percent other and 1 percent declined to comment. She also said gender percenta ges were evenly matched.

Fohr said the sample consisted of 500 randomly selected respondents. He said the survey, which cost about $9,500, had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.

One question asked respondents to describe the UA student environment, Fohr said. He said "friendly" or "nice" were the top answers with 26 percent of the responses.

But some negative feelings, described by 4 percent, called the environment "impersonal" or "isolated," Fohr said.

"Freshman were probably the most positive of all on all levels," Fohr said.

Vito said it is important to realize that this was a preview presentation and "fine tuning" will continue to take place.