The purpose of the College and University Environment Scales is to help institutions define the cultural, social, and intellectual climate of the campus. The instrument is composed of 160 items, that may be administered to individuals or groups, that are grouped into seven scales.

Scoring: College and University Environment Scales yields seven scores: practicality, community, awareness, propriety, scholarship, campus morale, quality of teaching and faculty-student relationships. The College and University Environment Scales provides only group scores. Group scores are obtained by adding the number of items answered by 66 percent or more of the students in the keyed direction, subtracting the number of items answered by 33 percent or fewer of the students in the keyed direction, then adding 20 points to avoid the possibility of a negative score.

Reliability: The reliability of College and University Environment Scales scores as measures of institutional differences was determined by means of Cronbach's coefficient alpha. These range from .89 to .94. The manual reports test-retest comparisons made from comparable samples of reporters over a one- or two-year period or comparisons of scores for different groups judged to be qualified reporters have been summarized for 25 different colleges and universities. The finding is that of different groups within a single institution 80 percent differed by 3 points or less and 90 percent differed by 4 points or less.