Before disbanding in April 2005, the Council for the Advancement of Women at WSU identified and began seven specific programs designed to standardize performance reviews and policies, to provide mentoring and training, and to gather appropriate data.
The council’s goal was twofold: removing institutional barriers to the advancement of all faculty members and lessening the role of informal networks inaccessible to women.
Significant progress has being made in each of those seven programs. Here is a quick update in each area.
Training
In order to leverage a cultural change in any community, training is always essential. In this case, the Council for the Advancement of Woman initiated an ongoing series of workshops for directors and chairs (ONLINE @ www.hrs2.wsu.edu/utils/showpage.asp?page=577) that includes training in subjects relevant to women.
Pamela Duran, director of the Intensive American Language Center and associate director of International Programs, attended the October workshop on faculty performance reviews. She discovered that the class served her needs as a director and the advancement needs of women as well.
“I went to the workshop looking for advice and looking for a broader understanding …, and my class met those goals,” she explained. The workshop was a mix of men and women, and it provided an objective presentation of how an accessible and equitable system should function. And it “was successful in the goal of advancing women,” Duran said.
Faculty performance
Frances McSweeney, vice-provost for faculty affairs, taught that workshop and was tasked with overseeing the creation of many of the council’s programs.
“The council was successful,” McSweeney said. “There’s always lots more to do, but we accomplished important things. Women are making progress. These recommendations increase the transparency of the faculty review process to give everyone, including women and minorities, more of a fair chance.”
As an example of increased transparency, McSweeney cited a second council program: the standardized electronic form available for the annual review of faculty performance. The council’s goal was to replace the previous informal, and potentially arbitrary, review system with a standardized system.
The new review system (ONLINE @ https://cahedb.wsu.edu/WORQS) was developed in 1999 by Kathleen Duncan, information systems coordinator for the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences at WSU Vancouver. The online review system was tested at the Vancouver campus and will be used by some colleges in 2007 and then universitywide in 2008.
A new manual
The council’s third effort was the creation of a user-friendly manual on faculty performance issues. McSweeney wrote that guide (ONLINE @ https://provost.wsu.edu/manuals_forms/documents/Manual_on_Faculty_Evaluation.doc) to provide detailed and readable information to everyone. As the council report notes, this manual was needed since women often are excluded from important work information when that information is available only through informal channels.
The fourth council recommendation, mentoring of associate professors to encourage their transition to professor rank, is still under consideration.
According to Barry Swanson, executive secretary of the Faculty Senate, the Faculty Affairs Committee is evaluating this proposal. He expects that a nonmandatory mentoring program for associate professors will be in place by the end of spring semester.
The council’s fifth project, a grant proposal for the creation of an on-campus center to recruit women in science and engineering, was submitted to the National Science Foundation but not funded. The grant may be resubmitted; in the meantime, some parts of that proposal, including data collection, have begun, McSweeney reported.
Childcare
Providing quality childcare, especially infant care, was identified as the sixth council initiative. The Faculty Senate and administration are working together to resolve this issue, said Tom Brigham, professor of psychology and assistant to the president for faculty relations. The first step, he said, is creation of a business plan.
Terry Boston, executive director of Administrative Services, said he is just beginning to assess the options of either building a new childcare center or expanding the existing WSU Children’s Center. That assessment would be the basis of a business plan.
Data collection
The council’s seventh program targets the improvement data collection. Accurate data about the progress of all faculty, including women, is not now available.
According to Brigham, the university is gathering faculty data via four projects: the new universal online annual review form; a study of the approximately 50 tenure-track faculty hired annually; a study on advancing associate professors to the full professor level; and a web-based survey of junior faculty members’ job satisfaction through the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
