University Committee on Women

Minutes of Meeting

November 16, 2000

Memorial Union, Gold Room

 

Present:  Penny Rosenthal, Mirrya Fontenot, Shauna Hallmark, Linda Charles, Judy Dolphin, Quincie Cooper, Lynette Hornung, Bonnie Dix, Janet Tait, Nancy Knight, Julie Harders, Pat Miller, Barbara Lograsso, Dianne Bystrom.

 

  1. Welcome & Introductions

Penny Rosenthal welcomed everyone to the meeting.  Introductions were made.  Penny announced that Lauren Hughes, student member, resigned. Two new UCW members introduced themselves:  Lynette Hornung, P&S Council.  Mirrya Fontenot, GSS Representative. Contact Mirrya at mmosier@iastate.edu, 2114 Sweeney, Ames, 294-7643, Chemical Engineering.

 

  1. Volunteer to take minutes. 

Julie Harders volunteered to take notes for the meeting.

 

  1. UCW Sponsorship

UCW will provide $50 sponsorship for a speech by Dr. Billye B. Foster, Department of Agricultural Education, University of Arizona.  Dr. Foster will be on campus Wednesday, Nov. 29, Gallery, MU, 8 p.m.  She will discuss her research related to gender in agricultural education. Pat Miller will email information about the speech to committee members for distribution.

March is Women’s History Month. Pat Miller said several speakers have been suggested.  One is Jeanne Kilbourne, who talks about how women are portrayed in advertising.  She may be available on March 1 to open Women’s History Month.  Another suggestion is Susan Estridge, who works with political campaigns and who is an expert on election law.  She may be available on March 28th.  The Committee on Lectures is looking for co-sponsors. If interested, contact Pat Miller.  Penny Rosenthal stated that the Women’s Center will want to work with Women’s History Month.     

 

  1. Working Teams Reports.
    1. Campus Climate.  Laura Armstrong summarized the goals of the Campus Climate Committee.  The Committee is concentrating its efforts on Friends of International Women.  Nancy Bevin has accepted a position that will be working with the organization. Nancy is sending three women to work with the Campus Climate subcommittee. The committee also plans to address improving outreach to men on campus.    
    2. Mentoring – Judy Dolphin summarized the work of the Mentoring subcommittee.  She explained the Four Goal Proposal. (See attachment.)  The four goals are as follows: 1) to inform women about available mentoring programs on campus; 2) to complete a survey concerning the need/demand for mentoring opportunities for new women on campus; 3) to conduct a mentoring pilot project to assist newly arrived women faculty, staff and graduate students; 4) to host an event for new campus women. Julie Harders described the goal to complete a survey. Judy Dolphin described the mentoring pilot project goal.  There was a discussion about the survey and pilot project goals and whether to work on both simultaneously.  Most suggested doing both at the same time to gather qualitative and quantitative data. Based on input from UCW, the subcommittee plans to do the pilot project mentoring pairing in the spring semester. (4 merit/4 staff/4 graduate students.)  Volunteers from UCW will need to volunteer to be mentors.  The survey will go out this spring with a commitment for follow up in the fall, which will be coordinated with the kick off of the mentoring program. Meanwhile, goal 1 is nearly completed -- need to get the info to Laura Bestler-Wilcox  for publication on the web page.  Discussion about spring TIPS session.  Penny asked if mentoring subcommittee would volunteer to coordinate the speaker for the spring TIPS.  Following a discussion, mentoring group will not coordinate speaker for spring TIPS due to time restraints in spring with pilot project and survey.  

 

    1. Policy

                                                              i.      Leave Policy.  Nancy Knight summarized the work of the policy subcommittee.  The subcommittee is working on a site for feedback to be placed on the UCW homepage. If a person has an issue with existing policies, he or she will be able to email concerns to an alias (as opposed to a listserv, which goes out to all subscribers.)  The email then will be distributed to the people on the subcommittee. The name will be confidential, but the issue/concern will be passed along to the Provost’s office or another appropriate person. The feedback site also will be used to collect information about views on policies.

                                                            ii.      Family/Medical Leave Policy.  Nancy Knight and Dianne Bystrom met with Faye Whitaker, Carla Espinoza, Ellen Rasmussen, Ann Dolan, and others about changes to ISU family/medical leave policy.  An article was published in the November 3rd issue of Inside Iowa State.  Discussion about whether UCW would have opportunity for input.  Concerns raised that only a small group (3) is working on policy revisions.  No representation from UCW. Diane Bystrom suggested UCW write a letter to the Provost thanking him for getting the ball rolling, telling him of the issues/concerns of UCW, and asking that he form a small task force that would include a representative from UCW, Faculty Senate, and P&S Council.  

    1. Provost Advisory Committee

Penny Rosenthal will ask the Provost to appoint a vice chair for UCW.  That appointment should be coming soon.  Penny will draft a letter thanking supervisors for allowing people to serve on the committee; she will ask that it come from the Provost. 

 

  1. Web Page Updates – Penny
    1. ListServ. UCW may have an existing listserv. Linda Charles will forward information to Penny on the listserv.
    2. Email contact.  Still need to set up alias.
    3. TIPs online registration can be viewed at: http://www.ocass.iastate.edu/TIPS/tips.htm