University Committee on Women
Winter Retreat
Monday, January 26, 2004
11 am – 2 pm
Jischke Honors Building

Present: Janet Tait, Chris Cook, Cheryl Abrams, Marjorie Smith, Deb Parker, Deb Covey, Beth Brockmann, Kris Phelps, Paula Gmelch, Lauri Dusselier, Kathy Birdsall, Jan Bartlett, Carlyn Goebel, Chuck Glatz, Pat Miller, Claudia Baldwin, Judy Dolphin, Diane Debinski, Virginia Blackburn, Carolyn Heising, Liz Beck, Ann Thompson, Sheley Johnson

I. Introductions

Introductions of members. Ann Thompson expressed appreciation for the outstanding leadership Liz Beck has provided as chair of the committee.

II. Summary of Fall activities - Beck
Beck summarized the activities of UCW for Fall 2003. Priority items were set for the current year and an update on the status of each item follows:

1. The report for the review of the College of Engineering is not finished. This report is expected to be completed soon. The next college that has been selected for review is the College of Vet Med. This review has started.
2. The Arrival of Children policy has been put on hold and will not be considered by the Board of Regents in the near future. ISU is working on informal solutions to the problem, however, and full information on the guidelines for accommodating the needs of new parents can be found on the Provost Office web page (http://www.provost.iastate.edu/documents/).
3. The work of the Recruiting Women and Minorities Committee, chaired by Jackie Litt continues.
4. Work continues on the Advance Grant. The RFP is expected to be ready late this spring.
5. There are several Deans’ searches continuing this Spring. There will be open forums, and UCW will organize efforts to have members present at the forums to ask prospective candidates questions to see how aware of and responsive they are to women’s issues.
6. The Institutional Data committee’s work is ongoing and will continue its work in the Spring semester.
7. Issues regarding hostile work environments continue. A workshop was offered to women on campus in the fall semester.

Sharing and discussion of issues for the Committee on Women
Ann Thompson asked the group to share and discuss issues that will be important for UCW to focus on for Spring 2004.

Because of the current budget situation, there are several issues that UCW will need to monitor concerning women’s issues:

• The speculation of combining colleges, the College of Family & Consumer Science and the College of Education, when cuts are made UCW will need to help make sure women’s issues are considered. As these colleges consist of quite a few women.

• As budget cuts happen and positions are eliminated or not filled, there is concern that there may be increased job responsibilities. This will affect all classifications of employment.

• Another issue that is of concern as positions are eliminated, is continued hostile work environments. Right now this does not seem to be getting any better on campus. There is concern that this may continue where it is already evident, or hostile work environments may appear as jobs are eliminated and workloads are increased. Issues of hostile work environments affect all levels of employment at ISU.

• Another issue of concern in conjunction with budget cuts is the women’s athletic scholarships. UCW will need to monitor equity in cutting athletic scholarships.

Action Plan for Spring
Prioritization of Issues:

Budget Challenges
As there may be job eliminations, it will be the job of this committee to remind the President’s office to be aware of and consider women’s issues.

As the possibility of increased workloads was discussed, one suggestion may be to require the departments that are making the cuts redefine job duties. Redefined job descriptions need to emphasize what work will NOT be done, and also what work will be done more efficiently. Departments will need to identify and address the climate changes and concerns of workers/supervisors as the cuts are made. A committee was formed to track budget issues.

Women in Leadership
An important issue to continue to address is the need to increase women in leadership positions across campus. Improving the status of women on campus needs to continue to be addressed by UCW. Iowa State University does have a number of women’s initiatives, but there is not a centralized place or home that pulls it all together. UCW needs to be more visible across campus.

An issue to improve the status of women on campus, is making successful women more visible on campus. One example is the current ISU directory. Of the nine faculty featured on the cover, only one is a woman. ISU needs to make a sincere and authentic effort to address this visibility issue.

Hiring/Promotion of Women
ISU is not making much progress in hiring or promoting women. There has not been much change in 20 years. This is an issue for the institutional Data subcommittee. Will ask this committee to give an update and bring this issue to the meeting with Provost Allen.

Carolyn Heising shared information about a report found at Duke University’s website. The president of Duke University, Nan Keohane, has been a strong advocate for women. It appears that Duke faces some the same issues regarding women’s issues as Iowa State. At Duke, a Steering Committee for Women’s Initiatives was formed and developed a report that can be found at Duke’s web page (http://www.duke.edu/womens_initiative/report_report.htm).

Meeting with Provost Allen and President Geoffroy
Susan Carlson will be arranging a meeting for UCW to meet with Provost Allen and President Geoffroy this Spring. Once these meeting dates and times are arranged notice will be sent to the committee.

Upcoming Meetings
Spring meetings will be the 4 th Monday of the month from 1:30 – 3:00 pm.

February 23 Memorial Union, Room 236
March 22
April 26

Recorded by Sheley Johnson