University Committee on Women
November 8, 2004
12 – 1:30 pm
3164 Gerdin Business Building

Present: Ann Thompson, Cheryl Abram, Penny Rice, Katie Pope, Carolyn Heising, Karla Hardy, Virginia Blackburn, Deb Covey, Rita Marinko, Julie Manning, Judy Dolphin, Jill Bystydzienski, Janet Tait, Ingrid Lilligren, Chris Cook, Susan Carlson, Lauri Dusselier

Welcome, Introductions and Announcements
Introductions of all members present and their representation for UCW.

Congratulations to Jill Bystydzienski and the Women’s Studies Program. A press release was released last week announcing that ISU Women’s Studies program received a $300,000 U.S. Department of State grant. This grant will study the relationship of gender to the emerging democracies and market economies of the former Soviet Union. Jill said the grant will allow a cultural exchange with the Center for Gender Studies at Kharkiv National University, Ukraine. Again, congratulations to the Women’s Studies Program!

Congratulations and thank you to Susan Carlson. Susan has been responsible for a major part of the work with the combination of the colleges. Susan’s leadership has been instrumental towards the progress of the college combination. Faculty in the colleges of Family and Consumer Sciences and Education voted on the proposal to combine the colleges. The results were to recommend adoption of proposal with almost 80% approval.

Committee Reports
Women's Leadership Consortium - Susan Carlson
Women’s Enrichment Fund Mini-Grants – The number of proposals requesting mini-grant funds was outstanding. The committee received twenty-five proposals. This high interest shows that there is a definite need on campus, and these needs need to be communicated to the administrators. Different items that were requested in the proposals submitted were: providing networking on campus, lectures by women leaders to promote women leaders, and mentoring programs. The Women’s Leadership Consortium has a committee appointed to review the proposals and the recipients awarded the mini-grants will be notified by November 10 th.

The Women’s Leadership Consortium continues the efforts for advancing leadership for women at ISU. The next event scheduled is with Claudia Kennedy. Claudia Kennedy is a three-star general in the United States Army and will be the second speaker in the “Advancing Women’s Leadership” series. Kennedy will discuss “Women, Leadership and the Future” at 8 pm Monday, November 15, in the Sun Room, Memorial Union. The event is sponsored by the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics and is free and open to the public.

Also as part of “Advancing Women’s Leadership” series, the Women’s Leadership Consortium will be offering a 3 rd and 4 th part of the leadership series. The 3 rd part of the series – Betsy Hoffman has agreed to speak at Iowa State, dates are being worked out. The 4 th part of the leadership series that is being planned is a Women’s Leadership Summit. The date that has been scheduled is April 15, 2005 and will be held in the Memorial Union. More information will be available soon.

Childcare/Family - Judy Dolphin
Judy Dolphin reported that the childcare/family subcommittee has been working on the goals that were set by the subcommittee. One of the goals is to work with the University Childcare Committee to increase monetary support for childcare initiatives. The subcommittee is working with the University Child Care committee on the current fund-raiser. The fundraiser is being done by a traveling goose that is the mascot for a fund-raiser called “Fowl Play”. Recipients pay $25 and have 24 hours to pass on the bird. Proceeds go to scholarships for university student parents to assist with child care. The goose started it’s journey with President Gregory and Kathy Geoffroy, and they passed the goose along to vice president Warren Madden. See the goose at: www.iastate.edu/Inside/04/1105/goose.shtml

The subcommittee is also working to recognize departments that promote best practices of family-friendly offices, department, and policies at Iowa State University. The subcommittee is looking to recognize such offices in April during Young Child Month.

Workplace/Campus Climate – Ingrid Lilligren
The workplace/campus climate subcommittee has met and made suggestions from the two reports (Status of Women and Recruitment and Retention of Women and Minority Faculty) and from a preliminary reading of the Rankin Climate Survey.

A question was asked, “What does the committee want this subcommittee to do with the Dr. Rankin Campus Climate Report?” The committee thought it would be very beneficial for the subcommittee to look at the report and monitor progress that is made.

The perception that was taken from the Inside Iowa State - was that ISU is no worse than anybody else. This perception makes it sound like everything is OK. Conversations with leaders on campus have proved that there is a sense that ISU doesn’t need to do anything or change anything—it appears that administrators on campus don’t see there being a problem or that things need to change. Question was asked, “If we are no worse than the rest, whatever happened to ISU being the best?”

One thing that should be looked at more closely is that P&S and merit employees did not respond at a rate that the numbers can be used. Another issue that should be addressed is that the Implementation Committee should not focus on the ones that are satisfied. Rather, the persons that are facing issues should be the focus (the ones who do not feel safe, etc.)

Accountability of senior leaders will need to be monitored. What might accountability look like, what does it mean for them to be accountable. Acknowledging that there is a problem. This definitely will continue to be an item for discussion and monitoring.

The next steps in the process, President Geoffroy will appoint a campus implementation committee to work with Rankin to develop a plan for prioritizing and implementing recommendations from the survey report. This planning process is expected to be complete by April 1. Larry Genalo will chair this committee. There will be solicitation of recommendations for members to be on the implementation committee. UCW will recommend someone to be a part of this team.

Please print and read the executive summary (pages 2-6 of the Final Report-attached), prior to the next meeting for discussion. This will be an ongoing discussion as the implementing recommendations are implementated. The workplace/campus climate subcommittee will continue to monitor the progress of the campus implementation committee.

Title IX – Lauri Dusselier
The Title IX subcommittee has been looking at three main things: assistant coach salaries, examine EADA report, and NCAA certification.

The assistant coaches salaries (and raises) have not been comparable between gender. (Even when the salaries of the football and basketball are taken out of the mix.) The subcommittee would like to have this issue addressed.

NCAA certification from 2 years ago. There are things that are to be implemented that have not been done. The subcommittee would like to ask that UCW request that the recommendations be implemented. This report was done by:

The Title IX subcommittee that was in the Athletic Department is no longer in existence, what has happened to this committee. This committee should be responsible to make sure accountability is being done.

Leadership for 2005-2006
The Executive Committee is pleased to announce that Julie Manning will provide leadership for UCW next year, 2005-2006. Julie Manning will be a very effective leader for UCW. We are very excited she has agreed to take assume the leadership for UCW.

Meeting with President/Provost
A small group representing UCW will be meeting with President Geoffroy and Provost Allen on November 30 to discuss the reports and the recommendations of the reports, and to discuss what has been done with the recommendations. The group will focus on accountability for senior administrators of how to make accountability happen.

Student Issues
Issues that are on the minds of students, or things that UCW can help with. The graduate student group would like to explore making the Student Health Center easier to deal with. One question that graduate students are facing is: “How to have a baby and be a graduate student.” Some of the issues that need addressed are tuition, quality child care, and the fact that there is no leave policy in place for graduate students. Susan Carlson stated that the Graduate Council might be an avenue to help, or a good place to bring up these issues.

This item will be placed at the beginning of next meeting’s agenda.

Next Meeting

Wednesday, December 8, 2004
12 – 1:30 pm
2201 Krieger Board
Gerdin Business Building

Adjournment

Recorded by Sheley Johnson