University Committee on Women
Minutes from February 23, 2004
Memorial Union, Room 236

Present: Jackie Litt, Lauri Dusselier, Amy Bix, Diane Debinski, Carolyn Heising, Deb Parker, Lynne Lundy Evans, Camille Schroeder, Paula Gmelch, Lee Furbeck, Hannah Schoenthal-Muse, Katie Pope, Connie Post, Georgia Hale, Ann Thompson, Sheley Johnson

Introductions
Introductions of members present.

Minutes from Retreat
The minutes from the retreat were accepted as corrected. If anyone has further edits, please let Sheley know.

Budget Issues
As the current budget situation continues, this topic will continue to be an agenda for discussion. It was reported that most departments have been instructed to submit their reversions this week. It was evident that the seriousness of the budget cuts have not been communicated within some departments, as there were some members unaware of the extent of the cuts. With respect to budget issues, it is important to make sure that communication is maintained and information is transferred.

There is a continued concern concerning budget cuts among the merit employees. UCW will continue to monitor this situation.

Concern was also expressed about the unknowns for the graduate students and assistantships. With the changes in how assistantships and tuition will be funded, there is concern about effects on both graduate students and faculty. Katie Pope will chair the Graduate Student Subcommittee and would like to get the subcommittee together to address these issues and concerns, and to be informed of how the changes affect all graduate students (especially women graduate students).

Discussion of the combination of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences and the College of Education followed. It is apparent that there are many speculations on what is happening concerning the proposed merger or combination of colleges. As the merger is worked out, an implementation committee will be formed. When the implementation committee is formed, UCW will want to let the committee know that UCW is available as a resource regarding gender issues. It was suggested that UCW invite the implementation committee members to a UCW meeting to share concerns.

LAS Dean Search Update
The support from UCW members for the first candidates visit was outstanding. UCW had a strong presence at each of the diversity forums.

It is very important that UCW be directly involved in the remaining two deans’ searches. The results of these searches are extremely important to the futures of women on our campus.

Following each of the deans’ serches, we will have a special meeting to make a recommendation to the chair of the search committee, Provost and the President. For the LAS Dean Search recommendation, Liz Beck has volunteered to organize the follow-up meeting to make the recommendation. This meeting was scheduled for March 2, 4 p.m., 1113 Honors Building. Thank you all for your participation and feedback.

Status of Women Report
The report entitled, Status of Women at Iowa State University, submitted by the Task Force on Data Analysis, University Committee on Women, Chair, Jacquelyn Litt, August 2002 was revisited by the current UCW. This report helps to gain an understanding of the conditions for women at ISU. If you have not had the chance to read this report, please do so and look at the recommendations that the report provides. This report can be accessed at:

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~ucw/Records/Reports/reports.html

Discussion about, are we making progress? If the progress is looked at up to this point, the future of women at Iowa State University doesn’t look that bright. The question is how do we improve the status of women at Iowa State University? It was discussed that the biggest influence in helping with this issue may be with the department chairs. It is apparent that we need more women department chairs, but it is extremely important to fill these positions with women that are knowledgeable, aware of, and sensitive towards gender issues.

There were suggestions about providing information/support to department chairs in the form of workshops, focus groups, possibly pilot a project. The Advance Grant is working to focus on these same issues.

Advance Grant
Debinski reported that Carolyn Turner, lecturer, will be providing a lecture on March 29, at 12:00 p.m. The lecture will specifically discuss recruitment of minorities.

Athletics/Title IX
Lauri Dusselier will be taking over as chair for this subcommittee. The subcommittee will be meeting to discuss and keep an eye on how the budget cuts affect women athletics.

Agenda for meeting with Provost Allen
The committee will meet with Provost Allen on March 8, 1 –2 pm. This will be an informal dialogue to discuss several of the issues regarding women. Ann will prepare a memo to be sent to the committee with items for discussion that will be sent to Provost Allen prior to the meeting.

Upcoming Meetings
Due to the special meeting with Provost Allen and the deans’ search recommendations meetings, the meeting scheduled for Monday, March 22 nd is cancelled.

The next Dean search is for the College of Vet Med. The University Committee on Women needs to be actively involved in each of the searches. To again ensure this involvement, we would like to have at least 3 committee on women members at each of the diversity forums for the candidate. The results of these forums are extremely important to the future of women on our campus. Your involvement in the diversity forums is very much appreciated.

The schedule for the diversity forums for the Vet Med candidates is:

Meeting with President Geoffroy
UCW is scheduled to meet with President Geoffroy on Monday, April 26, 4 pm. The committee will plan to meet at 3 pm in Room 1113, Jischke Honors Building, for our regular April meeting. The committee will then go to Beardshear to meet with President Geoffroy at 4 pm in the President’s Conference Room for 1 hour. An agenda will be drafted and sent to the committee prior to this meeting. Please add this meeting date and time to your calendar.

Recorded by Sheley Johnson

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