WISELI Initiatives List - text from the original proposal

Resources
Workplace Interactions
Life-Career Interface
Development, Leadership, Visibility
Overarching

I. RESOURCES

Gender Pay Equity Studies. In 1992-93, an analysis of UW-Madison salaries demonstrated a pay gap between men and women that could not be explained by age, rank, or years since degree.⁵² The administration provided funds to be distributed by individual schools and colleges to female faculty who were judged to be under-compensated. Three committees, including the Committee on Women in the University, continue to monitor and propose interventions to achieve and maintain gender pay equity. The proposed initiative will focus on the process for and outcomes of salary equity for women in science and engineering as well as assessing the perceptions of this endeavor.

Examine the patterns of assigning institutional resources for uneven distribution by gender. Vice Chancellor John Torphy has agreed to assist in collecting information on start-up packages, assigned space, access to administrative support, assignment of teaching assistants, type of class (e.g. undergraduate vs graduate), number of graduate students and postdocs, and location of office and laboratory. Data not available in existing records will be gathered in interviews with departmental administrators, faculty, and on-site inspection by the Executive Administrator, PIs, and Leadership Team. Taking into account the complex factors involved in assignment of institutional resources, we will look for patterns that might disadvantage or advantage women faculty. If found, we will interview department chairs regarding the reasons for such assignment. We will compile a report of the results to present to the deans and senior administrators as a means to promote equitable distribution of institutional resources.

II. WORKPLACE INTERACTIONS

The Provost’s UW-Madison Climate Initiative. The central goals of the Climate Initiative are to determine how the climate issue is manifested on the campus and to create new opportunities for frank and open conversation. A coalition has been formed comprised of the Committee on Women, the Provost’s office, and deans. The coalition will generate a dialogue, develop a set of recommendations of best practices, and establish methods for ongoing accountability. WISELI will keep women scientists and engineers central to the activities, evaluate the results of actions taken, and extend findings and productive initiatives to other campuses through dialogue with other NSF Institutional Transformation sites, CIC WISE forums, and national workshops.

Sexual Harassment Information Sessions. UW-Madison has embarked on a comprehensive effort to make sexual harassment a university community concern. This effort, backed by vigorous public endorsement by the administration, has involved refining and renewing an array of campus resources, designing and publishing informational materials, and offering informational sessions to all employees. Sexual harassment contact persons have been identified and trained in every school, college, and division. A cross-campus team of facilitators has presented informational sessions to deans, administrative teams, academic departments, and support units. These sessions use an inclusive, non-confrontational tone and, to personalize the experience, a case study approach. A website and brochures (Sexual Harassment: A Community Concern and Sexual Harassment: How to Respond When Someone Confides in You) present key principles, policies, and resources.

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Workshops for Department Chairs. UW-Madison has a successful workshops series on leadership designed for department chairs. In the series, chairs meet weekly with presenters who each address an aspect of being a chair. The purpose is not only information transfer but also building relationships that help them do their jobs more effectively. We will introduce a workshop on climate into this forum. This workshop will address the nature of climate, including real experiences of respected women scientists, strategies to address each of the manifestations of climate described above or discovered in our evaluation, and approaches to successful implementation of strategies.

Workshops on Laboratory Management. A workshop series on laboratory management will be developed for principal investigators. The focus will be on issues that affect women disproportionately, but will be advertised on the basis of improving the overall functioning of their laboratories. Topics will include learning how to motivate members of a team by positive approaches, resolve conflict, provide a supportive, respectful, and safe environment, and build cohesive, collegial teams. Development of the workshops will be led by the Office of Human Resources and Development and presenters will be faculty who run research laboratories and who are known to be supportive of women, deans, experts in conflict resolution and respect in the workplace, and graduate students. The workshops will be offered on campus every semester. We will work with deans and department chairs to encourage attendance by all faculty.

III. LIFE-CAREER INTERFACE

Dual career couples programs, tenure clock extensions, split appointments, campus childcare. The UW-Madison has several policies designed to accommodate women in the academic system. These include: extensions on tenure clock for parental or other familial responsibilities; a program for hiring dual career couples; and support, expansion, and subsidies for campus childcare. There are two examples in the social sciences where the desire of two members of a couple to share one faculty position was accommodated. It appears that these programs have had little impact on the number of women faculty in the biological and physical sciences. Therefore, as described in the Evaluation Plan, it is critical to examine them in detail and make modifications where necessary, especially in science and engineering. The findings will have policy implications locally and nationally.

Campus Child Care. While not all women in science and engineering need child care, acknowledging the importance of good child care and working to make it accessible are markers for a good climate for women.⁵⁵ In June, 2000, the University Child Care Committee completed a comprehensive white paper on the status of childcare at the UW-Madison. The Committee and the Office of Campus Child Care are currently working on a number of specific initiatives, among them 1) continuing exploration of the relationship between employment conditions for child-care workers, University and/or union-based support for campus childcare, and parent tuition payments; 2) expanding care for low-income parents; and 3) expansion of infant, conference and extended hours care.

Time-Stretcher Services. Balancing career and personal life are foremost issues for both men and women in academe, but particularly for women who continue to assume the predominant responsibility for household management and childcare. WISELI will 1) work with Joan Gillman (Dir Special Industry Programs) and a student in Journalism to compile available time-saving services currently available (e.g. all home delivered services) and make this publication available to everyone at UW-Madison and 2) work with Professor Anne Miner (UW Business School) to explore a UW-Community partnership to develop a Time-Stretcher Service. This service would enable women and men working for UW-Madison to hire individuals to run simple tasks that would take time away from activities important to their personal or professional development.

Life Cycle Research Grants. Research grants will be available to women faculty at critical junctures in their professional careers (e.g. between grants, a new baby, parent care responsibilities). These grants are meant to be flexible and women may apply for varying amounts and academic purposes.

IV. DEVELOPMENT, LEADERSHIP, VISIBILITY

Pipeline Issues: WISE Dormitory. To focus on stemming the loss of women from science majors in the first two years of college, the Women In Science and Engineering Residential Program (WISE-RP) was founded in 1995. WISE-RP creates a supportive and empowering community for women by housing 115 freshmen and sophomore science/engineering students together on adjacent floors of an all-women's residence. The program offers special WISE-RP sections of key courses such as general chemistry, organic chemistry, and introductory biology. About 25-30% of the WISE-RP participants are engineering majors, about 40% are biology majors, and the remainder are scattered among the other sciences. Now in its seventh year, the WISE-RP has had more than 600 undergraduate participants. Each year since the program's inception, WISE students earned significantly higher than average grades in both of our University's challenging two-semester gateway Chemistry sequences. They also have significantly higher overall GPAs than either UW freshmen women as a whole or a matched group of women science/engineering students from another dorm³⁶ and are less likely to binge drink.³⁷ As an umbrella program, WISELI will facilitate interaction between undergraduate women in the WISE-RP, Graduate Women in Science, and women scientists and engineers across campus. This successful program will be presented as part of the national workshops for administrators.

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Women Faculty Mentoring Program. A campus-wide survey in 1989 demonstrated that women faculty were leaving UW-Madison voluntarily before the time of promotion. Consequently, a Women Faculty Mentoring Program (WFMP) was begun with staff and faculty salary support by the Provost. Senior women faculty from an outside department but within the same division volunteer to serve as mentors for junior women. The WFMP sponsors four Brown Bag Sessions annually, an orientation/training session for mentors and mentees, an annual Women Faculty Mentor Award, and an annual reception to welcome new women faculty and celebrate promotions. This past year, a Peer Mentoring Program was begun by the WFMP and has resulted in several groups including a peer mentoring group for women faculty of color and one for women faculty in physical sciences. Rates of tenure and departure⁴³ are now comparable for men and women. An annual evaluation survey assesses the perceived benefit of the mentor relationship, the specific personal and professional areas the mentor has or has not been helpful with, and the value of the WFMP activities.

Celebrating Women in Science and Engineering Seminar Series. A Celebrating Women in Science and Engineering Symposia series will be initiated. Outstanding women scientists will be hosted each semester of the granting period (a total of 10 series). Funds for these have been contributed by the six deans who are administrative partners in the Institutional Transformation initiative. When these women scientists are at UW-Madison, WISELI will sponsor trans-departmental receptions, and schedule special sessions with graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

Endowed Professorships for Women in Science. In response to the NSF ADVANCE program, the Chancellor has included 10 professorships (20 million dollars) for women in science and engineering on the select list of targets for fundraising. This list sets priorities for the $1 billion capital campaign recently launched by the campus and therefore appearance on the list demonstrates a clear commitment to the Institutional Transformation initiative. Each professorship will be competitively awarded through a campus peer review process. Selection criteria will include quality of contributions to science and teaching, past impact on women in science, future plans for a leadership role in science. Each recipient will be provided financial support for 10 years but will retain the title of the endowed chair for the duration of her career.

Study the impact and feasibility of moving outstanding non-tenure line researchers into faculty positions. Examination of data on staff positions indicates that we could increase the number of women faculty in many departments simply by converting academic staff positions to faculty positions for women who wish to expand their roles. A number of women on our campus who hold academic staff titles pursue independent research and have teaching reputations and credentials equivalent to those in faculty positions. Many of these women entered science at a time when nepotism rules, prejudices, or their own life choices prevented them from entering tenure-line faculty positions. In the present era, a number of these women might have become faculty members through dual career recruitments. In preparation for this proposal, we spoke to Acting Provost Gary Sandefur, Vice Chancellor John Torphy, and Associate Vice Chancellor Linda Greene who agreed to an exploratory study of the development of a program that would offer faculty appointments to selected non-tenure line women in science and engineering. WISELI will establish a working group, including representatives from the Academic Staff Council and administration, to determine the number of possible track switches and identify administrative, financial, and attitudinal barriers to accomplishing conversions. If such a program would have a positive impact, WISELI will work with campus administration to develop a systematic process for such track conversion.

Leadership Development of Non-Tenure Line Women in Science and Engineering. The scientific community contains a number of outstanding staff scientists who could be contributing more to the leadership in their respective fields. WISELI will promote the leadership development of these staff women in science and engineering by including them in the proposed initiatives and developing special leadership training modules for staff scientists.

Develop Networks, Promote Communication, Increase Visibility of Women in Science and Engineering. Women consistently cite professional and personal isolation as a contributor to a chilly academic climate. To address this issue, WISELI will develop list serves and email distribution lists to connect WISE faculty, staff, graduate students, and postdocs; maintain a web site, sponsor receptions for the Celebrating Women in Science and Engineering Seminar Series, publish a WISE Research Resource Book with a picture and academic sketch of each woman faculty member in the biological and physical sciences; and publish a newsletter on the web to provide updates on arrivals of new women faculty, accomplishments and milestones, and research news from the women faculty in science. The Leadership Team will serve as a nominating committee, actively seeking awards for eligible women at UW-Madison. Further linkages with other campuses will be achieved by sending women to the CIC WISE and other national WISE meetings.

Cluster Hire Initiative. Cluster hires, defined as a group of new faculty positions for research in an interdisciplinary area, began at UW-Madison in 1998⁵⁶. To date, the program has resulted in about 80 faculty hires in approximately 24 departments. A total of 150 positions is projected. Each year, a call for proposals is issued by the Chancellor and through a peer review process, 10-15 proposals are selected with 2-4 faculty per cluster. WISELI will work with senior women faculty in an interdisciplinary field of science or engineering to develop a proposal for a Cluster Hire. While we cannot restrict hiring to women at a public institution, the position vacancy listing can state that successful applicants must have demonstrated ability to mentor women scientists and that the position will work closely with the WISELI.

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V. OVERARCHING

Committee on Women in the University

Establish the Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute (WISELI). Based on our experience with UW-Madison’s Center for Women’s Health Research (CWHR), having a centralized, visible administrative structure with space, a phone number, and a web site is a very effective strategy for addressing a number of impediments to women’s academic advancement. As a result of the CWHR, women’s health as a field of scientific inquiry went from obscurity to being one of the six Strategic Priorities of the Medical School, the focus of a Cluster Hire of three new faculty in the Biology of Sex and Gender Differences, the basis of a flourishing postdoctoral training program, and designation of UW-Madison as one of 15 National Centers of Excellence. Moreover, the CWHR has provided an effective and legitimate means of networking women faculty across departments, decreasing isolation, advocating for and mentoring women faculty, and linking women postdoctoral fellows in predominantly male environments with a variety of women faculty. We will use an analogous strategy in establishing WISELI. At a Town Hall Meeting, to which all UW faculty and staff will be invited, our plans will be announced and discussed. Articles in the campus-wide and individual college newsletters and the local newspapers will announce the NSF award and the establishment of WISELI. Space will be provided in the COE (new building to open June 2002) near the Dean’s Office with prominent signage on the door. The Co-Directors (proposal PIs) will report directly to the Provost. A web page and letterhead will be developed by the Media Specialist from the CWHR and include links to multiple national and local sites relevant to women in science and engineering.

Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Programs and Workshop. Because women are often excluded from informal networks by which their male colleagues acquire information critical to successful professional development, alternative means must be sought. One way is to provide structured programs for women that provide the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve personal and professional effectiveness. Using the Fluno Center, a unique conference-residence facility for immersion-learning, WISELI will develop or explore development of a variety of leadership training modules. While the specifics of each module will vary with the audience (e.g. junior women, senior women, post docs, biologists, engineers, single women, women with children), topics will include how to chair a meeting, enhancing your cv, the politics of search committees, negotiating for resources, grant writing, how to use national professional meetings to maximize your chance of promotion, how to challenge unfair manuscript reviews, effective teaching strategies, how to be an effective manager, balancing career and personal life, time management, recognizing and dealing with gender bias, strategies for countering “the invisible women,” the strategic use of humor, and how to say “no” and still be seen as a team player. To be as flexible as possible, different formats will be offered:

• agendas accommodating women who can only attend once
• an annual course with 2-3 day sessions 3 times per year with a certificate of completion from WISELI.
• “Summer Camp” for WISE moms, providing a week of day camp for kids and suggested activities for spouses while mothers attend leadership training conferences

In addition to workshops for women in academic science and engineering, WISELI will develop national training sessions for senior administrators (men and women) incorporating the principles established by WISELI’s research and best practices.

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For the complete text of the original NSF grant application, follow this link...