Minutes
Women’s Issues Committee Meeting
October 11, 2012
Present: Amy Edmonds, Liz Falk, Whitney Henley, Elizabeth Ogunsola, Ellie
Schemenauer, Lauren Smith, Jennifer Thibodeaux, Ronna Timmerman, Jo Ann Oravec,
Janay Alston.
Approval of the Minutes – the minutes were approved by acclamation.
Committee Reports
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Athletics (Amy Edmonds)
Amy reported on the fall programs in women’s athletics. Winter programs will start
next month. Lauren asked if there was a way to promote visibility for women’s
sports, and said a university should lead the way to showcasing women’s sports,
which are generally not reported on ESPN, etc.
Women’s Studies (Lauren Smith)
Ellie Schemenauer is working on the Women and Work class to incorporate service
learning. The department is trying to reach out to students earlier in their college
careers, because typically students learn about the program when they are already
upper-level. Jennifer Thibodeaux asked that we promote History of Sexuality,
which is being offered in the spring.
University Health and Counseling Services (Whitney Henley)
Liz Falk was introduced. Sexual health teaching on campus is accomplished
through Personal Health and Fitness classes. The Wellness Fair is next week.
Bedsider.org is a go-to web resource for students. Janay said that police officers on
campus are also available to talk about sexual assault in classes. Whitney said there
was a student interested in the bystander program, which teaches students how to
recognize sexual assault and when to intervene.
LGBTQ Task Force & Pride Resource Center (Amy Edmonds)
At the last meeting the committee focused on gender neutral bathrooms and talked
about Coming Out Day and Warhawk Connection Center events.
Inclusive Excellence (Liz Ogunsola)
Liz reported on the success of the Diversity Forum. Some speakers presented in
classes, which worked out very well. Lauren suggested the Gurilla Girls for next
year. The diversity questions will be put on the agenda for the next meeting, and the
committee discussed how to have a conversation about the questions within the
timeframe of our meeting.
Old Business
 Women in Leadership – the committee decided to look at dates the first week of
March. Lauren described the nomination and selection processes. The criteria is
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very broad, but that is because there are different categories on positions on campus
(administrative, classical, academic, etc.). At times there have been too few
nominations, and we were able to contact nominators from previous years to ask
them to submit again. Other years, there were too many nominations, and we were
able to save them for the leaner years. Nomination forms will be sent to the
committee for approval. Regarding the speaker, Ellie suggested that some of the
female Olympians from the wheelchair basketball team be asked to speak, and Amy
will follow up on this. A digital story about their experience was suggested, and
Lauren will contact Jeff Kohlmeyer/JimWinship.
Work/Life Balance – former minutes which pertain to work/life balance were
distributed in advance via email. Jennifer Thibodeau talked about difficulty faculty
have fitting everything in each week (teaching, research, meetings, correcting
assignments, etc). The issue of classroom availability is tied into the problem
because there is so little flexibility in possible teaching schedules. Amy reported
that Matt Aschenbrenner and the Enrollment Management Committee have been
meeting to discuss this. At the end of October, the Provost will be attending the
faculty senate meeting to discuss faculty load, and this would be an opportunity for
WIC committee members to bring up the issue of flexible scheduling, teaching loads
and research expectations. Lauren thought it would be best to draft a statement to
the Faculty Senate after this meeting rather than before. The group decided to set up
a sub-committee which would be charged with drafting the statement. Ellie said her
Women & Work students could be used for this project.
Plans for 2012-2013 – three goals were established: to find a way to bring sexual
assault education to a broader group of students at UWW; to find a way to bring
more attention to the female athletes, and to set up the work/life balance
subcommittee, which would be charged with work-life balance suggestions to be
sent to the faculty senate.
WHEL – provost speaking dates – tabled.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathy Fellows