Commission on the Status of Women
MINUTES
Tuesday, April 20; 9:00 - 10:30am
Room: Wisconsin Room, Davies
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is charged with making recommendations to the Chancellor
regarding issues, policies, and initiatives affecting women, as well as seeking input from and providing
information to those individuals, departments, units, and organizations interested in the status of women.
PRESENT:
Teresa O’Halloran, Mary Canales, Judy Gatlin, Traci Thomas-Card
Guest: Becky Drout
APPROVAL OF PAST MINUTES:
February 17, 2012: Postponed
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
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MARCH 14; 12:00 – 1:00; Presidents Room, DC.: Listening Session
APRIL: Friday, Apr 20; 9:00 – 10:30; Schofield Room 202: meeting with Chancellor
MAY: Friday, May 4; 9:00 – 10:30; Wisconsin Room, DC—wrap
NEW BUSINESS:
CONTINUING BUSINESS:

Listening Session:
o Becky Drout attended and discussed her role as the facilitator for the listening session
March 14. She will introduce each panelist who will then give a brief summary of their
respective program/organization. Following will be an open Q & A session.
o Becky will also bring color-coded index cards for those attending to write their questions for
the panelists and ideas for improving the campus climate for women. If we do not get to all
the questions we can still answer them via the website. The suggested improvements can
be reviewed by the Commission at a later meeting.
o Reviewed power point list of attendees & agreed that even if low attendance panelists can
learn a lot from one another. Potential for identifying ways to collaborate in future also
discussed. Traci confirmed that Amanda from CASA will be attending.
o Reviewed advertisement plan including flyer, Commission website, & News Bureau events
calendar.
o Teresa confirmed food had been ordered.

Women’s and LGBTQ Resource Center
o Teresa met w/the Chancellor re: the recommendation supporting the FT permanent position
and the Commission’s concerns re: losing the women’s part of the resource center. She shared
w/him the minutes of the meeting, supporting the proposal from Jacqueline Bonneville.

Encourage Faculty Across Disciplines to Consider and Highlight the Role of Women in the Discipline No Discussion Took Place
o Make it obvious who our women’s studies affiliates are—link to CSW website
o Look into CETL/ORSP workshops
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Start with a capstone class
Have a student go through all UWEC websites—looking for gender neutrality
Add to CSW a link where people can report non-gender neutrality website issues
Piggyback issues of gender with collection of resources document
Teresa suggested we invite Aaronette on March 29 to give a presentation on this issues. She is
a speaker from UC Santa Cruz
 This event will take place Thursday March 29 from 5-6:30 pm in Hibbard Penthouse.
o We will discuss more at next meeting

Work/Life Balance – Employee Satisfaction
o Wellness Committee
o Tuition benefits—Syracuse and Vermont
o Children’s Center Committee--update from Traci Thomas-Card
o The question remains whether CSW wants to make a recommendation to the Chancellor
o Work/Life Research—update from Teresa, Kristina, Melissa, Vicki
o Discussion of employee satisfaction related to roles and responsibilities
o Pat forwarded the Commission’s support of women in relation to the possible changes
to the UW personnel system to the UW Personnel Committee. Teresa shared this email
w/the Chancellor who voiced his support for it.
o Teresa will attend the Legislative Task Force meeting r/t personnel this week
Wednesday, March 7, and the Board of Regents meeting Thursday March 8, where the
Regents will be briefed on the University personnel structure.
o Teresa will provide the Commission an update on these meetings at the next meeting
including whether or not the Commission’s note to the UPS committee was mentioned.
o Teresa also shared that she and Donna Weber had been invited to a meeting of the
University Planning Committee (UPC), which is charged with strategic planning for the
campus including the development of key performance indicators related to nurturing
campus climate. Teresa shared w/the UPC that the CSW is focused on work-life balance.
We discussed how employee satisfaction and ability to focus on the core functions of
their role and participate in university work is part of the mission of the university as
well as being useful to employees. Teresa will email the UPC’s goals to Commission
members.
o In relation to the above, we also discussed issues for classified staff r/t committee and
other service work. Time allotment for these efforts are not defined and therefore,
often dependent on the supervisor’s willingness to allow staff to participate.

Safety on Campus:
o UW System has opened the door for campuses to establish a policy that would allow the
Chancellor to make an exception to not being able to carry a concealed in a UWEC building.
(For example, an exception for a female that has a restraining order against someone and
believes she is in danger.) Completed at previous meeting w/no further discussion needed.
o There was an application for exception, the request was denied. UW-Eau Claire continues to
look at all avenues to assure employee safety on campus.-Completed at previous meeting
w/no further discussion needed.
o Are we ready to take this off of our agenda? YES
o Does it belong anywhere on our website? NO
o A representative from the UWEC Police will be at the Listening Session so we can hear if any
safety issues reported by the representative or the audience.

EDI: (new topic)
o Teresa shared that the Chancellor’s Diversity Advisory Committee has drafted an Inclusive
Excellence plan for the campus. It will be reviewed by the Dismantling Racism group Friday
March 9 and shared w/the Faculty Senate Tuesday, March 13. CSW will be able to review it in
the near future.
o History/Background: UW System use to require a 10 year diversity plan from every campus;
although these 10 year plans no longer required, System did request an ongoing plan. For
UWEC, this includes the Equity Scorecard system, which provides guidance for the plan’s
measures; an introduction and 4 pages outlining 4 goals and examples for how to reach each
goal. This plan mimics the framework of the University’s Strategic Plan. In addition there will be
annual action steps to be accomplished.
Submitted by Mary Canales, Commissioner