Georgia Tech’s ADVANCE Program
The NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation
Program at Georgia Tech takes an integrated approach to institutional factors that support the full participation and advancement of women, and provides a model of best practices in academic science and engineering--constituting the core intellectual merit and broader impacts of the initiative.
Initiatives
• Developing an inter-college network of termed professorships that promote goals of ADVANCE.
•
•
Institutionalizing a formal training process to raise awareness of bias in evaluation .
Collecting and using resource-allocation data to track equity and develop best practices .
•
•
Holding annual retreats of women faculty, provosts, deans and school chairs to review and refine goals and progress.
Strengthening and extending the scope and impact of family-friendly practices .
• Defining problems, issues, and strategies for advancement
Female Faculty in Administrative Positions
12
10
8
6
4
2
0 deans school chairs associate deans & associate chairs
97-98 00-01 03-04
Faculty Flux Charts
160
140
120
100
Regents Professor
Professor
Associate Professor
Assistant Professor
124
120
1
1
28
1/ 0
33
3 6
0 / 2
2
135
38
3
80
60
6
51
0 / 0
2 52 0 / 2
3
55
6
40 4
7
20
4
41
0 / 1
9 39 0 / 4
11
42
0 / 0
3
142
1
42
144
0 / 2
1
1
42
1/ 2
1/ 2
3
55
0 / 2
1/ 1
6
4
3
44
0 / 1
4
3
57
11
6
43
0 / 5
1/ 5
0
2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003
Academic Year
2003-2004
Female Faculty
2004-2005
In - Hires
Out -
Retirements/
Resignations+
Terminations
Up -
Promotions
800 Regent s Prof essor
Prof essor
700
Associat e Professor
Assist ant Prof essor
685
600
500
2
9
330
7/8
11
695
2
331
712
2
1/ 0
17/5
22
744
1
13/4
17
336
357
12/6
6
743
1
1/0
11/5
363
400
300
200
100
8
18
193
2/1
9
10
194
12
5/8
12
191
15
38 133
15
0/10
32
139
10
1/10
31
152
7/6
14
19
192
0/8
32
15
161
1/8
6 18 2/3
192
0/8 15
17
153
0/6
0
2000-2001 2001-2002
Male Faculty
2002-2003 2003-2004 2004-2005
The GT-NSF ADVANCE Team
Principal Investigator Jean-Lou Chameau , Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
In -
Hires
Out -
Retirements/
Resignations+
Terminations
Up -
Promotions
Co-Principal Investigators Mary Frank Fox , NSF ADVANCE Professor, School of Public Policy and
Co-director, Center for Study of Women, Science, and Technology (WST)
Mary Lynn Realff , Associate Professor,
School of Polymer, Textile & Fiber Engineering, Co-director, WST
Sue Rosser , Professor and Ivan Allen College Dean's Chair of Technology and the Liberal Arts and Dean of Ivan Allen College
ADVANCE Professors
Energeia Editor and
ADEPT Coordinator
Director
Program Coordinator
Jane Ammons, NSF ADVANCE Professor, College of Engineering
Mary Frank Fox, NSF ADVANCE Professor, Ivan Allen College
Mei-Yin Chou, NSF ADVANCE Professor, College of Science
Mary Jean Harrold, NSF ADVANCE Professor, College of Computing
Carol Colatrella , Professor, School of Literature, Communication and
Culture and Co-director, WST
Mary Lynn Realff ,
Associate Professor and Co-director, WST
Angela Shartar
ADVANCE Research
Led by Dr. Mary Frank Fox, the ADVANCE Research program focuses upon organizational facilitators and barriers in advancement, as they may operate in teaching and research, work environments, processes of evaluation, and household/family arrangements.
To date, Fox and her team have
• Surveyed all GT women faculty and a representative sample of male faculty in NSF- related disciplines
(with a 76% overall response rate)
• Surveyed female and male faculty in similar disciplines at eight peer institutions (65% response rate)
• Interviewed 20 GT female faculty members
Findings from Surveys of GT Faculty
Compared to Faculty in Peer
Institutions Show:
Findings from Interviews with GT
Women Faculty Indicate that:
1. Common areas: Consistent gender difference in speaking about research with faculty in home units -- with men more likely than women to speak daily.
1. The most important, reported aspects of a. "having an academic career," b. meanings of "success," and c. levels/areas of "satisfaction" converge on: autonomy and impact in research, and impact on students.
2. Areas in which GT may stand to improve relative to peers: a. characterizations of home units as being exciting, creative, and fair; b. ratings of aspects of units and positions, as in allocations of space and recognition of faculty by College administration.
2. Participation in "decision making" in units/institute is a complex issue fraught with expressions of "tension and stress."
3. Area in which GT is way ahead: chairs reviewing performance with faculty on annual basis.
3. The means for advancement from associate to full professor – compared to those for assistant to associate-- are less known, less understood, and viewed as somewhat beyond the "control" of faculty.
Family-Friendly Initiatives Implemented
• Active Services Modified Duties Procedure to enable flexible work schedule and teaching release
• Stopping the Tenure Clock and Leave of Absence
• R. Kirk Landon Learning Center, Bright Horizons facility for 120 children of Georgia Tech employees and Home Park neighborhood
• Nursing Mom Centers at
3 campus locations
Impact
Identify best practices
Identify barriers to success
Make recommendations
Implement their recommendations
Conference
Breakout groups
Advantages
• People develop better ideas when they know you are going to implement them
•
•
•
• Format gives a good balance of “venting/expressing” with generation of “actions”
Outcomes
•
People “buy in” when they have contributed to the solution
Faculty and administrators develop solutions together
Group interaction builds networks across campus
Leverage best practices across the entire campus
Building Networks at Georgia Tech
The ADVANCE Professors and the Center for the
Study of Women, Science and Technology (WST) sponsor cross-college and inter-college networks, including lunches and workshops on:
• grants and funding
• interdisciplinary teams in research
• career coaching
• research productivity
• women in higher education • advice from successful
• family – work issues
• promotion and tenure women faculty
• celebrating successes
Annual Conference
A key activity of the GT-NSF ADVANCE Program.
The 2005 conference included:
• ADVANCE Research presentation and discussion
• Presentation and discussion of Promotion Tenure
Advance Committee (PTAC) research, best practices reports, and surveys
• The opportunity for individual use of Awareness of
Decisions in Evaluation of Promotion and Tenure
(ADEPT) computer tool, built on PTAC and ADVANCE research
Comments from Conference Participants
“This conference and ADVANCE effort attest to [the changes in the culture with regard to the full participation, advancement and retention of women in academic science and engineering at your institution].”
Associate Professor
• Career coaching session bringing together faculty who had served on P and T committees to review CV’s of interested female faculty participants. Each faculty/coach team spoke for 20 minutes. Each faculty participant received input from four or five coaches.
• Break-out groups discussions developing action items related to research productivity and performance, advancement beyond tenure, and workload/balancing career and family.
• Plenary session on institutionalizing ADVANCE
“I saw my c.v. through the eyes of faculty in other colleges/departments/disciplines. Helpful!”
Associate Professor
“A lot has happened here at Georgia Tech in a short period of time. I hope it is sustained!”
Assistant Professor
Awareness of Decisions in Evaluating Promotion and Tenure
Interactive Computer Instrument to Reduce Bias in Evaluation
Simulated Meeting and Follow Up Analysis
User choices affect meeting outcome
Meeting statements linked to:
• Scholarship on bias
• GT ADVANCE research and surveys
• PTAC report & surveys
Navigating Your Career: an activity to promote mentoring and career planning
ADEPT Implementation
• ADEPT available at http://www.adept.gatech.edu
• Cases discussed at 2003 and 2005 GT ADVANCE conferences
• In 2004 and 2005, ADEPT website and instrument demonstrated at GT ADVANCE conferences, at Georgia
Tech and other universities, and national conferences
• Cases and ADEPT activities implemented at Georgia
Tech in 2004-2005 in college-level and unit-level evaluation committees as opportunities for discussion prior to consideration of real cases
“ The ADEPT tool was very useful in broadening awareness and perspectives of the college-level P&T committee.”
Administrator responsible for P&T College-Level Committee
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