ADVANCE Programs at PUIs:
Lessons Learned at
Two Private Liberal Arts Colleges
Catherine White Berheide
Department of Sociology
Skidmore College
SUN Grant Goals
Recognizing and combating gender bias
• Climate Surveys
• Bias Prevention Training
• Undergraduates
• Faculty and Administrators
Advancing faculty careers
• Grants
• Mentoring
Adapting Climate Surveys for Liberal Arts Colleges
• Compared questionnaires from RI
institutions
• Used University of Illinois Chicago
instrument as starting point
• Tailored it for liberal arts colleges
• Added items on promotion to full
professor
Success Balancing Personal and Professional Lives Scale
(in percentages)
Strongly
Somewhat Somewhat
Strongly Total
Agree
Agree
Agree
Disagree Disagree Disagree (N)
Often must
forgo
professional
activities for
personal
responsibilities
12
11
20
16
19
22
100
(232)
Personal
responsibilities/
commitments
have slowed
career
progression
15
14
24
10
20
17
100
(231)
Career
responsibilities/
commitments
have hindered
personal life
goals
16
18
24
13
14
15
100
(229)
α=.796
Mean Scores on Success Balancing Personal and
Professional Lives Scale by STEM and Gender
14
Mean Score
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
NonSTEM
Men
STEM
Men
NonSTEM
Total
STEM Women Sample
Women
Comparison of Family Conflicts with Work
SUN: “Personal responsibilities and commitments have slowed down my career progression”
VT: “My personal/family responsibilities have slowed my advancement”
UAB : “My personal or family responsibilities have slowed my advancement at UAB”
I am treated with respect by my students
by Gender, Rank, and College of Employment
***
5.7
5.5
***
*
Skidmore Male (N=55)*
5.3
*
Union Male (N=64)
Skidmore Female (N=67)**
Union Female (N=51)
5.1
4.9
4.7
Assistant/Associate Professor (N=147)
*p<.05; **p<.01; ***p<.001
Full Professor (N=90)
Bias Prevention Training for Undergraduates:
Year I
Bias Prevention Training for Undergraduates:
Year II
4.2
**
4
3.8
3.6
Female Prof
Male Prof
3.4
3.2
3
Female
Student Gender
Male
*Mean Student Rating of First Year Seminar Faculty
Bias Prevention Training for Undergraduates:
Year III
• Video on gender schemas
New Approach to Reducing the Effect of Gender
Bias in Student Ratings
• Improve quantitative and qualitative
instruments
• Train faculty to recognize gender bias in
ratings
– Best Practices in Student Rating of Faculty
(Catherine Ross, Teaching and Learning Center,
Wake Forest University)
– Reducing Gender Bias in Student Ratings of
Faculty (Joey Sprague, Sociology, University of
Kansas)
Bias Prevention Training for Faculty
• The Search Committee Meeting and the Department
Meeting –CRLT Players (University of Michigan)
• Searching for Excellence and Diversity Workshop
(Women in Science and Engineering Leadership
Institute-WISELI)
• Recruiting, Retaining, and Maintaining Women
Faculty (Carol deWet, Geosciences, Franklin &
Marshall)
• Potholes and Speedbumps on the Road to Diversity
(Geraldine Richmond, Chemistry, University of
Oregon)
Advancing Careers: Grants
•
•
•
•
Teaching Load Modification
Visit Here-or-There
Advanced Education
Conference
Advancing Careers: Mentoring
•Receptions (J S U)
•Speed Mentoring (J U)
•Discussion Tables (S U)
•Peer Mentoring (S U)
J Implemented as joint events
S Implemented at Skidmore
U Implemented at Union
Receptions
• Joint receptions, afternoon teas, lunches, or
dinners to meet each other and distinguished
women scientists
• Annual campus events to celebrate the
successes of STEM women
Speed Mentoring
Goal: Provide newer faculty with the opportunity to ask questions of more senior
faculty and to receive a variety of inputs on a few topics.
Meet for 5 min. with 5 different people.
Reception following to allow for longer discussions.
Spring 2009
Joint event with STEM women
from Skidmore and Union
at Skidmore
Discussion Tables
Goal: Bring women together to discuss strategies for handling
various situations.
Table #1: How do I carve time out of a busy schedule to focus on research?
Table #2: What role should service play in my career?
Table #3: How do I interpret student comments on my course evaluations?
Other topics generated by the participants covered in succeeding events
• Tailoring research for undergraduates
• Managing students in the classroom
• Work-life balance
Audience:
All women on campus.
Peer Mentoring
We developed discussion groups on each campus for STEM women
who are
A. pre-tenure faculty
B. post-tenure faculty who are not yet full professors
Model:
Meeting one is an open discussion with peers with the goal of
determining one or more areas the group would like more information
about.
Meeting two is a discussion with peers and a more experienced
woman on campus who can provide guidance in one or more areas.
Example: Third Year Review
Additional Mentoring Strategies
•Distinguished Speakers (J S U)
•Workshops (J S U)
•Writing Groups (S U)
•Poster Session (J)
Professor Tara A. Lindsley, Ph.D.
Thelma P. Lally Endowed Chair in Neuroscience
Center for Neuropharmacology & Neuroscience
Albany Medical College
J Implemented as joint events
S Implemented at Skidmore
U Implemented at Union
Distinguished Speaker Series
• Leverage distinguished women scientists for
mentoring, research opportunities, and ideas
• Two approaches to making connections between
colleges
– Invite faculty and students from the other institution
– Have speaker go to both institutions and share costs
• Best approach—identify a STEM woman at each
campus to work together to organize visit
COACh Workshops
• Academic Leadership (RPI)
• Coaching Women to be Effective Change
Agents (RPI)
• Making the Most of the Moment: The Art of
Getting Your Message Across (Skidmore)
• Balancing Your Career: Strategies to Support
Balance and Renewal (Union)
Writing Groups
• Participants commit to spending three hours
writing followed by a lunch discussion
involving goal setting, accountability, and
troubleshooting
• Multiple groups
– Untenured only
– Tenured only
– Mixed
• Faculty-only room (with coffee, etc.) in library
Culminating Poster Session
• To celebrate the scholarly accomplishments of
the women who had received grants from us
• Held in the new science building at Union
• Separated into three waves
Lessons Learned
• Mentoring of junior faculty is good, but there’s room
for improvement
• Mid-career faculty want more support
• Faculty find it helpful to discuss approaches to their
careers in small groups with others at the same
career stage
• Discussions bring to light issues that affect all faculty
• Given time or money, STEM women
are highly productive
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by
• The National Science Foundation under Grant
Numbers 0820080 and 0820032
• Skidmore College Faculty/Student Collaborative
Research Program
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material
are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National
Science Foundation, the SUN Network Committee, or Skidmore or Union Colleges.
Contact Information
SUN Network PIs:
Catherine White Berheide (Skidmore College, Sociology)
cberheid@skidmore.edu
Brenda Johnson (Union College, Mathematics) johnsonb@union.edu
SUN Network Website:
http://sun.skidmore.
union.edu/