Interim Report to the AS&E Faculty
AS&E Faculty Work/Life Balance Task Force
April 27, 2011
Task Force roster: 2010-2011
Name
Dept.
Title
Role
Dunn, Kevin
English
Assoc. Professor
Co-Chair
Remick, Elizabeth
Political Science
Assoc. Professor
Co-Chair
Baise, Laurie
Civil Engineering
Assoc. Professor
Cowen, Lenore
Computer Science
Professor
Gallagher, Hugh
Physics/Astronomy
Assoc. Professor
Penvenne, Jeanne
History
Assoc. Professor
Wu, Jean
American Studies
Senior Lecturer
Davies, Margery
Diversity, AS&E
Director
Ex-Officio, nonvoting
Abriola, Linda
Engineering
Dean
Berger-Sweeney,
Joanne
Arts and Sciences
Dean
Ex-Officio, nonvoting
Spring ’11 only
Charge of the Task Force
• Gather information about Tufts’ current
work/life policies and practices for full-time
faculty
• Identify best practices in the academy
• Make recommendations appropriate for our
community
Goals
Recommend policies that will:
• Aid in recruitment and retention of excellent
faculty
• Increase productivity throughout the faculty
life course
• Improve faculty quality of life
Methodology of the Task Force:
Data-driven
AS&E faculty needs
• Chairs’ survey
• COACHE survey (2008-9)
• HERI survey
• Consultation with relevant faculty groups on campus
Tufts’ current policies and practices
• Consultation with administrators
• Faculty Handbook
Best practices
• Benchmarking of peer institutions
• Review of scholarly literature
Benchmarking: Comparison institutions
Group 1: Tufts’ peers
Boston College
Georgetown
Brown
Johns Hopkins
Columbia
Northwestern
Cornell
University of Pennsylvania
Dartmouth
Duke
Washington University in St.
Louis
Benchmarking: Comparison institutions
Group 2: National leaders in work/life practices
Emory
UCLA
Harvard
University of Michigan
MIT
University of Virginia
University of Arizona
University of Southern California
UC Berkeley
University of Washington
Benchmarking: Policy areas
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Elder care
Child care
Care of ill spouse/partner or other adult dependent
Leave for childbirth or adoption
Tenure clock stoppage
Housing
Administrative support around work/life issues
Dual career issues
Tuition benefits for dependents
Preliminary observations from HERI data
• 187 respondents from AS&E
• 26% rate of return
• Full-time (88%) and part-time (12%) faculty
Preliminary observations from HERI data
Dependent care has a profound impact on faculty
throughout the life course.
Faculty reported that they were “somewhat” or “extensive[ly]”
stressed over the following forms of dependent care over the
past two years:
• Child care: 42% (tenure-track 58%)
• Care of spouse or partner: 41% (tenured faculty 45%)
• Elder care: 27% (tenured faculty 28%; tenure-track 6%)
Preliminary Observations from HERI data
Dependent care problems have led to lower faculty
productivity: missed days of work and missed
professional opportunities.
• 50% of all respondents reported missing work days in the last two
years in order to do dependent care, including 14% who missed 6-10
days, 6% who missed 11-20 days and 7% who missed more than 20
days.
• 31% of women respondents (and 21% of all respondents) said that
the cost of dependent care had prevented them from attending
conferences or taking part in research or other professional activities
that take them away from home.
Conclusions/Next Steps
• Task Force is still analyzing the HERI data and
formulating recommendations
• President Bacow has extended our charge to Fall
2011, and we will report with recommendations then
• Contact Kevin Dunn (kevin.dunn@tufts.edu) or
Elizabeth Remick (elizabeth.remick@tufts.edu)
E-lists for dependent care support
• Drawing on knowledge of Tufts community
members: local resources, information
• E-list for elder/adult care
• E-list for child care
• Faculty and staff welcome
• To join, please contact Tina Schiavone at
Tina.Schiavone@tufts.edu