ANNUAL REPORT

Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Women

June 2001 - June 2002

Overview

During the 2001-2002 Academic Year, the Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Women worked to better women's status on campus, while at the same time participating in CIC initiatives and contributing to other campus committees.

The Commitee was very pleased to meet with the new Chancellor, Nancy Cantor, early in the fall semester, on September 14, 2001. Before the meeting, the Committee had already studied Chancellor Cantor's response to inquiries from the Board of Trustees concerning their report, Progress and Challenges in Representation and Equity for Women at the University of Illinois (See Cantor's response dated August 9, 2001, in Appendix A). By the end of the year, the Committee asked that the Chair write to the Chancellor commending her efforts on behalf of all campus women (letter from Watts, dated March 2, 2002, Appendix B).

The Committee both initiated inquiries and proposals for improving the status of women, as well as monitored progress as the implementation of previous projects went forward.

This Report describes the activities of CCSW in several, interrelated areas:

I. Committee Engagement with the Campus.

II. Fulfilling Chancellor Cantor's charge to propose a campus plan for mentoring.

III. Monitoring the progress and implementation of continuing projects at both campus and committee level.

IV. Participation in the activities of the Woman's Advocacy Network of the CIC.

V. Prospects for AY 2002-2003.



I. Committee Engagement with the Campus

The work of the Committee was enlarged and enhanced as individual members served on other committees or in administrative assignments on campus. In this way, CCSW's goals were interjected into deliberations exterior to the Committee. The Committee itself continued to make the campus aware of its presence in a variety of ways.

A. Two members served on the Gender Equity Task Force, and three on the Diversity Initiatives Committee. The work of both of these groups will be discussed in Section III.

CCSW member Priscilla Yu also served as Chair of the Senate Equal Opportunity Committee, and Emily Watts served on the Senate Committee on Committees. Kal Alston served on the University Senates Conference Committee. Other members served on college and departmental committees and in administrative positions.


B. Chancellor Cantor met monthly with Chair Watts and the Provost's representative, Kathleen Pecknold, who also served as an ex-officio member of CCSW. Members of CCSW suggested topics to be discussed, and Chair Watts reported the Chancellor's responses and suggestions to CCSW.


C. CCSW invited a variety of guests to make persentations during regularly scheduled meetings: Cheryl Bullock, Office of Instructional Resources (November 27, 2001); Jane Loeb, Professor of Educational Psychology, and Professor Emerita Susan Greendorfer (November 27, 2001); the Council of Deans (January 22, 2002); and Carol Livingstone (April 23, 2002). Throughout the year, various members of the Committee, such as Jamie Lake, Heidi Johnson, and Kathleen Pecknold, make special presentations.

Chancellor Cantor met with CCSW on September 14, 2001, at a special meeting.


D. Announcements of meetings were published in The Daily Illini and Illini Week.

CCSW sent informational postcards to all women faculty, staff, and graduate students. Informational posters were sent to deans and department heads.


E. As in previous years, copies of the agenda and minutes of each meeting, as well as a copy of this Annual Report, will be deposited in the campus archives.

II. Fulfilling Chancellor Cantor's Charge to Propose a Campus Plan for Mentoring

At the special meeting of September 14, 2002, Chancellor Cantor asked CCSW to propose a plan for mentoring on the campus. CCSW's goal was to propose policy and procedures which include women and men faculty, academic professionals, and staff.

CCSW first surveyed mentoring plans at other CIC schools and gathered some information on current campus plans.

On January 22, 2002, twelve members of the Council of Deans met with CCSW to discuss mentoring strategies already in place and to explore options for campus mentoring. The cooperation and sincere interest of the Deans resulted in a plan shaped by CCSW and submitted to the Chancellor on April 15, 2002.

The recommendation includes a survey of mentoring plans at CIC schools as well as an overview of current mentoring on campus.

CCSW drafted this proposal with the hope that, as one dean asserted, mentoring would become a core value of our campus.



III. Monitoring the Progress and Implementation of Continuing Projects at Both Campus and Committee Level

Under Chancellor Cantor, the campus made remarkable progress toward creating a campus in which both men and women could realize their potential. Some initiatives had been suggested by CCSW's Status of Faculty Women (1999), and others are the result of committee or administrative initiatives.

The following is a list of major campus initiatives which will, the Committee believes, contribute to a more balanced and diverse campus community:

A. The Gender Equity Committee recommended exit interviews of all faculty and academic staff -- a plan implemented by Provost Herman in Spring, 2001. CCSW had recommended interviews for all exiting faculty in 1999.


B. The Gender Equity Committee also recommended exit interviews with all finalist candidates for academic jobs, whether or not the job was offered or accepted. This plan was implemented by Provost Herman.


C. In the 2001-2 Faculty Salary Study, one suggestion of CCSW -- the discontinuance of athe "all male" model -- became part of the salary analysis. (See Appendix D, p.4). The study also includes a discussion of the possible future use of another CCSW suggestions" "Examining the interaction of gender with other independent variables in the regression" (pp.17-18).

In "Table 1. Summary of Significant Effects," the study found that the salaries of new women assistant professors fell below those of new men assistant professors by $1,790.00 (p. 5). The study also found that about 9% of all women faculty salaries fell into the "15% or more below prediction category," while about 7% of allmen's salaries fell into that category (p. 5).

Even with special attention paid to the salaries of all those faculty below predicition, the salary for men full professors remained at third in the Big Ten, and the slaaries of women full professors moved from seventh in 1998-1999 to sixth. However, the disparity between the salaries of men and women full professors increased slightly. See Appendix E for other aspects of salaries in comparison to Big Ten schools.


D. The campus hired increasing numbers of women and minority faculty, as CCSW had suggested. Of the 195.7 new hires for FY02, 89.7 (45.8%) were women and 45.1 (23%) were minorities (See Appendix F).


E. In February 2002, the Chancellor implemented the provision of contraception for women faculty and staff at McKinley Health Care Center. CCSW, along with other campus groups, had urged this provision.


F. The Provost's Office provided a new policy concerning "Modified Teaching Duties for Faculty Members with a New Child" (see Appendix F).


G. The campus finally made true progress toward an adequate childcare program, as CCSW has recommended throughout its history. Besides the expansion of the Child Development Lab School, a Strategic Plan Work Group is proposing a Drop-In Child Care Center and a plan for At-Home Sick Care (See Appendix H).

Research by CCSW member Jamie Lake informed the Committee of state law concerning child care centers in state-owned or state-leased buildings (See Appendix I).


H. In its First Annual Report, dated May 1, 2002 (Appendix J), the Diversity Initiatives Planning Committee proposed a number of objectives and goals, among which are the following: "Recruit and retain greater numbers of women and minority, faculty staff and administrators (including deans, department heads, and senior level administrators)" (p. 3); "Increase fellowship funds for women graduate students in underrepresented areas" (p. 7); "Increase support for and understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trangender issues and members of the campus community" (p. 8); "Seek 'legislative relief' that will allow the University to expand childcare facilities beyond research oriented career centers. . . . one of the many issues affecting the recruitment and retention of women faculty and staff continues to be the lack of affordable, high quality childcare" (p. 8); and "Demonstrate the value to the campus community of the existing cultural programs, the Office for LGBT concerns and the Office of Women's Programs by providing resources to enable them to enhance their ability to provide quality services to the campus and community" (p.9).


I. CCSW alerted the Office of Instructional Resources to our concerns about the ICES forms: the idenficiation of the responding student's gender (an issue also confronted by the College of Engineering); the possible discrimination against women professors; and the possiblity of using the ICES forms from over the years for research on male students' responses to male and female professors. Cheryl Bullock, Office of Instructional Resources, provided CCSW with information on these issues and suggested the difficulty in changing the format.


J. CCSW received the final draft of Jane Loeb and Susan Greendorfer's study "Retention and Promotion of Male and Female Faculty Members at UIUC, a study initiated in the early 1990's by CCSW and funded by former Chancellor Aiken. CCSW then formally transmitted the study to Chancellor Cantor, (See Appendix K for summary; the complete report is in CCSW files). The study found, inter alia, that htere was a small significant difference favoring men in attainment of tenure and that there was a consistent tendency for men to attain higher ranks.

This list of research, proposals, and implementation is a tribute to the recommendations of the Board of Trustees, Chancellor Cantor, and members of the campus community as they continue their efforts to provide a setting in which men and women can achieve.

IV. Participation in the Activities of the Woman's Advocacy Network of the CIC

In June 18-20, 2001 in Fennville, Michigan, the Woman's Advocacy Network (WAN) of the CIC met in a retreat to consider the implications of what appears to be CIC disinterest in women's issues. The retreat was the direct result of the omission of WAN representatives from the teams of several CIC schools sent to the CIC Conference on Diversity in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in April 2001. Although this was not a problem for UIUC, which sent a quite a complete team, UIUC has joined the other CIC schools in questioning CIC's perception of women's issues at member institutions. At this retreat and, later, at the fall meeting (November 4-5, 2001 in Park Ridge, Illinois), which Chair Watts attended, the members of WAN decided to gather comparative information on the status of women at CIC institutions.

At the spring meeting (May 14-20, 2002 in Park Ridge, Illinois), which Chair Watts and Chair-to-be Kathryn Anthony attended, UIUC reported on CIC mentoring projects (see Appendix L) and Faculty Salary Studies. Because only two other schools had reported regular Faculty Salary Studies (Michigan, Ann Arbor and Purdue), UIUC submitted the 2001-2002 UIUC Faculty Salary Study (see Appendix D) and a draft article by UIUC Professors Marianne A. Ferber and Jane Loeb, "Issues in Conducting an Institutional Salary Equity Study" (the text of this article is included in CCSW's files).

From other CIC schools, the following reports are included: Parental Leave Policies and Tenure Accommodations for Childcare (Appendix M); Status of CIC Women Faculty Summary Report (Appendix N; note: at the time this report was prepared, the complete UIUC Work-Life Report had not been issued, only a preliminary report); Child Care Enrollment Ratios and other childcare statistics (Appendix O); and a preliminary study, Women Administrators at CIC Institutions (Appendix P; note: like most other members of WAN, Chair Watts felt that certain job titles were confusing. WAN hopes to redo this study with clarification of job titles).

Although CCSW protested to Chancellor Herman in fall 2000, CIC continues to withhold staff support from WAN (except for reserving a meeting room at Big Ten headquarters in Park Ridge and providing lunch).

Association with WAN continues to be productive and stimulating for CCSW.



V. Prospects for AY 2002-2003

In May 2002 Chancellor Cantor appointed Kathryn Anthony Chair of CCSW. CCSW will continue with a balance of new and experienced members. Goals of CCSW for 2003-2004 will include a continuation of projects as well as new initiatives:

A. Completing the status report on undergraduate women.
B. Monitoring the implementation of recommendations of the Diversity Initiatives Committee and the Gender Equity Committee
C. Monitoring faculty women's salaries and the salary study.
D. Monitoring Faculty Excellence, TOPPS, and other hires
E. Monitoring progress in childcare facilities
F. Monitoring the implementation of CCSW's proposal for mentoring
G. Continuing to express the need on campus for domestic partner's benefits.