University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Women

Meeting Minutes

1:00-2:00 p.m., 400 Swanlund Administration Building

I. Announcements

A. Welcome to all members, new and returning, and our guest, John Ory, Director, Center for
     Teaching Excellence

B. Review of this year's meeting dates: Cheryl Bullock informed the committee members that the
    duration of the meetings has been reduced from two to one hour. She also asked the members
    to review the following meeting times and mark their calendars accordingly:

1. Friday, November 18, 2005, 1-2 p.m. 400 Swanlund Administration Building,
    Kristine Campbell will be here to talk about ACES net

2. Thursday, December 15, 2005, 2-3 p.m. 400 Swanlund Administration Building

C. We will be sending out another calendar in the next 3-4 weeks to ascertain meeting times in the
     Spring Semester

II. Old Business

A. Approval of minutes of the May 6, 2005 meeting.

B. Commitment to Action Chart: Cheryl Bullock requested the committee members to take a look
    at the issues that have been covered by this committee in the past and if we need to follow some
    of them again.

III. New Business

A. 2005 Senior Survey: Cheryl Bullock introduced John Ory as the person who compiled the
    Senior Survey and added question at the request of the committee in the past year.

1. John Ory apprised the committee members that the Senior Survey was started in
    1989, which was called the Senior Census then. The Chancellor at the time wanted
    to have a quick survey of students graduating from the University. All these years it
    has undergone modifications and presently it is conducted online. There was a
    54 percent return rate in the survey of graduating seniors last year and a lottery is
    also conducted with the prize amount being $1000 for airline tickets. Open-
    ended comments are the most valuable and they have been altered over these
    years. Subjects like technology, obstacles, general educations, undergraduate
    research experiences, etc.

2. John Ory walked the committee members through the survey results of 2005 and
    reiterated the importance of year-to-year surveys for comparison purposes. He told
    that this practice is extremely helpful in changing policies on campus based on how
    the students' preferences change. For example, general education has made vast
    improvements as indicated by the open-ended accounts. He also reiterated that
    this year they received a very positive response from the seniors and they have
    noticed some of the new initiatives that the University has taken to welcome
    students like orientations, workshops, etc.

3. John Ory apprised the committee of the changes that they took in 1990 and
    conducted focus group studies. It was found out that African American students
    did not do as well as their counterparts. He encouraged members to read the
    open-ended comments about obstacles faced by students by college. He also
    emphasized the importance of carrying the survey out regularly and presently it
    is being reflected in some departmental reports. A comparison of students' skill
    set entering and exiting the university by gender shows that many students have
    gained from the use of technology, and especially female students have
    appreciated the knowledge about cultural differences, etc. John offered to
    provide the data and analysis if anyone needed it.

4. Pat Morey raised her concerns about the time of the survey having an impact on the
    students' opinions and responses. For example, if the students were surveyed this
    fall as compared to in spring, the fatal bus accident would influence the responses
    to some extent.

5. John Ory assured the committee that his experience has shown that such incidents
    are reflected even if the survey is administered in March. One of the many obstacles
    that students face can be gauged from the open-ended accounts are the main
    problems students face is in advising and it does get reflected in their responses.

6. Carol Livingstone apprised the committee that the university is applying for a grant
    for encouraging women in the field of sciences and engineering and such a data on
    research study would be very helpful.

7. John Ory told that the students have had some wonderful experiences in
    undergraduate research as reflected by the survey, but the university needs to
    explore more to tap their full potential and make more effort to link people and
    resources on this campus. John also emphasized that many more students showed
    positivism towards diversity, ethnicity and that is being reflected in the open-ended
    accounts.

8. Pat Morey informed the committee that the Asian American Cultural Center
    opened on campus and this was a reflection of appreciation of diversity.

9. Victoria Gonzalez raised her concerns that this was the only house that had gone up
    and everything else had gone down.

10. Alice Dilts also informed that this year each student housing building has
      introduced a multi cultural representative, which could also be an indicator.

11. John Ory reiterated that if the committee members were interested then he would
      be happy to share the results with Cheryl.

12. Jennifer raised her concerns about the students facing difficulties in understanding
      foreign TAs and professors and how the question was framed.

13. John Ory assured the committee that this was just a snapshot and not the actual
      response. However, this issue has improved tremendously over the years with the
      SPEAK test, TA training but we still have some student complaining. Often, there
      is no serious problem and the Center for Teaching Excellence observes the TAs
      and professors.

14. Pat Morey asked if parts of the LGBT environmental survey being administered in
      spring semester would be included in this survey.

15. John Ory reiterated that he is open to suggestions and comments but he would not
      want to make the survey too long.

16. Pat Morey inquired about the actual raw form of the response.

17. John Ory assured that the Provost, the Chancellor, Cabinet members get the whole
      survey with the names taken off, the deans get the open-ended comments of their
      colleges, and the departments get the raw data of their students.

18. Ginger Winckler inquired if there was a way in which we could assess the tuition
      increase and how that reflects in hours that the students have to work.

19. John Ory informed that these numbers have not changed in the last ten years and
      he does look at these with caution.

20. Victoria Gonzalez inquired if this data was broken by gender and John informed
      that it is not done but the data was available and it could be done if someone
      wanted it.

21. Cheryl Bullock thanked John Ory for sharing the survey results with the committee.

B. President White's Strategic Plan: Cheryl Bullock told the committee members that she wanted
    to make the short version available for the committee members to read through it and if the
    members were interested in reading the full version, they should inform the secretary,
    Mansi Sachdev. Cheryl assured that we would talk about it in December-January and we
    as a committee should be aware of the initiatives.

C. Committee Insights on CCSW Goals for 2005-2006: Cheryl Bullock urged the committee
    members to think about and give their insights on the goals of the committee this year and she
    would make sure that we get speakers to talk about various issues on this campus. Cheryl
    also informed the committee that in the next meeting we would have Kristine Campbell, who
    has been appointed as the liaison between the University and the Illinois Network of ACE.

1. Carol Livingstone informed the committee that the American Council on Education
    has this network Illinois Net to identify talented women who might be potentially
    available for promoting to upper level services.

2. Cheryl Bullock requested the committee members to come up with suggestions for
    the committee's goals and tasks for this year.

3. Pat Morey narrated an incident where a female soccer player was not allowed to
    take part in the intramural teams by a person in Recreation. The case has now
    been resolved but the entire issue was about why a woman was not permitted
    to participate in intramural teams. Pat Morey suggested that we could look
    into this matter and request the concerned officer or the soccer player herself
    to apprise the committee of such issues.

4. Cheryl Bullock offered that she could get someone to talk about such an issue.

5. Ginger Winckler brought up the issue of exit interviews and how they play an
    important role in retention of faculty and we could look into the reasons that cause
    people to leave this university. Ginger was concerned that we do not have good
    data on this issue.

6. Victoria Gonzalez informed that the departments were supposed to do such
    interviews independently but she was not aware if this was still the practice.

7. Carol Livingstone informed the committee members that John Ory used to conduct
    a standard survey.

8. Stephanie Foote raised her concerns if we have data on women's attitude towards
    negotiation and whether that translates into women being able to secure higher
    bargains or not.

9. Ginger Winckler told the committee that the university makes a very good effort to
    recruit but it seems that not an equally strong effort is made to retain and mentor
    women faculty.

IV. Other Items