California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (CPP) will create recruitment, retention and development systems to enable women in STEM to advance to leadership. Activities are proposed in four areas:
Institutionalize policy/practice structures for attracting, retaining and advancing faculty. Activities include a Provost Advisory Committee, assessments, ADVANCE Scholars, and information resources.
Increase the number of female STEM faculty, and in particular, women of color. Activities include improving search committees and recruiting, a Partner Placement Program, and partnerships with minority serving institutions.
Advance female STEM faculty in their careers by enhancing the RTP process. Activities include systematic pre-tenure performance feedback; professional learning communities; and faculty development in teaching, research and service.
Increase STEM women's capacity to influence decisions and policy. Activities include mentoring, leadership internships, and developing multiple paths to leadership.
Many of the strategies have not been tried at a primarily teaching university. Features that will add knowledge about advancing STEM women in academia are collaboration with minority-serving institutions to recruit faculty, transformation of RTP into a learning process; and a broad definition of leadership that allows faculty to develop according to their own interests.
The program will increase the representation of women, particularly under-represented minorities, in positions at CPP. Strategies will be evaluated for effectiveness so successful approaches can be disseminated and replicated. The project will promote teaching and research by working to attract and tenure STEM women and will enhance partnerships through collaboration with minority-serving institutions.
" captures the central theme of the program: involving faculty in institutional change while facilitating their own individual career and leadership development. Cal Poly Pomona, one of 23 campuses in the California State University system, is primarily an undergraduate institution with about 19,000 undergraduate students and 2,000 post-baccalaureate students. Enrollment in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines accounts for 44% of the students. The goal of the CPP ADVANCE program was to create a university-wide system of recruitment, retention, and development to enable diverse faculty in STEM, including women, to advance to leadership positions. Over the course of the award, successful implementation utilized a distributed model, i.e. engaging numerous faculty members at the department level. Project activities for the ADVANCE-IT award at CPP were organized around four objectives: 1. Institutional Development & Assessment: The purpose of the first objective was to assess and monitor changes in the status of women faculty in the STEM disciplines during the time period of the project. The climate surveys conducted early in the project found that women faculty in STEM were less satisfied than men in areas of workload, access to resources, and information. The project found that faculty perceptions of climate are rooted in their departmental experiences. Thus, project activities to improve climate included department-based climate change mini-grants, Department Chair trainings, and establishing a network of ADVANCE Associates – one faculty member in each STEM department to serve as a conduit of information about the project. By the end of the project period, greater gender equity in climate survey responses had been achieved. 2. Recruitment: The purpose of the second objective was to increase the number of women applying for and being hired into STEM faculty positions. Search committees for faculty positions were trained to reduce unconscious bias in the recruitment process and encouraged to actively seek a broad and diverse pool of candidates. A website for internal campus use was created to help search committees enhance their efforts. In the three years prior to receipt of this grant, 14% of the newly hired STEM faculty were women and during the last six years of the project this number rose to 34%. In addition, the "Distinguished Postdoc & Doctoral Student Seminar Series" was created for STEM departments to host emerging women scientists and engineers. The invited women were encouraged to apply for faculty positions in the future and several of those women have since been hired in part-time faculty positions at CPP. 3. Career Development: The purpose of the third objective was to enhance the promotion and tenure process and programs to support women faculty to be successful in their careers. A mini-grant program was offered to faculty to provide professional development funds for activities that would promote the advancement of women faculty in STEM departments. Through this program 35 faculty members advanced their careers by acquiring research equipment, writing scholarly papers and books, and making conference presentations. Also, a mentoring program for faculty was established that has been institutionalized and expanded to include all new faculty members. Workshops were held for faculty on topics related to satisfying promotion and tenure criteria on teaching, research, and service. 4. Leadership Development: The purpose of the fourth objective was to provide leadership development, networking opportunities, and role models to enable and inspire women to assume greater leadership roles at the university and beyond. A "Women in Leadership" speaker series was created to highlight women from CPP and other campuses who were in leadership positions. Leadership development grants were offered to individual faculty members to enhance their skills to prepare them for leadership roles. The ADVANCE Associates, who served as liaisons to their departments, grew in their understanding of university processes and their ability to have a broader impact; five of these faculty members have advanced to positions of greater leadership at the university. The INTELLECTUAL MERIT of this project was assessing the need for and implementing an ADVANCE-IT award at a primarily undergraduate institution. Women faculty in STEM disciplines, who often feel isolated in their departments, benefitted by becoming connected to faculty in other departments, receiving intellectual and emotional support, and developing the confidence to advance to leadership roles. The greatest impact on improving climate was achieved by interventions at the department level. The BROADER IMPACT of this project was that more women were recruited into faculty positions in STEM and more women in STEM advanced into leadership roles.
