The State University of New York at Oswego proposes an ADVANCE IT Catalyst project that will initiate a series of activities to further the hiring, retention, and success of women in STEM disciplines on the campus. This project will have three main objectives: 1) to undertake a data collection process that supplies both quantitative and qualitative information to better understand the present status of women STEM faculty and to determine any barriers to employment, retention and promotion; 2) to investigate best practices at institutions similar to ours that have resulted in the participation and advancement of women in STEM, especially those that have had IT grant in the past or have them presently; and 3) to present and publish data and other research through the development of programs, workshops, and symposia, to lay the groundwork for institutional transformation that will result in more women faculty in STEM fields, particularly at the associate and full professor levels. Project findings will help to lay the groundwork for institutional transformation with a campus information project that will lead toward the development of an IT ADVANCE grant.
Intellect Merit: Currently, there exists little information about how faculty at comprehensive institutions advance professionally. It is widely known, however, that the balance between research and teaching at comprehensive institutions differs from that of research intensive institutions, resulting in different policies and procedures, different assessments of faculty work, and different criteria for success. The SUNY Oswego ADVANCE IT Catalyst will be well positioned to increase the knowledge of the success of women faculty at comprehensive institutions.
Broader Impacts: By exploring the institutional supports for and barriers to women in STEM areas at a public, comprehensive institution, the SUNY Oswego ADVANCE IT Catalyst project will serve as a model for other comprehensive institutions and provide support for their work toward systemic change that improves career outcomes for a women faculty in the STEM disciplines.
Project Outcome Report The SUNY-Oswego Women in STEM ADVANCE Catalyst Grant was initiated to assess the status of women in STEM fields on our campus with the purpose of furthering the hiring, retention, and promotion of women in STEM disciplines and raising awareness about the results of these findings. To this end, the project team collected and analyzed data from the following sources: 1) policies and procedures for hiring, retention and promotion for STEM departments; 2) climate study using data collected from the Chronicle of Higher Education’s survey on job satisfaction; 3) a salary study examining income as a function of gender, department, rank, and length of employment; and 4) a detailed focus group analysis that allowed for the deeper probing of issues that arose from the other studies. Results from these analyses were presented widely on campus and at regional conferences and became the foundation for an IT-ADVANCE grant application submitted in November 2013. Findings indicated that language used in policies and procedures was vague and confusing, making it possible for those involved with decision making to use different sets of criteria for different candidates. It was also inconsistent from one department to another and often did not correspond to the mission of the State University of New York and SUNY Oswego institutions in the valuing of departmental diversity. Analysis of the Chronicle of Higher Education’s job satisfaction survey showed that campus climate was generally reviewed favorably by both men and women, affirming that colleagues are respectful of each other and that faculty work contributes to the overall mission of the institution. However, there were concerns about the meaningfulness of the recognition and rewards system, the level of openness in the decision making process, and the belief that we are all on the same team. Men and women differed in how they felt the institution dealt with addressing issues of low performance by faculty, with men being more satisfied in this area than women. Salary studies indicated that women faculty have lower average salaries than men at all ranks and in almost all disciplines. In the STEM areas, there were very few women at the Associate and Full Professor ranks. Women recently hired at the Assistant Professor level in STEM fields are comparable in salary to men hired at the same time into the same rank. This is due at least partially to an increased awareness of existing discrepancies as a function of this grant. Focus groups allowed us to probe in more detail the findings from the more quantitative studies. Key findings again indicated that the lack of clarity in guidelines for tenure and promotion is a barrier for many faculty members, particularly women. In particular, faculty were concerned about the weighing of teaching, scholarship, and service in tenure and promotion decisions. As a comprehensive institution where we talk often about the importance of the teacher/scholar model, many felt that teaching and advisement were given lip service but inadequately rewarded. In addition, there were significant concerns about life/work balance for both men and women. The project held many informational sessions for administrators, faculty and staff to discuss the findings from this research. Many members of the campus community were unaware of the disparities in representation and salary that the study revealed and became dedicated to addressing them. A large number of women were hired into the STEM fields as a result of the awareness raised by the project. Broader implications arising from the disparity between numbers of men and women in STEM areas in general were addressed with a regional conference entitled Gender, Justice and STEM: At the Intersection of Feminism and Science and through a year-long series of lectures by accomplished women scientists. A web presence was established to post to the community the findings from our work. More confidential findings were posted on an ANGEL shell available only to members of the campus community. This work contributes a great deal to the much neglected area of research about women in STEM fields in comprehensive institutions. Most of the research on women in STEM has looked at research institutions. As a group, comprehensive institutions employ large numbers of women with PhDs and post-doctoral experience in STEM fields, yet little is known about their experiences. In particular, the balance between teaching, advisement and scholarship presents a different set of challenges to women at comprehensive institutions. The research collected in this project is a necessary first step in understanding this population of women scientists. The project reached out to a number of other campuses through the mentoring of other institutions interested in applying for the Catalyst grant, through the open lecture series and conference, and through a preconference workshop, Writing an NSF ADVANCE Catalyst Grant Proposal.
