Diverse Issues in Higher Education
by Kenneth J. Cooper
Nov 2, 2007, 07:54
The number of minority freshmen at the University of Michigan this fall remains about the same as in 2006, a notable departure from the steep drops that other flagship public universities have experienced immediately after affirmative action was banned in Michigan a year ago.
For every minority group except Asians, the percentage of freshmen declined slightly because Ann Arbor campus enrolled a bigger class than it did last year. The 11 percent increase, including international students, may have made it possible for the university to admit more students of color than it would have been able to otherwise.
“We have worked hard to inform prospective students about U-M’s ongoing commitment to diversity and will continue to reach out to as many students as possible to ensure the most highly qualified and diverse applicant pool,” said Senior Vice Provost Lester Monts.
University of Michigan Freshman Enrollment, Before and After Affirmative Action Ban
Black
Hispanic
American Indian
Asian
Fall 2007 enrollment
334
267
50
757
Fall 2006 enrollment
330
274
52
622
In 2003, the Supreme Court struck down Michigan’s undergraduate admissions because the formula used at the time awarded extra points to minorities, but the justices upheld a different procedure at its law school. Last November, the state’s voters approved a constitutional amendment that prohibits public colleges from considering race or ethnicity, but a legal challenge allowed the practice to continue through the end of last December.“I think a lot of this is pretty inconclusive at Michigan. We’re probably going to need another admissions cycle without preferential treatment to find out what’s really going on,” said Ward Connerly, president of the American Civil Rights Institute, who led the campaign for the constitutional amendment. “If they kick in their outreach efforts soon enough, there won't be a significant effect at all, which is what anyone would want,” Connerly added.Theodore M. Shaw, director-counsel and president of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, said: “I’m pleased to see they’ve found ways to continue the enrollment of people from underrepresented groups without the explicit consideration of race. It’s good news.”A racial-ethnic breakdown of its freshman class that the University of Michigan released Thursday shows, compared to last year, Blacks slipped from 6.3 percent to 5.8 percent, despite an increase of four to 334; Hispanics declined from 5.3 percent to 4.7 percent, with their numbers falling by seven to 267; and American Indians dipped from 1 percent to 9 percent after 50, two fewer than last year, enrolled.The total number of underrepresented minorities — Blacks, Hispanics and American Indians — remained about the same at 651, five fewer than last year. With the larger class, the new total represents a decrease from 12.7 percent to 11.3 percent.The percentage of Asians increased to 13.2 percent, up from 12 percent, as their numbers rose by 135 to 757. The number of non-Hispanic Whites jumped by 333 to 3,741, though their percentage in the class slipped from 66 percent to 65.2 percent. Freshmen who did not declare a race or ethnicity, or identified themselves as other, increased to 10.3 percent from 9.2 percent.
[To read the entire article, go to: http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_10007.shtml ]
Friday, November 2, 2007
Towson scraps gender effort
The Baltimore Sun
Lower grades, higher SAT formula aimed to draw more males
By Gadi Dechter Sun reporter
October 25, 2007
Citing high attrition rates, Towson University says it will discontinue an unusual admissions program that was designed to attract male students by admitting applicants with lower grades but higher SAT scores.Launched in the fall of 2005, the experiment was designed in part to address concerns about declining enrollment of males, who make up 42 percent of the U.S. college population and 40 percent at Towson.Women were admitted through the program, too, but it was aimed primarily at drawing male students - who are more likely to have higher SAT scores but lower grades. The problem, officials said, was that too many students in the program left the college or had to drop out."The bottom line is, our retention rate in the program is not as high as our overall freshmen retention rate," said Deborah Leather, who oversaw the project as associate provost. "Basically, we are proving what has already been known, which is that grade point average is a better predictor of student success than SAT scores."Under the program, Towson has admitted about 190 freshmen whose high school grade point averages of roughly 2.8 would normally be too low for acceptance, but who also had SAT scores of about 1,200 - or about 100 higher than is typical for students there.University administrators hoped that by requiring these students to attend mandatory study halls, meet regularly with academic advisers and maintain at least a 2.0 average in their freshman year, they could overcome "slacker" study habits and live up to their academic potential.But after two years of data showed that only about 70 percent of these students remained at Towson more than one year - compared with 84 percent to 88 percent of regularly admitted students - officials decided to scrap the initiative, Leather said."More of them were successful than we would expect for students like that," said Lonnie McNew, senior associate vice president for enrollment management. "Still, they were well below the norm for our freshman class."Only 21 percent of students who remain enrolled have a college GPA of 3.0 or higher. And of those who excelled at Towson, many transferred, McNew said. "They transferred to go to more selective schools, schools they would have initially liked to apply to."Towson's decision to tinker with its admissions standards was criticized by some education experts, who said the university was using SAT scores as an "affirmative action" program for white males, who tend to score highest on the test. Admissions officials at other schools with large gender imbalances, such as Goucher College, predicted that the lower grades/higher SAT formula would be a "recipe for attrition."Leather defended the initiative as a sincere attempt to offer college access to students with unrealized potential and noted that about 15 percent of students enrolled in the program were women. There were no discernible differences between the performance of male and female students, she said.Many students "are not only doing really well academically but have matured and grown personally, and I think they are destined to do very good things," she said.Some students who were admitted under the program expressed surprise and disappointment that it was being discontinued."It helped me a lot," said Matthew Felperin, a sophomore from Silver Spring, who said he had a 2.9 GPA in his first year at Towson. "I always had a problem with studying and turning in work on time," he said. The mandatory study halls "helped me get a jump-start on all that work."Felperin said two friends in the program were asked to leave college last year because they failed to meet the study hall requirements. But one has transferred back from a community college and the other also plans to return, he said."I don't think they should discontinue it," said Dana Woodson, a sophomore who had a 2.0 GPA last year but said she is "doing better" this year. "It seemed like it was helping people."News of the program's cancellation was greeted with approval by Robert Schaeffer of FairTest, an advocacy group critical of the way college admission tests are used. "Congratulations to Towson for recognizing that test scores are not merit," he said. "There is a problem with the representation of young males, and particularly minority males, in higher education, but playing games with test scores is not the way to solve it."National research shows that high school grades and the rigor of a secondary school curriculum are better predictors of college performance than SAT scores alone. In emphasizing SAT scores for a small cohort of students, Towson was bucking a trend of giving greater priority to grades than test scores.
[To read the entire article, go to: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-te.md.towson25oct25,0,3157502.story?coll=bal_tab01_layout ]
Lower grades, higher SAT formula aimed to draw more males
By Gadi Dechter Sun reporter
October 25, 2007
Citing high attrition rates, Towson University says it will discontinue an unusual admissions program that was designed to attract male students by admitting applicants with lower grades but higher SAT scores.Launched in the fall of 2005, the experiment was designed in part to address concerns about declining enrollment of males, who make up 42 percent of the U.S. college population and 40 percent at Towson.Women were admitted through the program, too, but it was aimed primarily at drawing male students - who are more likely to have higher SAT scores but lower grades. The problem, officials said, was that too many students in the program left the college or had to drop out."The bottom line is, our retention rate in the program is not as high as our overall freshmen retention rate," said Deborah Leather, who oversaw the project as associate provost. "Basically, we are proving what has already been known, which is that grade point average is a better predictor of student success than SAT scores."Under the program, Towson has admitted about 190 freshmen whose high school grade point averages of roughly 2.8 would normally be too low for acceptance, but who also had SAT scores of about 1,200 - or about 100 higher than is typical for students there.University administrators hoped that by requiring these students to attend mandatory study halls, meet regularly with academic advisers and maintain at least a 2.0 average in their freshman year, they could overcome "slacker" study habits and live up to their academic potential.But after two years of data showed that only about 70 percent of these students remained at Towson more than one year - compared with 84 percent to 88 percent of regularly admitted students - officials decided to scrap the initiative, Leather said."More of them were successful than we would expect for students like that," said Lonnie McNew, senior associate vice president for enrollment management. "Still, they were well below the norm for our freshman class."Only 21 percent of students who remain enrolled have a college GPA of 3.0 or higher. And of those who excelled at Towson, many transferred, McNew said. "They transferred to go to more selective schools, schools they would have initially liked to apply to."Towson's decision to tinker with its admissions standards was criticized by some education experts, who said the university was using SAT scores as an "affirmative action" program for white males, who tend to score highest on the test. Admissions officials at other schools with large gender imbalances, such as Goucher College, predicted that the lower grades/higher SAT formula would be a "recipe for attrition."Leather defended the initiative as a sincere attempt to offer college access to students with unrealized potential and noted that about 15 percent of students enrolled in the program were women. There were no discernible differences between the performance of male and female students, she said.Many students "are not only doing really well academically but have matured and grown personally, and I think they are destined to do very good things," she said.Some students who were admitted under the program expressed surprise and disappointment that it was being discontinued."It helped me a lot," said Matthew Felperin, a sophomore from Silver Spring, who said he had a 2.9 GPA in his first year at Towson. "I always had a problem with studying and turning in work on time," he said. The mandatory study halls "helped me get a jump-start on all that work."Felperin said two friends in the program were asked to leave college last year because they failed to meet the study hall requirements. But one has transferred back from a community college and the other also plans to return, he said."I don't think they should discontinue it," said Dana Woodson, a sophomore who had a 2.0 GPA last year but said she is "doing better" this year. "It seemed like it was helping people."News of the program's cancellation was greeted with approval by Robert Schaeffer of FairTest, an advocacy group critical of the way college admission tests are used. "Congratulations to Towson for recognizing that test scores are not merit," he said. "There is a problem with the representation of young males, and particularly minority males, in higher education, but playing games with test scores is not the way to solve it."National research shows that high school grades and the rigor of a secondary school curriculum are better predictors of college performance than SAT scores alone. In emphasizing SAT scores for a small cohort of students, Towson was bucking a trend of giving greater priority to grades than test scores.
[To read the entire article, go to: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-te.md.towson25oct25,0,3157502.story?coll=bal_tab01_layout ]
New Research Finds Gay Men, But Not Lesbians, Are Discriminated Against in Jobs
Contact: Lori Wright 603-862-0574
UNH Media Relations
October 24, 2007
DURHAM, N.H. – Gay men working in management and traditional blue-collar, male-dominated jobs make less than straight men because they are discriminated against by their employers, according to new research released today by the University of New Hampshire Whittemore School of Business and Economics.
Lesbians, however, do not experience similar discrimination in the labor market, according to Bruce Elmslie, professor of economics, and his co-author Edinaldo Tebaldi, former assistant professor of economics at UNH now at Bryant University. Their research appears in the Journal of Labor Research in the article “Sexual Orientation and Labor Market Discrimination.”
According to the authors, gay men who live together earn 23 percent less than married men, and 9 percent less than unmarried heterosexual men who live with a woman. Discrimination is most pronounced in management and blue-collar, male-dominated occupations such as building and grounds cleaning and maintenance; construction and extraction; and production.
The authors also found that lesbians are not discriminated against when compared with heterosexual women. They conclude that while negative attitudes toward lesbians could affect them, lesbians may benefit from the perception that they are more career-focused and less likely to leave the labor market to raise children than heterosexual women. According to their study, 18.1 percent of lesbians have children, compared with 49.4 percent of straight women.
“Employers could reasonably infer that a lesbian applicant or current employee will have a stronger attachment to the labor force than will a heterosexual woman,” the authors said.
The authors note that previous studies of attitudes of heterosexual men toward gay men and lesbians shows that the bias against gay men is much stronger. Other studies show that gay men are more likely to be the victim of violence because of their sexual identity than lesbians.
The authors cite a number of possible factors as to why gay men experience labor discrimination and lower wages in certain industries. There is strong evidence indicating discrimination is tied to employer and employee bias.
“Employers may disapprove of gay lifestyles and act on this bias in making hiring decisions,” the authors said. Employers also may discriminate against gay men in response to the desires of the majority of employees. If employers consider mixing heterosexual and homosexual employees distracting and detrimental to productivity, the authors said the employers may consider it profitable to discriminate.
Gay men also may experience labor market discrimination because customers may not want to interact with them, thus influencing hiring practices. “If customers prefer to interact with heterosexual employees, the owner will act on the customer’s taste for discrimination,” the authors said.
Finally, discrimination may occur as a result of anti-gay attitudes associated with AIDS and misunderstanding as to how HIV is transmitted. Previous research shows that people with HIV/AIDS have higher rates of absenteeism from work. The authors theorize that biased employers may be reluctant to hire gay men because they are concerned about a loss of productivity if a worker becomes infected with HIV/AIDS.
“If employers perceive one group to be generally less productive or more costly than other groups, individual members of the negatively perceived group will receive lower wage offers regardless of their true characteristics,” the authors said.
In this study, employee/employer bias was the most prevalent and overwhelming indication of discrimination against gay men. If the discrimination was consumer-based, the discrimination would be more evident in the services industry where there is direct interaction between employees and customers. If the discrimination was tied to AIDS/HIV status, the distribution of discrimination would be more uniform across industries.
The authors analyzed labor and wage information from more than 91,000 heterosexual and homosexual couples collected by the U.S. Census March 2004 Current Population Survey.
http://www.unh.edu/news/cj_nr/2007/oct/lw24research.cfm
UNH Media Relations
October 24, 2007
DURHAM, N.H. – Gay men working in management and traditional blue-collar, male-dominated jobs make less than straight men because they are discriminated against by their employers, according to new research released today by the University of New Hampshire Whittemore School of Business and Economics.
Lesbians, however, do not experience similar discrimination in the labor market, according to Bruce Elmslie, professor of economics, and his co-author Edinaldo Tebaldi, former assistant professor of economics at UNH now at Bryant University. Their research appears in the Journal of Labor Research in the article “Sexual Orientation and Labor Market Discrimination.”
According to the authors, gay men who live together earn 23 percent less than married men, and 9 percent less than unmarried heterosexual men who live with a woman. Discrimination is most pronounced in management and blue-collar, male-dominated occupations such as building and grounds cleaning and maintenance; construction and extraction; and production.
The authors also found that lesbians are not discriminated against when compared with heterosexual women. They conclude that while negative attitudes toward lesbians could affect them, lesbians may benefit from the perception that they are more career-focused and less likely to leave the labor market to raise children than heterosexual women. According to their study, 18.1 percent of lesbians have children, compared with 49.4 percent of straight women.
“Employers could reasonably infer that a lesbian applicant or current employee will have a stronger attachment to the labor force than will a heterosexual woman,” the authors said.
The authors note that previous studies of attitudes of heterosexual men toward gay men and lesbians shows that the bias against gay men is much stronger. Other studies show that gay men are more likely to be the victim of violence because of their sexual identity than lesbians.
The authors cite a number of possible factors as to why gay men experience labor discrimination and lower wages in certain industries. There is strong evidence indicating discrimination is tied to employer and employee bias.
“Employers may disapprove of gay lifestyles and act on this bias in making hiring decisions,” the authors said. Employers also may discriminate against gay men in response to the desires of the majority of employees. If employers consider mixing heterosexual and homosexual employees distracting and detrimental to productivity, the authors said the employers may consider it profitable to discriminate.
Gay men also may experience labor market discrimination because customers may not want to interact with them, thus influencing hiring practices. “If customers prefer to interact with heterosexual employees, the owner will act on the customer’s taste for discrimination,” the authors said.
Finally, discrimination may occur as a result of anti-gay attitudes associated with AIDS and misunderstanding as to how HIV is transmitted. Previous research shows that people with HIV/AIDS have higher rates of absenteeism from work. The authors theorize that biased employers may be reluctant to hire gay men because they are concerned about a loss of productivity if a worker becomes infected with HIV/AIDS.
“If employers perceive one group to be generally less productive or more costly than other groups, individual members of the negatively perceived group will receive lower wage offers regardless of their true characteristics,” the authors said.
In this study, employee/employer bias was the most prevalent and overwhelming indication of discrimination against gay men. If the discrimination was consumer-based, the discrimination would be more evident in the services industry where there is direct interaction between employees and customers. If the discrimination was tied to AIDS/HIV status, the distribution of discrimination would be more uniform across industries.
The authors analyzed labor and wage information from more than 91,000 heterosexual and homosexual couples collected by the U.S. Census March 2004 Current Population Survey.
http://www.unh.edu/news/cj_nr/2007/oct/lw24research.cfm
At North Dakota State, Women Are Few and Far Between
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Faculty
Why does one university seem so behind the times?
By ROBIN WILSON
Fargo, N.D.
Linda K. Langley has been a faculty member at North Dakota State University for just five years. It is her first academic job.
But while she is still several months away from making her final bid for tenure, she finds herself in the unlikely position of being the most senior woman in the psychology department. "I suddenly feel like I'm going to be the role model without having had one myself," she says, rattling off a list of the female professors in her department who have come and gone in the past several years.
The psychology department provides an example of the revolving door for female faculty members at North Dakota State, a phenomenon that has left the campus thin on women, particularly at the top. Only 10 of the university's 156 full professors are female, and the campus is still fresh from marking a lot of firsts: The chemistry department just tenured its first female faculty member, the College of Engineering just promoted its first woman to the rank of full professor, and the university is just now considering opening a women's center — something that many institutions created 30 years ago.
Last year North Dakota State was reminded of just how far behind it is when the American Association of University Professors issued a report ranking 1,445 institutions on the basis of what proportion of their tenured faculty members are female. North Dakota State came in close to last (The Chronicle, November 3, 2006). Like other universities that ranked low in the AAUP report, North Dakota State enrolls a large number of students in engineering, architecture, science, and mathematics — fields that are relatively sparse in female faculty members.
"It sounds like they are living in a time warp," says Martha S. West, a law professor at the University of California at Davis who helped write the report, called "AAUP Faculty Gender Equity Indicators 2006."
At a time when recruiting women has become a top priority on many campuses, faculty members at North Dakota State cite a confluence of factors that explain why their university has been struggling just to hang on to those it already has. The harsh winters can scare off potential recruits and wear down those who decide to come here, especially if they didn't grow up in the region. And Fargo's reputation as a family-oriented community can make it a lonely place for single women, especially those with doctorates, who often look for partners with at least as much education as they have.
But clearly there are a lot of campuses in cold places with limited social scenes. What female professors here describe as the root of the problem is a male-dominated atmosphere that can be "toxic." Female professors complain of being ignored, passed over for leadership positions, warned not to speak out or complain, and sometimes bullied by their male colleagues.
Rather than stick around, many leave if they get the chance. "A lot of us are out there very quietly on the job market," says one female associate professor, who, like some others, asked not to be named, because she fears she might be punished by administrators.
Campus officials here acknowledge that North Dakota State has not always been a place where women feel comfortable, and they want to change that. "For me, it's about our continuing to work with department leaders to help them understand women's experiences and be sensitive to them," says Sandra Holbrook, who retired as director of equity and diversity last July. She says male leaders and faculty members have not intended to create an unfriendly climate for women.
"I think that in most cases, if you told males about these comments and issues, they'd be shocked," she says. "They would say, We never meant to leave her out."
The university has been trying hard to hold on to female faculty members and to attract more. This year 19 of the university's 51 new faculty members were women. But R. Craig Schnell, the provost, acknowledges that it is an uphill battle: "It seems as soon as somebody gets hired and they get tenured, they leave."
Negative Publicity
When people at North Dakota State learned that it had scraped the bottom of the AAUP's gender-equity ratings, they were surprised and embarrassed. The numbers showed that while nationwide an average of 31 percent of tenured faculty members are female, at North Dakota State the proportion was only 9.8 percent. That put it behind all but one other traditional institution, the University of Missouri at Rolla, of the 222 doctoral institutions ranked.
The university also was lower in gender equity than almost all of the master's and baccalaureate institutions in the report. The proportion of women at North Dakota State has crept up to 13 percent this year, but over all, less than a quarter — just 111 out of 477 — of its tenured and tenure-track professors are female.
The negative publicity prompted administrators to do something quickly. They decided to expand the campus's day-care center from a nine-month operation to a year-round one. Female faculty members had been asking for such a change for years. But once the AAUP report came out, the expansion was given top priority. While professors applaud the move, some say it was more about polishing the university's image than about listening to women on the campus.
North Dakota State has been slow to adopt other benefits that research institutions have put in place over the past decade as a way to attract and hold on to female faculty members. For example, while the university offers six weeks of maternity leave, none of it is paid. Some women who spoke with The Chronicle complained about the lack of paid
leave, saying they have felt forced to return to teaching within days or a few weeks of giving birth. At many colleges and universities, women can now take up to a semester off from teaching while receiving their full salaries.
When asked about the issue, Joseph A. Chapman, the university's president, expressed surprise. "No one has come to me and told me that's a problem," he said.
Mr. Schnell, the provost, later told The Chronicle that the university is working on offering paid maternity leave, and said some department chairmen already try to find ways to cover for new mothers so they can take paid time off.
The university's stance on maternity benefits, some say, is an symbol of how out of touch administrators are with what is important to female professors. Administrators say they want to make North Dakota State a good place for women to work, but some women here believe campus leaders are not willing to do what it takes. "They are well intentioned but have never really thought about these issues," says Charlene E. Wolf-Hall, an associate professor of food microbiology.
One of the chief problems is that there are virtually no women in the top administrative ranks. North Dakota State has one female vice president — who was just appointed — and one female dean. "We need more champions," says Kathleen Slobin, who retired as a full professor of sociology in June.
It was Ms. Slobin who began trying to put women's issues on the agenda of the university in 1998, when she started a group called Women in Science, Math, Engineering, and Technology. Officially it was founded as a place for women to talk about their research, and it is open to all female faculty members, regardless of discipline. But female professors frequently use its monthly meetings to discuss their concerns and talk about how the administration is — or isn't — responding.
[To read the entire article, go to: http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=nj6t0kzc1mrcc5ykvyrmznxh903b64lw ]
The Faculty
Why does one university seem so behind the times?
By ROBIN WILSON
Fargo, N.D.
Linda K. Langley has been a faculty member at North Dakota State University for just five years. It is her first academic job.
But while she is still several months away from making her final bid for tenure, she finds herself in the unlikely position of being the most senior woman in the psychology department. "I suddenly feel like I'm going to be the role model without having had one myself," she says, rattling off a list of the female professors in her department who have come and gone in the past several years.
The psychology department provides an example of the revolving door for female faculty members at North Dakota State, a phenomenon that has left the campus thin on women, particularly at the top. Only 10 of the university's 156 full professors are female, and the campus is still fresh from marking a lot of firsts: The chemistry department just tenured its first female faculty member, the College of Engineering just promoted its first woman to the rank of full professor, and the university is just now considering opening a women's center — something that many institutions created 30 years ago.
Last year North Dakota State was reminded of just how far behind it is when the American Association of University Professors issued a report ranking 1,445 institutions on the basis of what proportion of their tenured faculty members are female. North Dakota State came in close to last (The Chronicle, November 3, 2006). Like other universities that ranked low in the AAUP report, North Dakota State enrolls a large number of students in engineering, architecture, science, and mathematics — fields that are relatively sparse in female faculty members.
"It sounds like they are living in a time warp," says Martha S. West, a law professor at the University of California at Davis who helped write the report, called "AAUP Faculty Gender Equity Indicators 2006."
At a time when recruiting women has become a top priority on many campuses, faculty members at North Dakota State cite a confluence of factors that explain why their university has been struggling just to hang on to those it already has. The harsh winters can scare off potential recruits and wear down those who decide to come here, especially if they didn't grow up in the region. And Fargo's reputation as a family-oriented community can make it a lonely place for single women, especially those with doctorates, who often look for partners with at least as much education as they have.
But clearly there are a lot of campuses in cold places with limited social scenes. What female professors here describe as the root of the problem is a male-dominated atmosphere that can be "toxic." Female professors complain of being ignored, passed over for leadership positions, warned not to speak out or complain, and sometimes bullied by their male colleagues.
Rather than stick around, many leave if they get the chance. "A lot of us are out there very quietly on the job market," says one female associate professor, who, like some others, asked not to be named, because she fears she might be punished by administrators.
Campus officials here acknowledge that North Dakota State has not always been a place where women feel comfortable, and they want to change that. "For me, it's about our continuing to work with department leaders to help them understand women's experiences and be sensitive to them," says Sandra Holbrook, who retired as director of equity and diversity last July. She says male leaders and faculty members have not intended to create an unfriendly climate for women.
"I think that in most cases, if you told males about these comments and issues, they'd be shocked," she says. "They would say, We never meant to leave her out."
The university has been trying hard to hold on to female faculty members and to attract more. This year 19 of the university's 51 new faculty members were women. But R. Craig Schnell, the provost, acknowledges that it is an uphill battle: "It seems as soon as somebody gets hired and they get tenured, they leave."
Negative Publicity
When people at North Dakota State learned that it had scraped the bottom of the AAUP's gender-equity ratings, they were surprised and embarrassed. The numbers showed that while nationwide an average of 31 percent of tenured faculty members are female, at North Dakota State the proportion was only 9.8 percent. That put it behind all but one other traditional institution, the University of Missouri at Rolla, of the 222 doctoral institutions ranked.
The university also was lower in gender equity than almost all of the master's and baccalaureate institutions in the report. The proportion of women at North Dakota State has crept up to 13 percent this year, but over all, less than a quarter — just 111 out of 477 — of its tenured and tenure-track professors are female.
The negative publicity prompted administrators to do something quickly. They decided to expand the campus's day-care center from a nine-month operation to a year-round one. Female faculty members had been asking for such a change for years. But once the AAUP report came out, the expansion was given top priority. While professors applaud the move, some say it was more about polishing the university's image than about listening to women on the campus.
North Dakota State has been slow to adopt other benefits that research institutions have put in place over the past decade as a way to attract and hold on to female faculty members. For example, while the university offers six weeks of maternity leave, none of it is paid. Some women who spoke with The Chronicle complained about the lack of paid
leave, saying they have felt forced to return to teaching within days or a few weeks of giving birth. At many colleges and universities, women can now take up to a semester off from teaching while receiving their full salaries.
When asked about the issue, Joseph A. Chapman, the university's president, expressed surprise. "No one has come to me and told me that's a problem," he said.
Mr. Schnell, the provost, later told The Chronicle that the university is working on offering paid maternity leave, and said some department chairmen already try to find ways to cover for new mothers so they can take paid time off.
The university's stance on maternity benefits, some say, is an symbol of how out of touch administrators are with what is important to female professors. Administrators say they want to make North Dakota State a good place for women to work, but some women here believe campus leaders are not willing to do what it takes. "They are well intentioned but have never really thought about these issues," says Charlene E. Wolf-Hall, an associate professor of food microbiology.
One of the chief problems is that there are virtually no women in the top administrative ranks. North Dakota State has one female vice president — who was just appointed — and one female dean. "We need more champions," says Kathleen Slobin, who retired as a full professor of sociology in June.
It was Ms. Slobin who began trying to put women's issues on the agenda of the university in 1998, when she started a group called Women in Science, Math, Engineering, and Technology. Officially it was founded as a place for women to talk about their research, and it is open to all female faculty members, regardless of discipline. But female professors frequently use its monthly meetings to discuss their concerns and talk about how the administration is — or isn't — responding.
[To read the entire article, go to: http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=nj6t0kzc1mrcc5ykvyrmznxh903b64lw ]
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Anti-affirmative action crusader comes to Missouri
News Tribune
Posted: Friday, Oct 19, 2007 - 08:11:31 am CDT
Anti-affirmative action crusader comes to Missouri
By ALAN SCHER ZAGIERA
ssociated Press Writer
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - Having conquered California a decade ago and Michigan last year, affirmative action critic Ward Connerly now has his sights set on the Show-Me State.
The former University of California regent was a key force behind that state's successful ballot measure banning consideration of race and gender in public hiring, contracting and school admissions.
Washington state voters passed a similar law in 1998, as did Michigan voters in 2006.
Missouri is one of five states Connerly and his supporters are targeting as part of a concerted effort to strike down affirmative action laws during a so-called “Super Tuesday for Equal Rights” in 2008. Ballot initiatives are also being organized in Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma and Nebraska
On Thursday, Connerly touted his plan at two events in Kansas City, including a lecture at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He was scheduled to speak Friday in St. Louis.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Connerly, who is black, called for an end to “race-based affirmative action” in favor of what he called “socio-economic affirmative action.”
“We're going through a transition in our country,” he said. “We need to help those who need it rather than presuming that all black people or all minorities are in need of some special treatment.”
To get the so-called Missouri Civil Rights Initiative on the November 2008 ballot, supporters must collect roughly 150,000 signatures from registered voters in the state.
Before that can happen, a Cole County judge must rule on dueling legal complaints over a ballot summary - prepared by Secretary of State Robin Carnahan - for the proposed constitutional amendment.
Tim Asher, former admissions director at North Central Missouri College who is leading the ballot effort, filed a suit in July charging that the ballot summary “uses argumentative language” and misrepresents the proposed amendment.
The Carnahan summary says the proposal would “ban affirmative action programs designed to eliminate discrimination against ... women and minorities in public contracting, employment and education.”
Asher's suit wants the state to change the summary to ask voters whether Missouri should forbid “preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin” in those same three areas.
Supporters of current affirmative action laws also have sued Carnahan, noting that the suggested ballot language fails to tell voters the measure would allow discrimination on the basis of religion, disability, age or veteran status.
A combined hearing on the two suits had been set for late October but is now scheduled for Dec. 17.
Connerly said the delay could wind up making for a costly campaign by the American Civil Rights Coalition, the group in Sacramento, Calif., that he leads. He called the ballot summary “prejudicial” and “perverse” and suggested political bias on the part of Carnahan, a Democrat.
A Carnahan spokesman said the secretary of state was simply following the law, not injecting any personal or political beliefs into the process.
“As with all ballot summaries that we submit, our office is confident that this summary is fair, accurate and reflects how the constitution would be changed by this initiative if it got on the ballot and was passed by voters,” said spokesman Ryan Hobart.
Connerly's group initially had targeted several other states as possible affirmative action battlegrounds in 2008, including South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. He rejected any suggestion that the five states were chosen with political considerations in mind.
“There's no political or racial calculus involved,” Connerly said. “We have to entrust our fellow man with the responsibility of passing laws that are presumed to be in the best interests of the whole community.”
Affirmative action supporters say that Connerly and others have distorted the public dialogue and downplayed the historical forces of discrimination that led to such laws as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“It takes more than 30 or 40 years to remedy, or overcome, centuries of direct and indirect forms of discrimination,” said Shirley Wilcher, executive director of the American Association for Affirmative Action and a former Labor Department official under President Clinton.
http://www.newstribune.com/articles/2007/10/19/news_state/073state34connerly.txt
Posted: Friday, Oct 19, 2007 - 08:11:31 am CDT
Anti-affirmative action crusader comes to Missouri
By ALAN SCHER ZAGIERA
ssociated Press Writer
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - Having conquered California a decade ago and Michigan last year, affirmative action critic Ward Connerly now has his sights set on the Show-Me State.
The former University of California regent was a key force behind that state's successful ballot measure banning consideration of race and gender in public hiring, contracting and school admissions.
Washington state voters passed a similar law in 1998, as did Michigan voters in 2006.
Missouri is one of five states Connerly and his supporters are targeting as part of a concerted effort to strike down affirmative action laws during a so-called “Super Tuesday for Equal Rights” in 2008. Ballot initiatives are also being organized in Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma and Nebraska
On Thursday, Connerly touted his plan at two events in Kansas City, including a lecture at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He was scheduled to speak Friday in St. Louis.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Connerly, who is black, called for an end to “race-based affirmative action” in favor of what he called “socio-economic affirmative action.”
“We're going through a transition in our country,” he said. “We need to help those who need it rather than presuming that all black people or all minorities are in need of some special treatment.”
To get the so-called Missouri Civil Rights Initiative on the November 2008 ballot, supporters must collect roughly 150,000 signatures from registered voters in the state.
Before that can happen, a Cole County judge must rule on dueling legal complaints over a ballot summary - prepared by Secretary of State Robin Carnahan - for the proposed constitutional amendment.
Tim Asher, former admissions director at North Central Missouri College who is leading the ballot effort, filed a suit in July charging that the ballot summary “uses argumentative language” and misrepresents the proposed amendment.
The Carnahan summary says the proposal would “ban affirmative action programs designed to eliminate discrimination against ... women and minorities in public contracting, employment and education.”
Asher's suit wants the state to change the summary to ask voters whether Missouri should forbid “preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin” in those same three areas.
Supporters of current affirmative action laws also have sued Carnahan, noting that the suggested ballot language fails to tell voters the measure would allow discrimination on the basis of religion, disability, age or veteran status.
A combined hearing on the two suits had been set for late October but is now scheduled for Dec. 17.
Connerly said the delay could wind up making for a costly campaign by the American Civil Rights Coalition, the group in Sacramento, Calif., that he leads. He called the ballot summary “prejudicial” and “perverse” and suggested political bias on the part of Carnahan, a Democrat.
A Carnahan spokesman said the secretary of state was simply following the law, not injecting any personal or political beliefs into the process.
“As with all ballot summaries that we submit, our office is confident that this summary is fair, accurate and reflects how the constitution would be changed by this initiative if it got on the ballot and was passed by voters,” said spokesman Ryan Hobart.
Connerly's group initially had targeted several other states as possible affirmative action battlegrounds in 2008, including South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. He rejected any suggestion that the five states were chosen with political considerations in mind.
“There's no political or racial calculus involved,” Connerly said. “We have to entrust our fellow man with the responsibility of passing laws that are presumed to be in the best interests of the whole community.”
Affirmative action supporters say that Connerly and others have distorted the public dialogue and downplayed the historical forces of discrimination that led to such laws as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“It takes more than 30 or 40 years to remedy, or overcome, centuries of direct and indirect forms of discrimination,” said Shirley Wilcher, executive director of the American Association for Affirmative Action and a former Labor Department official under President Clinton.
http://www.newstribune.com/articles/2007/10/19/news_state/073state34connerly.txt
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