NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation at Utah State University

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NSF ADVANCEInstitutional Transformation at
Utah State University

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NSF ADVANCE Overview

• The purpose of the NSF ADVANCE program is to
  increase the participation of women in the
  scientific and engineering workforce through the
  increased representation and advancement of women
  in academic science and engineering careers.
  http//www.nsf.gov/home/
  crssprgm/advance
• The Problem The last 10 years have shown
  significant increases in women scientists and
  engineers graduating with PhDs, but they are
  leaving academics at every stage of their
  careers.
• To date, 19 institutions have been awarded
  transformation grants in two rounds of funding. A
  third round of proposals is currently under
  review.
• USU is attempting to apply a business model to
  the university. Our strategy is to address
  issues that adversely affect effectiveness and
  satisfaction of all faculty members, but which
  have been shown to have a differential impact on
  women and minorities.

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The Problem
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USU Project Structure

• Working with 4 colleges
• Agriculture, Science, Engineering, Natural
  Resources
• ADVANCEUS Team
• Ronda Callister Assoc. Prof., Management
  Human Resources
• Kim Sullivan - Assoc. Prof., Biology
• Christine Hult Prof. of English, Assoc. Dean of
  Humanities, Arts Social Science
• Robert Schmidt Assoc. Prof., Environment
  Society
• Chris Hailey Prof. of Mechanical Engineering,
  Assoc. Dean of Engineering
• Mary Feng Program Leader
• Implementation Committee
• Deans of the colleges, department heads from STEM
  departments, and key faculty

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USU ADVANCE Goals

• Goal 1 Recruitment Retention
• Develop best practices on faculty recruitment.
  Disseminate information and tools to aid search
  committees.
• Develop programs to increase faculty
  effectiveness and integration of work and
  personal life.
• Assess clarity and implementation of PT policy
  and procedures.
• Faculty Services Mediation, Dual Career
  Assistance, Childcare Center
• Goal 3 Department Climate
• Assess work climate in all departments
• Foster faculty initiated programs which improve
  work environment and faculty effectiveness using
  dual-agenda model.
• Study job satisfaction and obstacles to career
  success.

• Goal 2 Collaboration
• - Create methods to provide faculty with
• accessible information on fellow
• researchers, grant opportunities and
• proposal development.
• - Create ways to foster collaborative
• research through seminars, brown bags,
• seed money grants, etc.
• Goal 4 ADVANCE USU Initiative
• Assessment
• Dissemination
• Visibility
• Sustainability

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1 Recruitment

• SERT (Science Engineering Recruitment Team)
• Faculty based team 12 members
• Goal Bring recruiting in line with available
  PhDs in disciplines
• Team Mission
• Collaborate with hiring committees to maximize
  the quality of potential hires by attracting a
  broad and diverse pool of qualified candidates.
• Provide information to committees and departments
  on
• Advertising strategies, Evaluation practices,
  Mentoring support, Faculty programs, Best
  practices
• Provide support for
• Non-departmental contact to meet with candidates
  and answer questions about the University
  community.
• Non-departmental faculty member to serve on
  search committees as a resource advisor in
  enhancing diversity.

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Recruiting Results

• From Oct. 2003 to Oct. 2004, Utah State exceeded
  its hiring goals for tenure-track faculty women
  in 3 out of 4 of our STEM colleges.
• 2003-2004 (First year after implementing SERT))
• College/ New Tenure Track Faculty Hires/ Women
  Hired/ PhD Availability Rate
• Hired 9 STEM women out of 22 total STEM hires
  (41)
• - Agriculture/ 3 women hired out of 7 hires
  43 32
• - Engineering/ 2 women hired out of 8 hires 25
  16
• - Science/ 4 women hired out of 6 hires
  67 35
• - The College of Natural Resources only had one
  open new hire and hired a male faculty
  member.
• In contrast, during the year prior, 2002-2003,
  three out of the four STEM colleges did not meet
  the hiring goals for women. It is difficult to
  tie the successful results in recruiting women
  for the 2003-2004 recruiting year to one or two
  specific activities. Awareness of ADVANCE,
  various efforts by SERT and AA/EO, individual
  interventions with search committee members and
  department heads all play a part in the
  recruiting successes.
• 2002-2003
• Hired 3 STEM women out of 13 total STEM hires
  (17)
• 2001-2002
• Hired 2 STEM women out of 8 total STEM hires
  (25)

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Retention

• Tenure and Promotion
• Surveys and interviews show the need for more
  transparency/clarity of policy and the need for
  administrator training on PT policy and process.
• Training Workshops ADVANCE and the Provosts
  office is offering dept. head and faculty
  training on PT policy and process,
  non-traditional career paths, PT
  transparency/clarity, and a fact vs. fiction
  webpage.
• Policy Review Revision Recommending changes to
  code for promotion to improve mentoring and
  accountability.
• Transitional Support Pilot Program Small
  funding amounts available to those in life
  changing events to fill the gap so research
  does not suffer.
• Leadership
• Annual leadership series for Dept. Heads,
  emerging leaders, and women STEM faculty members.
• Career Development
• Administrator Faculty training workshops
  Workshops related to resolving conflict,
  negotiation skills, and others.
• Faculty Mentor Programs Developed at the
  department level through intervention initiative.

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Recruitment Retention

• Improve Faculty Services
• On-campus Child Care Center
• Dual Career Services
• Policy Review Revision Document outlining the
  policy and process for dual career assistance.
• Dual Career Assistance Best Practices for
  faculty (or potential faculty), HR, and
  administrators in dual career situations.
• Faculty Mediation Services
• Part-time Tenure Track and extending tenure clock
  options
• Changes in policy code for associate to full

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Recruitment Retention Results

• Child Care Center progress
• Site and architect chosen fund-raising initiated
  
• Dual Career Services
• Policy Review Revision Policy and Protocol for
  dual career assistance now in place.
• Dual Career Assistance Provost, working with
  ADVANCE, has now identified a set of Best
  Practices for faculty (or potential faculty),
  HR, and administrators in dual career situations.
  Matching funds have been set aside for this
  purpose.
• Faculty Mediation Services and ombudspersons
• Both now in place and working well
• Part-time Tenure Track and extending tenure clock
  options
• Committee is being formed to review policies and
  make recommendations through Faculty Senate
• Policy code
• Changes made to encourage mentoring from
  associate to full professor

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2. Faculty Collaboration

• Collaborative Research Seed Funding
• Promoting Research Collaboration
• Workshops, seminars, brown-bags to share research
  information. Developing a database and utilizing
  program such as SPINS/SMARTS that facilitate
  inter-disciplinary research exploration.
• Seed Funding
• Creating a seed fund for multi-investigative
  collaborative grants involving STEM women.
  Targeting 5 to 8 seed grants awarded per year to
  support proposal/research development leading to
  grant submissions.

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Collaboration Results

• VPR/SPO/ADVANCE joint Workshops
• How to use research database systems grant
  writing skills technical writing skills working
  with NSF/NIH/other funding agencies. Inviting
  successful faculty to speak about their
  experience in receiving high profile research
  awards and grant funding.
• Collaborative Seed Grants (examples)
• Predicting Invasive Plant Species Occurrences A
  Process for Prioritizing Prevention in National
  Parks
• Role of the 1,25D3-MARRS Protein in Nuclear
  Function
• Sourcing the Origin of Stone Raw Materials from
  the 8,00 Year-Old Chance Gulch Archaeological
  Site, Gunnison Basin, CO
• Gray Water Irrigation Constituent Uptake,
  Leaching, and Persistence
• Focused Topics Effective
• Coffees/socials to share research among
  colleagues in a department
• Brown bag lunch with Vice Provost for Associate
  women profs re promotion to full
• Collaborative seminars among colleagues or with
  guest speakers
• General Socials Ineffective

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3 Department Interventions

• The ADVANCE departmental interventions work with
• Select departments in the targeted colleges 
• Working with the faculty in each department to
  identify ways to
• improve the effectiveness of individuals
  and the department
• Each intervention department has a control
  department for comparison to study the effects
  of intervention.
• 2003 Interventions Control
  Department
• Biology                                          
           Chemistry
• Plant, Soils, Biometeorology                 
  Nutrition Food Science
• 2004 Intervention Control
  Department
• Biological Irrigation Engineering       Mechani
  cal Aerospace Engineering
• 2005 Intervention
• College of Natural Resources

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Department Intervention Results

• Speaker series and coffee/socials for sharing
  research improved collegiality
• Department conflict resolution improved
  processes for decision-making
• Transparency of procedures and funding improved
  communication
• Collaborative research between junior and senior
  faculty bridging gaps between specializations
• Targeted grant writing help for junior faculty
  helping ESL speakers and writers

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Departmental Climate Survey (quality of work
life)

• Significant differences between departments
  regarding
• Quality of relationships among colleagues
• Psychological safety
• Pessimism about organizational change
• Access to resources
• Job satisfaction
• Team learning behavior
• Work/Personal life conflict
• No significant differences in gender/rank across
  all colleges
• Significant gender and rank differences for STEM

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Gender Differences-STEM
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Gender x Rank-STEM
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Departmental Climate Survey Results

• The STEM collegesGender/rank differences
  Because there are fewer than 20 women in these
  colleges, the climate survey discerned
  differences in gender and rank. Tenured women
  scored STEM departments the lowest on many
  climate measures.
• The Dean of Education The problem dept. that
  scored at the very bottom of most of the scale
  measures had discussed the results of the survey
  and really wanted to change their dept. climate
  and had begun working on it.
• The Dean of HASS Learned from the survey that
  the School of the Arts depts. were reporting very
  high work/personal life conflict.  Part of this
  is inherent to their jobs theater and concert
  performances in the evenings.  But the college
  was working with dept. heads to try to find ways
  to mitigate the stress and turnover that they
  were experiencing.
• The Dean of Science Met with dept. heads and
  asked them about the climate survey was prepared
  to report what he had learned to the other deans.

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4. USU ADVANCE Initiatives

• Assessment
• Climate surveys, phone interviews, focus groups,
  individual faculty interviews
• Committee feedback, salary studies, space
  studies, data collection on recruitment and
  retention, assessing and modeling career factors
  and job satisfaction
• The importance of good data for decision-making
  and for implementing change
• Dissemination
• ADVANCE website http//websites.usu.edu/advance
• ADVANCE newsletter
• Provosts webpage
• Campus, State, Regional Events workshops,
  seminars, brown bags
• National/Regional Conferences
• Publications in national journals and magazines
• Visibility
• USU President and Provost support
• Implementation Committee including deans, STEM
  department heads, and key faculty
• Central campus location in the student center
• Sustainability
• Coordinating efforts with AA/EO, SPO, VP
  Research, Provosts office so programs will
  eventually reside in a permanent administrative
  structure.
• Integration with Tri-Council for gender programs
  (Womens Center, Women Gender Research
  Institute, Women Gender Studies)
• Permanent director of faculty womens issues as
  position in Provosts office