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Spring 2004 Senate Plenary Planning Committee
Minutes for September
26, 2003 meeting
Attending: Lisa Brush, Jean Carr, Fran Czak, Jean Ferketish, Kathryn
Flannery, Irene Hanson Frieze, Ann Sutherland Harris, Scott Kiesling,
Amy Knapp, Josephine Olson, Maureen Porter, Jennifer Stephan, Richard Tobias, Amy Wagner.
Not Able to Attend: Rita Bean, Susan Hansen, Margaret M. Kimmel, Joan Lakoski, Audrey Murrell, Guy Nicoletti,
Karin Porada.
Introductions and
Brainstorming: Everyone was asked to
share their ideas about the plenary.
This is a brief summary of these ideas:
- Lisa Brush. We need to focus on women’s
accomplishments and what makes it possible for women to achieve. What can be done to further promote
women’s accomplishments? Interested
in women researchers in particular.
She points out that we need to make sure that concrete resources
can be made available to support any programs that we recommend be developed.
- Scott Kiesling. Women are important to the university
and men need to support this. By
serving on the committee, he will add a male voice. He recommended that we articulate our
goals for the plenary very explicitly.
- Kathryn Flannery. Her major concerns are women’s
scholarship and promoting women in leadership roles.
- Richard Tobias. As chair of the Senate Anti-discriminatory Policies Committee,
he wants to support our efforts.
One of the specific concerns of this committee that is especially
relevant for women at Pitt is same-sex partner benefits.
- Amy Knapp. We need to better understand the campus
climate for women students. We
might want to do a follow up to the Women’s Studies climate survey done in
2001-2002. She co-chairs the Senate Educational
Policies Committee.
- Jennifer Stephan. As President of the Campus Women’s
Organization, she represents undergraduate women students. She feels it is important for students
and faculty to work together on projects like this.
- Amy Wagner. She conducted a survey of issues for
women in health care settings. She
is especially interested in resources for young faculty and in helping
women to combine clinical and academic responsibilities.
- Maureen Porter. She does research and workshops on
leadership development for women.
She argues that we need to make sure that mentors have the
resources they need to do this important work. A concrete project we might take on
would be to enhance the current guidelines used in the School
of Education for department
chairmen.
- Fran Czak. As Director of the Senate Office, she is
available to provide support for our efforts. She suggests we think about ways to
bring as many people as we can into the Plenary
session.
- Ann Sutherland Harris. Many years ago, she worked on a major
report on the status of women at Columbia
University in New
York. One
of our projects should be to document the history of women at the University
of Pittsburgh and to look at
how things have changed. Have we
come a long way? We need to
highlight the progress that has been made rather than a focus on the
problems.
- Jean Ferketish. She has much experience in leadership
training for women both in business and academic environments. Women do express leadership differently
than men and this needs to be acknowledged. She suggests that we need to think about
how we can best help develop leadership skills in women at different
points in their careers and what types of career development different
women might need. More training is
needed for women to be effective mentors.
- Jo Olson. A particular issue of concern is the
need for more women in higher level administrative positions, as well as
better support for those women who do take on administrative jobs.
- Jean Carr. An important concern for the group is
the need for women to get more experience in leadership roles. Elizabeth Baranger
in the Provost’s Office has produced a large number of reports on women
faculty and other issues of concern to women as part of her
responsibilities with PACWC. It
would be good if we could get copies of some of these reports. We should also think about how to
enhance the curriculum to better address gender and racial diversity.
- Audrey Murrell. Although not able to attend the meeting,
she suggested that we work to make our activities relevant to the goals of
the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees.
- Guy Nicoletti. Although not able to attend the meeting,
he suggested that an issue of special concern is the role of women in the
sciences and engineering.
- Joan Lakoski. Although not able to attend the meeting,
she suggested we collect data from women in various roles at Pitt about
their special concerns and that we review data on hiring and retention of
women at all levels. We should find
examples of “best practices” in order to see what works. We should provide better recognition for
our women who are in senior administrative positions. We should work on developing leadership
programs for women.
Other models we might
emulate
- Pitt’s
Spring 2001 Plenary. This session on community service
provides an excellent model of long term goals that go beyond the plenary
event itself.
- Duke
University’s Women’s
Initiative. This was a project to
examine the roles of women at Duke—much like our goals. This report is available on the
internet.
- Are
there other examples we could look at?
Short
and long term activities for the planning committee. [Please contact
the chair of this group if you are willing to help with this project.]
- Formulate
a statement of our overall goals for the plenary. Lisa
Brush will chair this effort.
- Work
on finding a major speaker. Ann Sutherland Harris will chair
this effort.
- Developing
a plan for the structure of the Plenary event
itself. We will also explore other
dates for the Plenary. Maureen Porter will chair this
effort.
- Look
to the top 25 comparison universities identified in the Chancellor’s
statement for examples of best practices to help the situation of
women. Kathryn Flannery will chair this effort.
- Review
existing data on the situation of women in administration, faculty, staff,
graduate and undergraduate students.
Make recommendations about what areas are highest priorities. This group may also help identify
examples of best practices at Pitt.
Jean Carr will chair this
effort.
- Develop
ideas about a program to help women develop leadership skills. Audrey
Murrell was identified as a possible chair of this effort.
- Publicize
whatever our committee eventually does on the web. No committee was formed to work on this
yet.
Future
meetings. Committee chairs
will be asked to report at future meetings.
Our next meeting will be scheduled for late October.
Handouts
at the Meeting. Please
contact Fran Czak if you need copies of any of these:
- Chancellor
Nordenberg’s statement to the University
Community on “Looking Ahead:
Confronting Challenges and Seizing Opportunities,” dated September 9, 2003.
- A
resolution from the Board of Trustees on goals for the University
of Pittsburgh for 2000-2005.
- Information
on the Office of Academic Career Development from the Health Sciences.
Prepared by Irene Hanson Frieze
September 29, 2003 draft