ADVANCE Programs at PUIs: Lessons Learned at

Two Private Liberal Arts Colleges

Catherine White BerheideDepartment of Sociology

Skidmore College

SUN Grant GoalsRecognizing and combating gender bias

• Climate Surveys• Bias Prevention Training

• Undergraduates• Faculty and Administrators

Advancing faculty careers• Grants• Mentoring

Adapting Climate Surveys for Liberal Arts Colleges

• Compared questionnaires from RI institutions

• Used University of Illinois Chicago instrument as starting point

• Tailored it for liberal arts colleges• Added items on promotion to full

professor

Success Balancing Personal and Professional Lives Scale

(in percentages)

Strongly Agree Agree

Somewhat Agree

Somewhat Disagree Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Total (N)

Often must forgo professional activities for personal responsibilities

12 11 20 16 19 22 100 (232)

Personal responsibilities/ commitments have slowed career progression

15 14 24 10 20 17 100 (231)

Career responsibilities/ commitments have hindered personal life goals

16 18 24 13 14 15 100 (229)

α=.796

Mean Scores on Success Balancing Personal and Professional Lives Scale by STEM and Gender

02468

101214

Mea

n Sc

ore

Non-STEMMen

STEMMen

Non-STEM

Women

STEMWomen

TotalSample

Comparison of Family Conflicts with Work

SUN: “Personal responsibilities and commitments have slowed down my career progression”VT: “My personal/family responsibilities have slowed my advancement”UAB : “My personal or family responsibilities have slowed my advancement at UAB”

I am treated with respect by my students by Gender, Rank, and College of

Employment

Assistant/Associate Professor (N=147) Full Professor (N=90)4.7

4.9

5.1

5.3

5.5

5.7

Skidmore Male (N=55)*Union Male (N=64)Skidmore Female (N=67)**Union Female (N=51)

*p<.05; **p<.01; ***p<.001

***

***

*

*

Bias Prevention Training for Undergraduates: Year I

Bias Prevention Training for Undergraduates: Year II

Female Male3

3.2

3.4

3.6

3.8

4

4.2

Female ProfMale Prof

*Mean Student Rating of First Year Seminar Faculty

Student Gender

**

Bias Prevention Training for Undergraduates: Year III

• Video on gender schemas

New Approach to Reducing the Effect of Gender Bias in Student

Ratings• Improve quantitative and qualitative

instruments• Train faculty to recognize gender bias in

ratings – Best Practices in Student Rating of Faculty

(Catherine Ross, Teaching and Learning Center, Wake Forest University)

– Reducing Gender Bias in Student Ratings of Faculty (Joey Sprague, Sociology, University of Kansas)

Bias Prevention Training for Faculty

• The Search Committee Meeting and the Department Meeting –CRLT Players (University of Michigan)

• Searching for Excellence and Diversity Workshop (Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute-WISELI)

• Recruiting, Retaining, and Maintaining Women Faculty (Carol deWet, Geosciences, Franklin & Marshall)

• Potholes and Speedbumps on the Road to Diversity (Geraldine Richmond, Chemistry, University of Oregon)

Advancing Careers: Grants

• Teaching Load Modification• Visit Here-or-There• Advanced Education• Conference

Advancing Careers: Mentoring

•Receptions (J S U)•Speed Mentoring (J U)•Discussion Tables (S U)•Peer Mentoring (S U)

J Implemented as joint eventsS Implemented at SkidmoreU Implemented at Union

Receptions

• Joint receptions, afternoon teas, lunches, or dinners to meet each other and distinguished women scientists

• Annual campus events to celebrate the successes of STEM women

Speed MentoringGoal: Provide newer faculty with the opportunity to ask questions of more senior faculty and to receive a variety of inputs on a few topics.

Meet for 5 min. with 5 different people. Reception following to allow for longer discussions.

Spring 2009Joint event with STEM women from Skidmore and Union at Skidmore

Discussion TablesGoal: Bring women together to discuss strategies for handling various situations.Table #1: How do I carve time out of a busy schedule to focus on research?Table #2: What role should service play in my career?Table #3: How do I interpret student comments on my course evaluations?

Other topics generated by the participants covered in succeeding events • Tailoring research for undergraduates• Managing students in the classroom• Work-life balance

Audience:All women on campus.

Peer MentoringWe developed discussion groups on each campus for STEM women who are

A. pre-tenure facultyB. post-tenure faculty who are not yet full professors

Model:Meeting one is an open discussion with peers with the goal of determining one or more areas the group would like more information about.

Meeting two is a discussion with peers and a more experienced woman on campus who can provide guidance in one or more areas.

Example: Third Year Review

Additional Mentoring Strategies

•Distinguished Speakers (J S U)•Workshops (J S U)•Writing Groups (S U)•Poster Session (J)

J Implemented as joint eventsS Implemented at SkidmoreU Implemented at Union

Professor Tara A. Lindsley, Ph.D. Thelma P. Lally Endowed Chair in NeuroscienceCenter for Neuropharmacology & NeuroscienceAlbany Medical College

Distinguished Speaker Series

• Leverage distinguished women scientists for mentoring, research opportunities, and ideas

• Two approaches to making connections between colleges– Invite faculty and students from the other institution– Have speaker go to both institutions and share costs

• Best approach—identify a STEM woman at each campus to work together to organize visit

COACh Workshops

• Academic Leadership (RPI)• Coaching Women to be Effective Change

Agents (RPI)• Making the Most of the Moment: The Art of

Getting Your Message Across (Skidmore)• Balancing Your Career: Strategies to Support

Balance and Renewal (Union)

Writing Groups

• Participants commit to spending three hours writing followed by a lunch discussion involving goal setting, accountability, and troubleshooting

• Multiple groups– Untenured only– Tenured only– Mixed

• Faculty-only room (with coffee, etc.) in library

Culminating Poster Session

• To celebrate the scholarly accomplishments of the women who had received grants from us

• Held in the new science building at Union• Separated into three waves

Lessons Learned• Mentoring of junior faculty is good, but there’s room

for improvement• Mid-career faculty want more support• Faculty find it helpful to discuss approaches to their

careers in small groups with others at the same career stage

• Discussions bring to light issues that affect all faculty• Given time or money, STEM women

are highly productive

AcknowledgementsThis work was supported by

• The National Science Foundation under Grant Numbers 0820080 and 0820032

• Skidmore College Faculty/Student Collaborative Research Program

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation, the SUN Network Committee, or Skidmore or Union Colleges.

Contact InformationSUN Network PIs:

Catherine White Berheide (Skidmore College, Sociology) cberheid@skidmore.eduBrenda Johnson (Union College, Mathematics) johnsonb@union.edu

SUN Network Website: http://sun.skidmore.union.edu/