MAKING A DIFFERENCE FOR WOMEN REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON UNDERGRADUATE WOMEN'S EDUCATION THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND AT COLLEGE PARK APRIL 25, 1988 COMMITTEE Dr. Sandra C. Greer, Chair Professor and Associate Chair Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Dr. Evelyn Beck Professor and Director Women's Studies Program Dr. J. Robert Dorfman, Dean College of Computer, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences Dr. Vicki Freimuth Associate Professor Department of Communication Arts and Theatre Dr. Diana Jackson Assistant Dean College of Behavioral and Social Sciences Dr. Mary Leonard Associate Professor Counseling Center Dr. Janet H. McKay Assistant to the Chancellor Dr. Samual L. Myers, Jr. Professor and Director Afro-American Studies Program Dr. Muriel Sloan Assistant Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs Dr. Richard Stimpson Assistant Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs CONTENTS I. Introduction II. Summary of recommendations III. Faculty and curriculum development IV. The campus climate V. Entry of women into non-traditional majors and careers VI. Oversight committee VII. Summary of resource requirements VII. Appendices A. The Education of Women Students at the University of Maryland, ColLege Park: Issues and Opportunities See aappendix.txt B. Curriculum Transformation Projects in the U.S. See bappendix.txt C. Women's Studies Program Enhancement Plan See cappendix.txt D. Women in Nontraditional Majors at UMCP See dappendix.txt E. Women Faculty Members at UMCP See eappendix.txt F. A Bibliography on Education for Women See fappendix.txt I. INTRODUCTION In December of 1986, the Subcommittee on Undergraduate Women's Education of the Chancellor's Commission on Women's Affairs presented to Chancellor John B. Slaughter a report, The Education of Women Students at the University of Maryland, College Park: Issues and Opportunities (Appendix A). That report offered three main conclusions. First, the undergraduate curriculum of the College Park campus should be transformed to incorporate, in all disciplines, the contributions and perspectives of women. Second, the classroom climate should be made equitable for women: women must have their ambitions nurtured, their talents developed, their worth affirmed. Third, women should be encouraged to enter those disciplines in which they have been underrepresented. Chancellor Slaughter embraced the recommendations in that report as consistent with the goals and objectives outlined in his statement of the mission of the College Park campus, "Making a Difference: Goals, Objectives, and Initiatives, Fall, 1984." Specifically, the recommendations support the Campus' aims to (1) support faculty development programs, (2) enhance Campus opportunities and support for women, (3) develop a stronger sense of Campus community, and (4) increase external support for campus programs. In addition, the Subcommittee agenda is consistent with the report approved by the College Park Senate of the Ad Hoc Committee on Undergraduate Education, chaired by Prof. John Pease, which requires every undergraduate to take a course that will expose her or him to the contributions and perspectives of women, minorities, and/or non- Western cultures.1 ____________________________ 1 "Promises to Keep: The College Park Plan for Undergraduate Education," College Park Campus Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Undergraduate Education, September, 1987. ____________________________ In September, 1987, Dr. Slaughter appointed the Committee on Undergraduate Women's Education, with a charge "to determine the feasibility of and a strategy for implementing the recommendations in the [Subcommittee] report." We have taken exactly that charge: to plan the implementation of the earlier report and to do so as quickly as possible. The original Subcommittee spent more than a year studying the issues. We reviewed the data and recommendations of the Subcommittee and enlarged upon them. We brought in three consultants to review the three main areas of interest: Dr. Bernice Sandler of the Association of American Colleges, an expert on campus climate issues; Dr. Betty Schmitz of the University of Washington and the Western States Project on Women in the Curriculum, an authority on curriculum transformation; and Dr. Shirley Malcom of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an expert on women in science and engineering. We focussed on achieving a workable plan, with a consideration of the time and resources needed. Three tenets informed all of our planning. First, we believe that our proposed programs must address the diverse needs of women, across lines of race, class, ethnicity, age, and sexuality. One of the Campus' goals is to become a "multi-racial, multi-cultural, and multi-generational academic community." This goal is central to our plan for women students. Second, we assume that the University, realizing its obligation to its female students and realizing that it lags behind its peer institutions in meeting these obligations, will be willing to obtain and to commit the financial resources required for our plan. We will be explicit about the resource requirements and the time frame in which they are to be expended. Third, we believe it to be imperative that the accountability for the suggested actions be made clear, and we will recommend lines of responsibility. Other institutions began such endeavors a decade ago. Since 1975, over 100 institutions have established formal projects to transform their curricula through the incorporation of insights and perspectives arising from the new scholarship on women (Appendix B). These projects have varied widely in purpose, scope, institutional context, and funding sources. The early impetus for such projects came from the availability of funding from such federal programs as the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, and the Women's Educational Equity Act Program, and from foundations such as Ford, Mellon, Lilly, Carnegie, and Rockefeller. However, the majority of these institutions began and are sustaining their projects primarily with internal sources of funds.2 __________________________ 2 "The Chronicle of Higher Education", "More College and More Disciplines Incorporating Scholarship on Women in the Classroom," September 9, 1987, p.A15. __________________________ There are two compelling reasons for these institutional projects: the demographics of future student bodies, and the nature of the new scholarship on women. Student bodies are becoming increasingly female and increasingly ethnically diverse. Faculty members in all disciplines are using concepts and materials from women's studies and ethnic studies to transform their approaches to the subject matter they teach. "Research on women results in the discovery of information and materials on women's lives, accomplishments, and culture which can be added to our existing knowledge; its goals are to integrate these new findings into the curriculum and present a truer, more complete understanding of human experience. The new feminist scholarship, which examines a topic or discipline from the points of view of both men and women, can modify and transform the assumptions, values, and methodologies of given areas of study by accommodating the perspectives and concerns of the heretofore invisible half of the human race."3 National structures are now in place to support continued change. Offices and/or officers at the American Council on Education, the Association of American Colleges, and the American Association on Higher Education support this agenda. For example, the Project on the Status and Education of Women at AAC regularly reports on curriculum transformation efforts and resources in its newsletter. The American Council on Education has just published a special report which speaks with urgency to these very issues.4 The National Women's Studies Association, housed at College Park, maintains a file of consultants who can assist campuses interested in implementing such projects. ___________________________ 3 "Recommendations from "Liberal Education and the New Scholarship on Women," Project of the Status and Education of Women, The Assoc- iation of American Colleges, Washington, DC, 20009, 1982. 4 "The New Agenda of Women for Higher Education," American Council on Education Commission on Women in Higher Education, Special Report, Washington, DC 20036-1193, 1988. ___________________________ Transforming the curriculum is critical to the other two major areas this report addresses--campus climate and women in nontraditional majors. Faculty members and students working on and within curriculum transformation projects are likely to invest in improving the classroom and cocurricular climate for women. Faculty members who transform their courses to reflect scholarship on and by women will be more likely to encourage women to pursue fields that are nontraditional to them and to welcome them in those fields. An effort to improve the educational climate for women is important to the College Park campus because it puts the Campus in a position of intellectual and social leadership. When we change the curriculum, we renew ourselves intellectually by admitting to our thought and discourse the activities of all the human population. When we change the climate and the curriculum, we change the attitudes of young people, as well as the community as a whole. When we change those attitudes, we change the social patterns of the future. We begin to break the gender biases in the work force, opening opportunities for women, and, at the same time, providing to our society more people educated to do the work that has to be done. II. SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS I. FACULTY AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT A. Develop a summer program for the development of faculty expertise in the scholarship on women and gender, and for the incorporation of the perspectives and contributions of women into the curriculum. This program will have an administrator who is a member of the Women's Studies Program. Summer salary will be provided to the participants. The focus will be on distributive courses. B. Enhance the Women's Studies Program so that its faculty can provide the intellectual support for the transformation of the curriculum. Hire five new faculty members, one of whom is designated as the administrator of the summer curriculum project. C. Provide an incentive for Departments to cooperate in the transformation of the curriculum by establishing a pool of funds available for the teaching of transformed courses or of courses on women or gender. Monitor the frequency of such offerings. II. THE CAMPUS CLIMATE A. Develop and issue a campus statement articulating expectations about creating a supportive and equitable classroom environment at College Park. B. Include discussion of the importance of the classroom climate in all undergraduate and graduate student orientation programs. C. Periodically evaluate the classroom climate at UMCP through campus-wide surveys and interviews. This monitoring should include incorporation of climate issues into Departmental teaching evaluations, as well triannual surveys of general student opinion. D. Provide professional development activities to faculty members, including special workshops on climate issues and the addition of these issues to existing activities. E. Support the recommendation of the Chancellor's Commission on Women's Affairs for the appointment of a high-level person whose responsibilities involve advocacy on women's issues. III. ENTRY OF WOMEN INTO NONTRADITIONAL MAJORS AND CAREERS A. Support and encourage activities designed to work with young high school and junior high school students and their school systems on issues of educational and career choices. Implement outreach activities such as a summer science program for students or a campus day for teachers and counselors. B. Attract and make opportunities available to women students in many fields on the Campus. Be sure admission standards are nondiscriminatory. Establish special recruitment programs in units in which women are underrepresented. C. Recruit more women faculty members in all units. D. Conduct a study of the job placement of recent graduates by gender and by field. Work closely with employers to promote equity and opportunity for female graduates. E. Prepare a briefing book on the educational status of women students and review its contents in the Deans' Council, the Campus Senate, the Graduate Council, and the Academic Services Council. Ask departments to keep track of their women majors and to interview women leaving their programs. Ask the Office of Institutional Studies to report annually on the number of women graduating in each major. IV. OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE The present Committee on Undergraduate Women's Education should remain constituted and function as an oversight committee. It should review the recommended programs each semester and report to the Chancellor and Provost on progress. A full review should be held after two years. III. FACULTY AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT The first aim of our academic program is excellence. Excellence requires that our scholarship and teaching encompass significant aspects of a many cultural heritages. It requires that the contributions of many scholars, from a variety of backgrounds and intellectual persuasions, be encompassed. Taking explicit account of gender and of other aspects of human diversity is essential for achieving excellence in many areas of scholarship. Moreover, the University of Maryland campus leadership has embraced the mission of making this a multicultural, multi- generational, multiracial university. To achieve this aim, the curriculum must reflect, wherever possible, the contributions of women and racial minorities. The Campus' curriculum as a whole has not as yet achieved this breadth and balance. The necessary curriculum transformation must result from the development of faculty knowledge and expertise in these new areas. To this end, we concur in the recommendation of the original Subcommittee that there be established "a curriculum reform project of summer support for faculty [members] interested in revising a course or curriculum to incorporate scholarship on women." Currently, the primary source on this campus of the experience and expertise needed to transform the curriculum is the Women's Studies Program. Because the resources of the Women's Studies Program are, as we will discuss below, strained to the limit already, we strongly recommend strengthening the Program to assure that there is an organizational capability for carrying out curriculum reform. The Women's Commission Subcommittee gave the transformation of the curriculum the highest priority in its recommendations with respect to the curriculum, and this committee agrees with that decision. Other recommendations (see Appendix A) can be reconsidered at a later time. Outlined below are the three major components of the transformation plan. These recommendations are grouped under section I in the summary (p. 10). I. A. Develop a summer program for curriculum transformation. Experience on other campuses has demonstrated that intensive faculty development activities are the best way to achieve the kind of curriculum reform we need. Many faculty members recognize the importance of the new scholarship, but as with any major new development, they need time and resources to conduct research and to revise courses accordingly. In addition, because projects such as the one we propose open new areas of knowledge to faculty members while also enabling them to make new discoveries and engage in an ongoing exchange of ideas across disciplines, these projects have a profound and positive impact on the faculty members who participate in them.5 Thus, this project will be a catalyst for interdisciplin- ary scholarship and make a major contribution toward the improve- ment of undergraduate education. _______________________________ 5 Jane E. Wright and Margaret A. Talburtt, "Including Women in the Curriculum: A Report to the Ford Foundation on the Current State of Knowledge About the Impact of Curriculum Integration Projects, " Formative Evaluation Research Associates, Ann Arbor, MI, 1987. _______________________________ 1. We propose that a program of support for summer salary of faculty members to revise and transform their courses. We envision a group of about 15 faculty members each summer, chosen by a competitive process. A group of 15 will allow a distribution of fields and will constitute a large enough group for esprit de corps. At 15 per year for several years, enough faculty members will be reached to have a tangible impact on the Campus. A competitive selection process will allow the participants to define the parameters of their work and permit the project to select the best applications. The whole group is to meet regularly over the summer. They will be expected to study the scholarship on women in their fields, to develop a new syllabus or other materials based on that scholarship, and perhaps to begin new research in areas growing out of the summer's work. Each summer program will result in public lectures by the group members and in a published collection of papers. 2. The program should be administered by a faculty member who is expert in women's studies and in curriculum transformation and whose time is, in part, dedicated to this activity. The program administrator will be expected, in time, to seek outside support for the project. That support can be used to augment the University funding, bringing the total number of faculty members involved each summer to 20 or more. The administrator could also consider opening the program to (paying) faculty members from other institutions, thus generating some income. 3. The program should focus on the transformation of distributive courses. The reasons for this emphasis are that these are high enrollment courses reaching many students and that, since most previous projects at other institutions have also focussed on such courses, materials already exist for these courses. The development of specific courses devoted to scholarship on women could also be included in the project, especially for departments not offering such courses. Budget: We plan for 15 faculty members per summer for an initial three summers. The summer support for each participant should be 20% of her or his academic year salary. If the average salary is $45,000, then the average support will be $9,000 per faculty member, or $135,000 per summer. Support for the program administrator will be discussed below. Time frame: We see this program as an urgent need. Indeed, many other institutions have such projects already underway, institutions such as the University of Arizona, Rutgers University, and Stanford University. We urge that every effort be made to hire the administrator by September, 1988. The first selection competition should be in the spring of 1989. The first transformation program should be in the summer of 1989. Accountability: The professor/program administrator will be responsible for organizing the summer program. The program will be regularly reviewed by the oversight committee (see below). I. B. Enhance the Women's Studies Program. The Women's Studies Program has led in the development on our campus of courses devoted to scholarship on women. These specialized courses, devoted to women's roles and accomplish- ments, cultivate and collect information on women. Such courses are a permanent part of our university program, and scholarship on women is an esteemed avenue for research activity. We view this reservoir of expertise as crucial to the curriculum trans- formation which we envision. The Women's Studies Program presently has three faculty members. Prof. Evelyn Beck is Director of the program and spends two-thirds of her time on administration. Prof. Claire Moses is the editor of the foremost journal in Women's Studies, Feminist Studies, which is housed on our campus; she spends half her time in editorial activities. Only Prof. Katie King is a full-time teacher and researcher. Thus there are three faculty lines in the Women's Studies program, but less than two full-time equivalents for teaching purposes. Despite this low level of support, the Women's Studies Program is acknowledged by our campus to be a center of excellence, a model for what an interdisciplinary program can do for a campus.6 ______________________________ 6 Five-Year Review of the UMCP Women's Studies Program, 1986 ______________________________ The Women's Studies Program must be the major resource for the energy and expertise needed to transform the curriculum. It is not possible for "less than two" people to do that job. The transformation of the curriculum will, therefore, require that more resources be allotted to Women's Studies. For example, there is currently no faculty member expert in the social sciences, nor is there a faculty member who is from a racial minority group. We urge implementation of the enhancement plan recently submitted by the Women's Studies Program (Appendix C). That plan demonstrates the necessity for the development of Women's Studies into a small department. 1. We recommend: The addition of five faculty members to the Women's Studies Program: junior and senior level appointments in areas currently not covered by the Women's Studies Program or by Departments on the Campus. These areas include psychology, anthropology, international development, Black women's studies, and feminist epistemology. 2. One of these new faculty members should administer the summer transformation project. She or he will spend half of her or his time as the administrator for the curriculum transforma- tion, including the summer program. Budget: A twelve-month salary should be provided for the professor/summer program administrator. The cost will be $60,000 to $70,000. Fringe benefits (28% of salary) will also be re- quired, for a total of at most $89,600. If the other four salaries average $45,000, or $57,600 when fringe benefits are included, then the cost of these four lines will be $230,400. Increased secretarial support will be required. We estimate the cost at $18,000 plus $5,040 for fringe benefits. Another $5,000 will be needed for materials and supplies. Time frame: The new faculty member/administrator should be hired by September, 1988. The search committee should be selected from the current Committee on Undergraduate Women's Education, the present core faculty in Women's Studies, and the office of the Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost. After the administrator is hired, one line should be added each year. Accountability: The program administrator will be a regular faculty member in the Women's Studies Program, but her/his work on curriculum transformation will be reviewed by the Oversight Committee (see below). The other new professors are regular members of the Women's Studies Program. I. C. Provide incentives for cooperation by Departments in curriculum innovation. We see a need for an incentive system to involve depart- ments directly in the transformation of the curriculum. For the present discussion, we classify courses as being of two kinds. First, there are the regular courses in the University curriculum, which we propose to transform in order to include information on and perspectives of women. Second, there are special topics courses developed around key issues concerning gender and women. The former, the courses reaching large numbers of students, are now and will continue to be offered regularly, and will be transformed by our summer faculty development program. On the other hand, the courses devoted to special issues are not offered often enough for lack of departmental resources. There are simply not enough faculty members to allow the offering of the specialized subjects with sufficient frequency or with an adequate number of sections. It is not for lack of demand. Indeed, the courses offered and supported by the Women's Studies Program always have waiting lists of hundreds of students. 1. We propose that a pool of funds be made available by competition to Departments to augment their teaching of either transformed regular courses or of special topics courses. These funds could be used, for example, to help in hiring a new permanent faculty member expert in these issues, or to hire a visiting scholar to teach such courses. We note that this effort is to supplement, not supplant, the effort to increase the number of female faculty members, which we will discuss below. 2. The frequency of such course offerings be studied over the next few years by the Oversight Committee (see below) and a report made to the Chancellor and Provost. Budget: We propose a pool of $200,000. Time frame: Such funds should be made available by January, 1989. Accountability: The pool will be administered by the Vice- Chancellor for Academic Affairs. IV. THE CAMPUS CLIMATE The report of the Subcommittee on Undergraduate Women's Education noted that a considerable body of research exists that supports the influence of the learning environment on learning outcomes for students. The effects of classroom climate on the educational experiences of male and female students may be profound. Sadker and Sadker have studied the disparate effects of classroom environment from grade school to graduate school. Their findings indicate that in the traditional classroom the quantity and quality of faculty-student interaction favors active male participation in the learning process (and subsequent male achievement) to the disadvantage of female students.7 Hall and Sandler, in a report summarizing the findings of more than 50 research studies of male and female classroom interaction, came to similar conclusions.8 Faculty behaviors, many of them subtle and/or inadvertent, served collectively to discourage active participation of female students in the classroom. Such dynamics as the amount of attentiveness and/or responsiveness faculty directed towards students tended to be positively skewed towards males, while disparaging comments, sexist humor, direct sexual overtures and the like were commonly reported experiences of female students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Not surprisingly, environments with such characteristics tended to have a "chilling" influence on women's active participation in the learning process, prompting the coining of the term "chilly climate." ___________________________________ 7 M. Sadker and D. Sadker, "Sexism in the Classroom: From Grade School to Grad School," Phi Delta Kappa Journal, 1986. 8 Roberta M. Hall and Bernice Sandler, "The Classroom Climate: A Chilly One for Women," Project on the Status and Education of Women, Association of American Colleges, Washington, DC 1982. ___________________________________ An institution with the goal of academic excellence for all its students must address the quality of its learning environ- ment(s) as seriously and deliberately as it addresses its curriculum. It must educate faculty and students about the importance of the learning environment--about the characteristics that facilitate learning and those that block it. In addition, the institution must assume responsibility for training current faculty in the methodologies best suited to an equitable classroom environment. And finally, it must be vigilant in monitoring the development and maintenance of such environments over time. The recommendations that follow are intended to address each of these objectives. These recommendations correspond to section II of the summary. II A. Develop and issue a campus statement articulating expectations about creating a supportive and equitable classroom environment at College Park. Such a statement should come from the Chancellor's office with the endorsement of all other relevant parties, including the office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost, the Campus Senate, deans and chairs. This statement should reiterate the campus' commitment to equity in the education offered to students and should include some mention of acceptable standards of interaction between faculty and students both within and outside the classroom. This statement should come forth as soon as possible, should be distributed immediately to all students, faculty and staff, and should reinforce the furtherance of the other goals contained in this report. In addition, this statement should be reprinted as soon as possible in campus newspapers periodically, and should be included in the Student Handbook, the Graduate Student Handbook, the Faculty Handbook, the Undergraduate and Graduate catalogues, and the schedule of classes. Budget: Minor costs will be absorbed by units. Time frame: This statement should be drafted and distribu- tion begun by Fall of 1988. Accountability: The statement should be drafted by the Office of the Chancellor. Normal grievance procedures, as administered by the Colleges and the Office of Human Relations, will apply. II B. Include discussion of the importance of the classroom climate in all undergraduate and graduate student orient- ation programs. Several mechanisms exist for the implementation of this recommendation. They include: a) Summer orientation programs for freshmen and transfer students, b) EDCP 108-0--the continuing orientation course currently offered to freshmen, c) The minority graduate student orientation program, sponsored by the Graduate School, d) College or department level orientation programs, especially those for teaching assistants. Because the content of programs such as these is continually being revised in order to maintain accuracy and relevance, inclusion of this topic should be rather easily accommodated. In addition, the topic area is quite consistent with the principal objective of such programs, i.e., to advise students of the tools, skills and information needed to succeed academically in the campus environment. Budget: The cost of modifying programs to include discussion of classroom climate is negligible and can be absorbed by the units sponsoring the programs. Time frame: Action on this proposal should be initiated immediately, with a goal of full implementation by the Fall, 1988. Accountability: The deans and chairs who organize these programs should be charged with implementing the inclusion of classroom climate issues. II. C. Periodically evaluate the classroom climate at UMCP through campus-wide surveys and interviews. As has already been mentioned, an inherent part of the institution's responsibility in fostering a more equitable learning environment is a continual, consistent monitoring of the campus climate. The subject of campus climate has direct bearing on the quality of the educational experience by more than half our student population. 1. A monitoring of the campus climate should be done by the Survey Research Center or a similar entity with the requisite expertise and credibility. The components of the classroom climate are many; they are frequently subtle and sometimes complex in the degree to which they relate to each other. The cost of such a survey would vary considerably, depending upon the number and type of variables to be included. This committee does not wish to undertake the task of specifying the details of the design; however, we strongly recommend that such a survey include not only interview data but certain institutional data as well, such as number of women faculty, by department and rank, distributions of female vs. male students across disciplines, at both undergraduate and graduate levels, proportions of females to males in student leadership and para-professional positions, proportions of males to females in honor societies, etc. Finally, it is recommended that this survey be done once every three years, commencing with the first year of this project and proceeding every third year thereafter. The survey results should go to the Vice-Chancellors for Academic Affairs and Student Affairs, the Deans and Chairs, and the Oversight Committee, to be used in evaluating future steps in the effort to improve the climate. 2. Items assessing faculty-student interaction should be included in evaluations of teaching at the Departmental level. While the procedures for teaching evaluation vary widely throughout the campus, most colleges do have some identifiable means of measuring instructional effectiveness, whether by paper and pencil method or by some other form of review. Inclusion of some measures assessing the quality of the classroom climate should be relatively easy to incorporate and can provide more immediate and personalized feedback to faculty members about student perceptions of their courses. The cost of implementing this practice would be minimal and would be absorbed by departments and/or colleges. Implementation should be planned for the Fall 1988 semester. Budget: The survey will cost about $5000. Time frame: See above discussion. Accountability: The Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs will assume the responsibility for commissioning the survey and for seeing that these issues are included in other evaluations. II. D. Provide professional development activities to faculty members. It has been recommended earlier in this report that faculty members be offered substantive opportunities for training in transformation of the curriculum. This recommendation proposes that opportunities for professional development to transform the classroom climate also be made available. Several vehicles are suggested for accomplishing this objective: 1. Offer training workshops of 1-2 days to faculty members on a first-come, first-served, limited capacity basis. These workshops should be offered annually. Research has found significant improvement in the quality of the classroom environment after such training.7 The cost of providing such training consists largely of consultants' fees, which would fall in the $1500-$2500 range. Participants would be required to a) go back to their units with a well-defined plan for revising at least two classes, and b) share with faculty members in their units principles and techniques learned in the training. Budget: The cost of training will be about $3000 per workshop for 20-30 faculty members. Time frame: Implementation should begin by the Spring 1989 semester. Accountability: The Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost will be responsible for these workshops. 2. Use existing faculty and administrative forums for discussion of classroom climate issues. Leadership in changing the environment must come from a number of different sources, including academic deans, department heads, directors of undergraduate and graduate programs, etc. It is important that each of these populations be educated on issues related to the campus climate. Rather than creating new and separate programs for this purpose, it is suggested that this topic be added to agendas of existing forums, such as college and departmental level administrative retreats, seminar series, pro- fessional development activities, etc. It is also recommended that such discussion become a part of professional development activities for other staff such as academic advisors, etc. The principal requirement for this set of recommendations is the availability of persons with the requisite expertise to assist in such discussions. While it may be useful on occasion to call in external consultants, we recommend use of in-house expertise where possible. It is imperative however that the Campus encourage the involvement of persons willing to serve as consultants by providing appropriate release time and/or other kinds of administrative support. Budget: None required. Time frame: Immediate. Accountability: The Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost and the Deans should be responsible. II. E. Support the recommendation of the Chancellor's Commission on Women's Affairs for the appointment of a high-level person whose responsibilities involve advocacy on women's issues. The special report of the American Council on Education, "The New Agenda for Women" urges all higher educational instit- utions to establish such a position. We believe the need is particularly great on a campus of our size and complexity. While it is important to have responsibility for women's issues permeate the institution, it is also important that institutional commitment have a focus and a spokesperson. This committee urges support for this position as outlined by the Women's Commission. V. ENTRY OF WOMEN INTO NON-TRADITIONAL MAJORS AND CAREERS The report of the Subcommittee on Undergraduate Women's Education of the Chancellor's Commission on Women's Affairs concluded that "women are underrepresented in the mathematical, science and engineering disciplines and over represented in education, human resources, library science, and certain humanities disciplines." In Appendix D we present the enrollment data for many of the departments at the University showing the percentage of women majors for 1977, 1982, and 1987. One can see that in 1987, the percentages of women in engineering and the physical sciences ranged from a low of 15 or 16% to a high of about 40%. In many areas, including education, behavioral and social sciences, and human ecology, the percentages of women are very close to 100%. These data certainly support the conclusion of the Subcommittee. It is also important to realize that these proportions persist, and are often more exaggerated, in the work force. The ultimate goal of our efforts at the University of Maryland at College Park should be to ensure that the proportion of women within any given major be determined by the desires of students to enter that major, without regard to factors other than interests and talents. We believe that women should have increased access to all majors. We would suggest that as one ideal goal, the proportion within any major should approach the proportion of women in our society. It is our goal to do everything possible to realize this ideal arrangement. Therefore, we wish to suggest five activities, which correspond to section III of the summary. III. A. Support and encourage activities designed to work with young high school and junior high school students and their school systems on issues of broadening educational and career choices for female students. 1. Deans and Chairs of Colleges and Departments in which women are under-represented should establish special recruitment and support programs to increase female participation. These support programs should include summer programs to introduce female high school students to the sciences in an environment which is supportive. An example of such a program is the Radcliffe Summer Program in Science, a joint project of Radcliffe College and Harvard Summer School.9 This program brings women high school students to the campus for eight weeks and introduces them to new developments ranging from astrophysics, mathematics, and computer science, to biology. A similar six-week course is provided by Mount Holyoke College. Many other colleges and universities sponsor summer programs as well as a variety of outreach programs whereby university women faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students visit high schools as speakers on the career day functions. _______________________________ 9 Norma C. Ware and Susan T. Hollis, "Radcliffe Summer Program in Science, 1987 Session, Final Report,," 1987 _______________________________ Another useful activity is to sponsor a day on campus for high school guidance and career counselors as well as mathematics and science teachers. A recent study prepared by Ehrhart and Sandler points out that women who were strongly influenced by high school teachers and counselors in making college plans were less likely to major in science.10 Clearly, more work with high school faculty members and counselors and with high school students is necessary in order to encourage young women to enter non-tradi- tional courses of study for women. _________________________________ 10 Julie K. Ehrhart and Bernice P. Sandler, "Looking for More than a Few Good Women in Traditionally Male Fields," Project on the Status and Education of Women, Association of American Colleges, 1987. _________________________________ 2. Release time should be provided for faculty members participating in these outreach activities. These activities will place additional burdens on female faculty members in particular, women who are already called upon continually for university service. They should be given release time from teaching when these service activities take time from their scholarly pursuits. Budget: Funds for summer and other outreach programs and release time for faculty members should be about $40,000. Time Frame: Immediate. Accountability: The Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost and the Deans should be responsible. III. B. Attract and make opportunities available to women students in many fields at the University of Maryland College Park. 1. The University should work to ensure that admissions standards are nondiscriminatory. Specifically, we urge caution in the rigorous use of scholastic aptitude test scores for deciding on admission of women students. We recommend that high school grades, especially those in rigorous subjects such as mathematics, and teacher recommendations be carefully taken into account in admission decisions for women high school students. We also urge special attention to the admission of women to those departments where selective admissions to majors are in effect. We do not advocate "lower standards" for women, but recommend that current standards be evaluated to be certain that they do not discriminate against women. An example would be the use of SAT scores as a criterion, rather than high school grades, as discussed above. Attention must also be given to those programs for which admission decisions are made just prior to the junior year; women students should have appropriate advice/men- toring to be sure that they understand how those decisions are made. Budget: None required. Time frame: Review of criteria should begin immediately, with current admissions decisions. Accountability: Deans should be responsible. 2. We further recommend that Colleges and Departments in which women are underrepresented establish special recruitment and academic and personal support systems in order to increase female participation. We note that such recruiting must include minority women. Once women have been made aware of opportunities in non- traditional majors and have been admitted to such programs, they must receive academic and personal support in order to be made to feel comfortable in these programs. This support should include activities designed to relieve financial burdens, such as scholarships and financial aid packages. A child care center, on the campus and available for students, would be an important advance for women. In each traditionally-male department, a faculty or staff person should be responsible for meeting regularly with the women students--to bring them together for mutual support and to discuss problems which may be hindering their full participation. The dean and the department chairs should convey to all the faculty members and students the University's philosophy with respect to the inclusion and encouragement of female students. Indeed, meetings between the dean and chairs and the female students will communicate to the students the high hopes held for them and will further alert the administrative structure to the problems of these women. Furthermore, subject area support groups, similar to the Society of Women Engineers should be formed and supported by the colleges and departments. Budget: $40,000 for scholarships. Time frame: Immediate. Accountability: Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Deans. 3. In order for student recruitment efforts to succeed, we must recruit more women faculty members. Very often there are few or no role models for women in non-tradi- tional fields. Chancellor Slaughter has often made the point that he was the first black engineer that he had ever met, since in his entire educational career he had no black role models from whom he could learn. Much the same phenomenon confronts women students in many non-traditional majors. It is very difficult for a woman student to see herself in a discipline if she has never seen a woman as a professor in that department. Appendix E tabulates the number of women faculty in academic units at the University of Maryland at College Park. Very few units have a percentage of women faculty members equal to the percentage of women in that discipline. The University of Maryland, College Park, like most other universities, has historically not been successful in recruiting women faculty. Although there is a perception that this is no longer the case, the actual number of women hired for faculty and administrative positions does not support this view. There are many ways to increase the proportion of women in faculty and administrative positions at the University, including special recruitment and retention funds for women and the development of post-doctoral fellowship programs that would enable women who have just received the Ph.D. degree to spend two or three years in scholarly and career development for eventual tenure-track positions at the University. We need financial resources as well as a pool of lines for women faculty. Departments should compete for the available resources with the possibility of loss of resources by those departments not actively participating in recruitment and retention activities. Budget: $200,000/year should be available for recruitment and retention. Time frame: The first such funds should be available for the 1988-1989 hiring season. Accountability: The Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs and the Deans. III. C. Have the Career Development Center conduct a study of the placement of recent graduates by gender and by field. Work closely with employers to promote equity and opport- unity for female graduates. The Career Development Center personnel are already interested in the issue of women in non-traditional majors and willing to help in these efforts. They can assist departments in collecting data (see below). They can provide departments with advice on student retention and can provide counseling for groups of women students. They are willing to undertake a study of women 5 to 10 years after graduation, in order to track their career paths. Budget: $5,000 will be required for computer and student assistance for information gathering. Time scale: The effort should begin in the fall of 1988. Accountability: The Oversight Committee and the Career Development Center should be responsible for seeing that this gets done. III. D. Prepare a briefing book on the educational status of women students and review its contents in the Deans' Council, Campus Senate, Graduate Council, and the Academic Services Council. In order to monitor needs and progress, it is essential that accurate and timely information be available. 1. All Departments should keep track of their women majors, the number enrolled and the number graduating. Departments should interview a representative sample of graduating women in order to understand better their experiences at the University and their success in entering the work force. 2. Departments should interview women who are leaving a major, either to leave the University or to change to another major. The information obtained from interviews with graduating women and from interviews with women leaving the departments should be prepared in such a way that it can be of benefit to faculty and students as well as to University administrators. 3. The Office of Institutional Studies should prepare an annual report to the Chancellor on the number of women who graduate in each major. That report will be distributed to the Provost, the Committee on Undergraduate Women's Education, the deans, and the department chairs. Budget: None required. Time frame: Departments should begin immediately. The first OIS report should be made in September 1988. Accountability: Chairs and the OIS will assume these responsibilities. VI. OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE The projects we have proposed will require years of effort and continual review. We propose that the present Committee on Undergraduate Women's Education remain constituted as the Oversight Committee for this process. This committee is already informed on the issues and the hopes for the program, and is thus in the best position to monitor the process. The committee should review the programs twice a year, report to the Chancellor on progress, and recommend changes in the course of action. A full, formal review should be held after two years. VII. SUMMARY OF RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS We outline below a three-year plan to implement and augment the report of the Subcommittee on Undergraduate Women's Education of the Chancellor's Commission on Women's Affairs. I. Faculty and curriculum development A. Develop a summer program for curriculum development. B. Enhance the Women's Studies Program. C. Provide incentives for cooperation by departments in curriculum development. BUDGET Part 1988-89 1989-90 1990-91 A Faculty support 135,000 135,000 135,000 B Administrator 89,600 89,600 89,600 Other faculty 230,400 230,400 230,400 (to be phased in) Support staff 28,000 28,000 28,000 C. Incentives pool 200,000 200,000 200,000 SUBTOTAL I 683,000 683,000 683,000 II. The campus climate A. Develop and issue a campus statement articulating expectations about the classroom environment at College Park. B. Include discussion of the importance of the classroom climate in all undergraduate and graduate student orientation programs. C. Periodically evaluate the classroom climate at UMCP through campus-wide surveys and interviews. D. Provide professional development activities. E. Support the recommendation of the Chancellor's Commis- sion on Women's Affairs for the appointment of a high- level person whose responsibilities involve advocacy on women's issues. BUDGET Part 1988-89 1989-90 1990-91 C. Survey 5,000 - - D. Workshops 3,000 3,000 3,000 E. Spokesperson Budget not available SUBTOTAL II 8,000 3,000 3,000 III. Entry of women into nontraditional majors and careers A. Support and encourage activities designed to work with young female high school and junior high school students and their school systems on issues of broadening educational and career choices for female students. B. Attract and make opportunities available to women students in many fields at the University. C. Recruit more women faculty members in all units. D. Conduct a study of the placement of recent graduates by gender and by field. Work closely with employers to promote equity and opportunity for female graduates. E. Prepare a briefing book on the status of women students and review its contents in the Deans' Council, Campus Senate, Graduate Council, and the Academic Services Council. BUDGET Part 1988-89 1989-90 1990-91 A. Outreach programs 40,000 40,000 40,000 B. Scholarships 40,000 40,000 40,000 C. Recruitment/retention 200,000 200,000 200,000 D. Survey 5,000 5,000 5,000 SUBTOTAL III 285,000 285,000 285,000 TOTAL BUDGET 1988-89 $976,000 1989-90 $971,000 1990-91 $971,000