summit meeting on gender equity
Women make gains among new hires
BY CYNTHIA LEE
UCLA Today Staff
Tight budgets and a need to hire younger faculty to help balance
UCLA’s aging professoriate are helping academic women get
their foot in the door, faculty attending a gender equity summit
meeting at the Faculty Center May 17 learned from campus administrators.
Among assistant professors at UCLA, 34% are women and 66% men.
But last year, UCLA began hiring a larger proportion of junior faculty;
in fact, 66% of all faculty hires were at the untenured, junior
level. Among all new hires, 33% were women, Associate Vice Chancellor
for Faculty Diversity Rosina Becerra reported.
“That is higher than it has been in the past,” said
Becerra. “We anticipate hiring at the same level this year
— and possibly more.”
While Proposition 209 prohibits the consideration of gender in
hiring, the opportunity to hire more faculty at the assistant professor
level will promote gender equity, advocates said, because the pool
of eligible candidates is more representative in terms of gender
and race/ethnicity than the pool of senior-level candidates.
Noted Christine Littleton, chair of the Gender Equity Summit Committee,
who led the meeting: “In tight budget times, the economy and
creating a more diverse pool may, in fact, go hand in hand. We’ll
take whatever we can get.”
While some progress is being made in the recruitment, promotion
and leadership of a diverse UCLA faculty, the women stressed that
much more needs to be done to pierce the institutional and cultural
barriers. In 2002-03, 24% of UCLA ladder faculty were women. Among
ladder faculty, only 6% were minority women, compared to 15% for
minority men.
Littleton focused on the main recommendations of faculty women
from 20 different departments and professional schools who recently
brainstormed more than 100 ideas at workshops.
They called for improved communication with faculty on diversity,
for training in negotiation skills and recruitment, and the publication
of departmental progress reports on diversity, among other strategies.
More disclosure of departmental promotion files and of salary
information beyond steps and ranges is needed. “Chairs —
open your promotion files,” Littleton urged. “Why can’t
people see at least redacted versions of the files? People don’t
know what’s happening unless they get information.”
Both Chancellor Albert Carnesale and Executive Vice Chancellor
Daniel Neuman, who attended the meeting, expressed their firm commitment
to helping achieve faculty diversity.
“There is no question that this is among the most important
challenges we face,” Carnesale told the gathering.
For the latest information on faculty diversity, including a report
from the summit, see http://faculty.diversity.ucla.edu.
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