The statement is a response to a report presented during the 2001-02 academic year by the Committee on the Status of Women Faculty at Caltech (CSWFC), chaired by Professor Anneila Sargent. The 31-page report recommended that Caltech "hire more women faculty, be more proactive in nurturing its junior faculty, and make itself friendlier to the working family."
In the months following the release of the report, the Caltech faculty board and administration held a series of conversations and meetings on the report's findings, and the academic division chairs presented new initiatives for recruitment and mentoring to the faculty.
The administration's document states that "The Caltech administration commits itself to addressing in a substantive manner the concerns raised by the CSWFC Report and to implementing changes at the institutional level that respond to the Committee's recommendations." The statement of action pledges that the administration "is also committed to increasing the participation of underrepresented minorities at all academic levels."
"This response by the Caltech administration comes after extensive discussions with many constituencies about how best for Caltech to make itself more welcoming to women and underrepresented minorities," said President David Baltimore. "By elevating women within the school and a woman as vice president, we have taken tangible steps, but the statement makes it clear that we recognize we have a long way to go. We are committed to taking the road."
The statement, which can be seen at http://diversity.caltech.edu/divpr902.html, was signed by Baltimore, Provost Steve Koonin, and endorsed by all six academic division chairs. The Caltech faculty and administration agree that improvements must be made in six key areas: · Increasing the number of women and underrepresented minority faculty · Ensuring equity and salary between male and female professors · Improving the mentoring and the tenure experience · Increasing the participation and visibility of women faculty · Improving the working environment for faculty · Monitoring progress of the institutional efforts on a regular basis
Caltech has made steps in these directions during the past year. The chair and vice chair of the faculty board are women, one division chair is a woman, as is the director of the Beckman Institute on campus. In August, Caltech appointed its first woman vice president, Margo Marshak, who will take her post as the head of student affairs October 21.
Mentoring programs are in place in several divisions, and divisional and Institute-wide tenure processes are being more clearly defined and will be regularly scrutinized. Caltech is also aggressively recruiting women and underrepresented minorities for faculty and postdoctoral positions.
The administration statement further pledges that Caltech is committed to assisting working families through provision of expanded daycare opportunities for young children and through progressive parental leave policies.
"The Report on the Status of Women has focused much-needed attention on the necessity of recruiting, hiring, and retaining excellent women and minority faculty to Caltech," said Marianne Bronner-Fraser, chair of the faculty board and Ruddock Professor of Biology. "It has also identified a number of important areas in which we need to generally improve the quality of life of the faculty as a whole, including making Caltech a more family-friendly environment. With this as a framework, I am optimistic that positive changes are forthcoming. The faculty board is committed to monitoring and facilitating these changes whenever possible and intends to be proactive in pushing the recommendations of the report." Dr. Shirley Malcom, a Caltech trustee and the director of the Education and Human Resources Programs at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., notes that these efforts should be part of a larger movement across the nation. "A comprehensive plan that includes increased PhD production and postdoctoral opportunities, aggressive recruitment, retention, and advancement is needed nationwide, a national plan that must be embraced and implemented one university at a time. I commend Caltech for taking on this challenge, even as it realizes that by doing so, it places its problems, as well as its ambitions for addressing them, in the spotlight." The Caltech Diversity web site can be accessed at http://diversity.caltech.edu
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