ADVANCE IT Start Award: ADVANCEment Towards Institutional Transformation at Towson University

Towson University, Towson MD

Investigators

Abstract

The Towson University (TU) IT-Start program will collect historical and baseline information needed to develop a strategy to proceed with institutional transformation related to women faculty in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The overall goal will be to identify roadblocks for female faculty members and major issues involved in their recruitment, retention, and advancement. It is anticipated that the problem will show itself to be some combination of small obstacles related to institutional, career, and family issues and that these issues may differ across important individual and family characteristics. Intellectual Merit: Before an institutional transformation program targeting women faculty in STEM disciplines can be initiated, data must be collected and analyzed, the campus climate determined, and a review of current institutional policies and practices must be performed. The data collected will serve to inform policies and practices affecting the recruitment, selection, retention, scholarship, tenure, promotion and advancement to university leadership positions of female and minority faculty at TU. Data collection will include indicators such as salaries, faculty recruitment and retention, faculty applicant pools, tenure and promotion outcomes; identification of policies and resources for recruitment, review of institutional policies regarding promotion, tenure, and work and life issues, and a climate survey to determine the institution?s current environment. The long term goal is to develop a data driven approach to addressing factors that result in the under-representation of women and minorities at all faculty and administrative levels. The PI and Co-PIs combine expertise and experience of faculty from both the Fisher College of Science and Mathematics (FCSM) and the College of Liberal Arts (CLA). The addition of CLA faculty allows us to utilize a social science approach in the development of surveys and interview strategies to establish a baseline of data to create a strategic plan for institutional transformation. Broader Impacts: The broader impacts of the project will inform TU policies and practices involved in the recruitment, retention and advancement of women and minority faculty in FCSM. In addition, graduate students from the CLA M.S. program in Women?s Studies and Psychology will be trained in qualitative interview techniques and will participate in data collection. The analyzed data will be combined with input from site visits to local recipients of ADVANCE IT grants to develop an appropriate institutional transformation plan for TU. Dissemination will include workshop presentations to TU administrators and faculty, networking at annual ADVANCE grants meetings, integration of data into a ?Women, Gender and Science? course (team-taught by PI and Co-PI Galupo). Ultimately, the development of an institutional transformation plan will increase the number of women and minority faculty that are successful in attaining full professor status and increase the pool of potential applicants who may be considered for administrative leadership roles.