As we stated in the introduction to this report, the status of faculty women at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1999 is not good and is in need of improvement.  The solution in our minds is a very aggressive hiring policy targeted at increasing the number of faculty women at all ranks and across all colleges.  But an aggressive hiring strategy will not succeed unless we can demonstrate to potential recruits that the women at the UIUC face a nondiscriminatory employment situation, a supportive climate, and a gender-equitable salary policy.  This report suggests otherwise.  Therefore, our Committee urges that the following remedial actions be taken: 

First:   We recommend that aggressive recruiting of women involve the following components: 

·        Establishing a new fund to permit the increased hiring of women faculty, particularly in under-represented areas. 

·        Continuing to encourage the hiring of women at the associate and full professor levels as well as the assistant professor level. 

·        More carefully monitoring departmental hiring practices and taking corrective action where appropriate. 

·        Restricting funds available through the Faculty Excellence Program to departments that have representative numbers of women and minority men on their faculties or who use the funds to hire women or minority men. 

·        Actively preparing UIUC faculty women for leadership positions and hiring them when vacancies arise. 

Second:  In order to better monitor the campus climate for women, we recommend: 

·        Studying the promotion and retention of women faculty on a regular basis and following-up with corrective measures where appropriate.  CCSW is currently undertaking a faculty retention study.  Surveys will be mailed out this fall and analysis completed by the end of the year. 

• Conducting exit interviews and other campus surveys to acquire data about climate and treatment of men and women faculty; exit interviews should include those terminated as well as those leaving voluntarily. CCSW could suggest questions and review drafts of interview protocols.

• Encouraging active mentoring for women assistant and associate professors.  A preliminary study of UIUC mentoring practices conducted by CCSW found that mentoring, though not universal, was more common for women than for men faculty.  However, response rates for the study were very low.[1]

• More effectively holding academic administrators, particularly Deans and Department Heads, responsible in regular review processes (i.e., of salary and retention) for progress toward greater representation of women in the academic ranks and in positions of leadership.

·        Considering ways to make the campus more women and family friendly, such as child and eldercare, flexible leave policies, and increased safety. 

·        Assuring publicity for women scholars, teachers, and administrators who have been recognized.  

Third:  We believe that Campus administration should take a more active role in assuring that salary equity is the reality for women on this campus.  We therefore recommend: 

• Undertaking annual salary equity reviews similar to the regression analysis conducted this year by the Provost’s Office, and using the results as input into the annual salary determination process.  Faculty should have a right to see how they individually compare to group values.

• Taking immediate action to correct salary inequities.  Delaying corrective action or phasing it in over several years places the burden unfairly on women faculty, particularly on those who retire with inequities built into their pensions.

• Monitoring faculty women's salaries in the years following equity increases to assure that the effects do not simply dissipate over time.

• Reviewing the salary determination procedures of departments for implicit gender-bias.  Implicit gender bias occurs when activities of women (researching topics of primary interest to women, for example) receive low weight in the salary determination process.

• Revising the Faculty Salary Equity Review Process, which requires that the faculty women’s salary gaps exceed 7% before review will be undertaken and which requires that women complainants identify male colleagues for comparison.[2]  Insofar as possible, salary inequities should be identified and corrected at the campus level without requiring special grievance action by women faculty, action that places them at odds with their departments and colleges.  Any unwarranted salary gap (not just those exceeding 7%) should be corrected.

·        Establishing a Provost-controlled pool of salary money specifically to be used to address salary inequities.  Annual follow-up is essential to assure that the equity adjustment fund is not used for general salary enhancement. 

·        Monitoring the non-salary components of compensation (research support, office space and location, teaching loads, committee loads, research and teaching awards and honors, chairs and professorships) to assure they are awarded in gender-neutral ways. 

Fourth:  We believe that progress toward fair representation and compensation of women faculty cannot be achieved in an atmosphere where there is not full and frank discussion.  Therefore, we recommend: 

·        Moving the issue of fair representation and compensation of women faculty to the forefront in campus discussion. A Framework of the Future, the strategic plan developed in 1995 guiding the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, sets a goal to “build a faculty and administration that includes women and members of minority groups at all levels, making significant progress by the year 2000.”[3]  CCSW strongly endorses this goal. 

·        Making a public statement of support for nondiscriminatory treatment of women faculty.  Set workable goals (such as achieving third place among CIC institutions for the representation and compensation of UIUC faculty women) and establish a time line for their accomplishment.  Annually report to the faculty on progress toward goals. 

·        Appointing a Task Force to study further the status of women faculty on our campus.  The Task Force should attend to issues such as teaching loads and course assignments, prestigious committee assignments, awards of endowed chairs and professorships, lab and office allocations, and administrative assignments.  A recent study on the status of women faculty in science at MIT cited the increasing marginalization of women faculty as they move through their careers.  The report noted “differences in salary, space, awards, resources, and response to outside offers between men and women faculty with women receiving less despite professional accomplishments equal to those of their male colleagues.”  It was beyond the scope of this Committee to look into these differences at UIUC, but the Committee believes that such a study would be worthwhile. 

The Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Woman encourages the development of a community with opportunities for both men and women.  This report suggests that on this campus, existing policies and practices do not always promote faculty women’s professional growth and employment.  We believe that all in the community are responsible for providing a setting that promotes high achievement for all faculty.  We are convinced that the academic experiences and advancement of both men and women at UIUC will be enhanced by creation of such a climate.

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