As the university searches for ways to maintain diversity among Ohio State students, the Board of Trustees is working with university officials to boost the number of female faculty members.
The Faculty Cohort Project started when the President’s Council on Women’s Issues researched the past 30 years and found more women faculty members were leaving before their four year review than men.
The mission for the university became to retain these female faculty members.
Of the 133 junior faculty members hired at OSU between November 2000 and October 2001, 38 percent were women. These women are the participants in the project.
The women will be tracked through their first four years at the university to determine what factors influence them to stay with the university or to leave, said Judith Fountain, assistant vice president for Women’s Policy Initiatives.
“The goal is to help retain our most valuable resources, our young faculty, as well as to help departments know what they can do to help,” Fountain said. “However this is not a support group but more like a second home to these women, their first home being their academic home.”
Dr. Linda Mizejewski, chairwoman of the department of women’s studies, said, “This is an excellent idea. The department of women’s studies supports this project. Faculty diversity is a priority.”
Bunny Clark, professor of physics, said, “It is good for my field to have many different ways to approach problems, just as it would be in any academic area. It is in the best interest of the university.”
Fountain said numerically the project is looking at whether the woman are still with the university and what the women’s experiences are like.
“It is crucial to get this information from new faculty,” Mizejewski said.
Many events have taken place for participants in the program, including interviews about their experiences at OSU at a reception with former OSU president William “Brit” Kirwan.
During spring quarter last year the women met for a picnic and in June they met for a workshop called “Getting Tenure.”
The workshop took place after the women completed their first-year review to see what type of things their departments were doing for them that were helpful in making them feel welcome – and what they were not doing.
At that time the group was divided; after a year some women felt very welcome in their new departments and some still did not feel comfortable, Fountain said.
Those who felt unwelcomed cited simple reasons such as never being introduced to their co-workers or not being informed of the unwritten social rules of the group.
Many of the problems stemmed from the fact that people in their group were never informed about the new person, Fountain said.
The project takes this feedback and shares it with the heads of departments as a way for them to make their new female employees feel welcome and to make sure they are retaining their faculty, Fountain said.
“The focus is on women’s progress, we are looking for success and retention,” Fountain said.
This quarter three events will be scheduled for the women to participate in and share their experiences
The women in this project are not required to attend the events, but last year 68 percent of the group participated in one or more of the events. Many of them expressed time as their biggest reason for not attending, Fountain said.
“I expect after four years we will have an exceptional body of data. After the data is analyzed, it may change the way we do things and make a big impact on higher education,” Clark said.
The results of this study will not be known for four years, but many faculty members have high hopes the project will help all new faculty members.
“In my best dreams, chairs and deans of departments will learn more about what it takes to make great and successful women faculty members, men as well,” Clark said. “I am sure they will find that this will be useful for all new faculty members.”
