LGBT faculty members are needed to participate in a series of focus groups designed to collect information pertaining to LGBT identification and issues and to enhance policies, climate and support related to LGBT faculty.
To participate, send an email to FacultyFocusGroups@gmail.com or call 966-0057 before February 15, 2008.
The impetus for these sessions derived from the Faculty Survey administered in 2005 to all Duke University regular rank faculty. Several questions included in that survey pertained to LGBT identification and issues; unfortunately there were not enough responses to draw conclusions or enable actions from the data.
"We are very interested in the perceptions of LGBT faculty related to current institutional policies and programs, climate in their academic units, and what improvements we could make at the institutional level to support LGBT faculty," said Vice Provost Nancy Allen in a memo sent Jan. 25 to regular rank faculty.
Diversity at Duke embraces differences related to gender, race/ethnicity, country of origin, intellectual pursuits, and sexual orientation, among others.
Faculty focus group participants will be invited to meet off campus with a small group of faculty along with two non-Duke facilitators, Chantelle Fisher-Borne and Kate Shirah, for approximately 2 hours. Lunch or dinner will be provided at the site. The facilitators will evaluate the data and provide a summary report of their findings to Allen, who chairs the Faculty Diversity Standing Committee and to Benjamin Reese, vice president for institutional equity. No data will be published externally.
Confidentiality of participation will be assured. No identifying information about individual faculty members participating in these focus groups will be provided to the Duke leadership. All participants will sign a confidentiality agreement stating that they will not disclose another person's personal information obtained in the course of the focus group sessions.
For more information, contact Nancy Allen nancy.allen@duke.edu or Ben Reese ben.reese@duke.edu