Taking the Women's Initiative
Student, staff groups have taken the spirit of the report and come up with their own ideas
When the Women's Initiative (WI) report came out with recommendations for more mentoring opportunities between undergraduate women and faculty and staff members, junior Liz Reaves and recent graduate Devon MacWilliam didn't wait for the details to be implemented. They took matters into their own hands.
They tapped into their extensive network of sorority sisters, professors, administrators and peers and formed a still-evolving Duke Women's Networking and Mentoring Program that includes book clubs, movie viewings and a resource and planning center for mentoring that specializes in connecting campus individuals.
Reaves and MacWilliam - along with juniors Emilie Lemke, Jill Hopman and Emily Vernon - say the Women's Initiative inspired them to find ways to bring together women at all levels of the university.
The network is the kind of example of resourcefulness organizers of the Women's Initiative were hoping their six-months old report would inspire. While the report's recommendations are being implemented (see below), organizers said they believe the report has been just as successful in inspiring less formal, grassroots efforts that are changing the campus. Many of these initiatives, such as those on mentoring and mental health, will improve the campus climate for men as well as women.
The students in the networking and mentoring program turned to several faculty and staff members for assistance, including Kenan Institute for Ethics administrative coordinator Betsy Alden, professor of the practice in Women's Studies Jean O'Barr and Women's Center director Donna Lisker.
Through e-mails and personal invitations, the group brought together a cross-section of women to discuss The DaVinci Code and to view "Mona Lisa Smile", followed by a discussion about women in higher education.
This summer, the group will hold a series of book clubs around the country for Duke students and alumnae. They've already chosen their book club selection for the fall - Mountains Beyond Mountains, the reading selection for the incoming class by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder. (The book centers on the work of cultural anthropologist, physician and Duke alumnus Paul Farmer '82.) And they are putting together a fall house course titled "Women in Pop Culture."
"After the Women's Initiative came out, a lot of us felt inspired to do something," says Reaves.
They were not alone. A variety of WI-inspired activity launched by imaginative undergraduate groups is flourishing. Several of them spring from classes, including Hart Leadership Program faculty member Tony Brown's "Enterprising Leadership" classes. Here are a few of their stories:
Duke United: Sophomore Jill Isenstadt was interested in the overall Women's Initiative findings, but she didn't feel compelled to consider taking any action of her own until she read a Chronicle editorial about the lack of interaction between students and employees. For a public policy course on enterprising leadership, Isenstadt and classmates Chris Cox and Anna Raven-Hanson have worked on Duke United, an effort to promote personal relationships between students and employees based on interaction outside Duke's campus.
The three set up meetings with representatives in Human Resources, Community Affairs, the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Financial Aid, the Program in Education, the Student Employee Relations Coalition, the Community Service Center and Dukepals. Over time, they refined and honed their ideas.
This fall, Duke United will offer four hours of free care to children of Duke employees (Level 5 and lower), one night a week (probably Thursday or Friday), including dinner and age-appropriate activities. Students will spend an additional two hours during the week planning a session curriculum and gathering materials.
The goal, says Isentadt, is to provide employees with time for themselves away from work and parenting. "At the same time we will be establishing a venue to further student-employee relations, communication and understanding through interaction between student care givers and employee families," she says. And because the program is work-study, financial aid will pay 75 percent of student wages.
Devil 2 Devil: Inspired by her work with the Duke Women's Networking and Mentoring group, Liz Reaves and freshmen Vijay Brihmadesam and Damjan DeNoble created Devil 2 Devil to foster greater faculty-student interaction.
They have funding to cover a series of meals with faculty members, which they will advertise over the summer to those students who are matriculating this fall.
The group is also putting together "What's Up Professor," a fall house course to introduce students to staff members and professors, who will discuss their research and personal stories, and their take on faculty-student interaction at Duke.
Active Minds: The phrase "effortless perfection," cited in the WI, has become something of a catch phrase to describe how many undergraduate men and women feel they must appear as they compare themselves with their peers. For some it was more than a catch phrase. Following the WI report, an anonymous letter to the editor of the Chronicle said this pressure to conform had made the writer contemplate suicide.
In response, Logan Leinster, Dave Strauss and Cole Wright wrote their own letter, announcing the formation of Active Minds on campus. "This issue is not confined to women," says Strauss. "Indeed men are four times more likely to successfully commit suicide than women. Among college students, suicide is the second leading cause of death, and it is estimated that 1,100 suicides will occur on campuses this year."
Active Minds, a national organization with chapters on other college campuses, is in the process of publishing a magazine with submissions about students' experiences with mental illness, seeking to remove the stigma of depression, eating disorders and other treatable conditions.
While faculty, staff and students have worked on informal projects coming out of the Women's Initiative, progress also has been made on some of the reports recommendations.
- One of the most prominent results has been a broader policy on parental leave. More than 400 Duke employees have taken advantage of the new program. The university also doubled the size of the Children's Campus while signing up 11 high-quality child care centers in the Triangle with prioritized slots for children of Duke people.
- An Employee Oversight Committee, chaired by Mindy Kornberg, has been established. The committee's work has concentrated on balance, pay equity, mentoring and professional development, and workplace environment.
- A new initiative has promoted flexible work schedules, allowing employees to create arrangements with their managers to devise a work schedule that will help them balance the pressures of work and home.
- A position reclassifications project is under way that will make a pay equity study possible for employees.
- At the Student Health Center, a new women's health unit has been created. Dr. Ann Brown has been named associate dean for women in medicine and science in the medical center.. Brown will spearhead initiatives to study and enhance the environment for female faculty and learners within the School of Medicine. She already has launched a Professional Development Seminar series for faculty.
- Duke has established a campus security task force addressing campus-wide issues and has permanently stepped up police patrols. In addition, the university added a second position in Sexual Assault Support Services specializing in outreach education and to help increase reporting of crimes.
- Many divisions have taken initiatives on their own. In one example, Student Affairs has created the Student Affairs' Standing Committee on Women, which is conducting a survey about the experiences of all employees in the division. In another example, the Graduate School this month gave out its first mentoring awards, designed to showcase exceptional models of faculty mentoring of graduate students. (See story, page 12).
The President's Commission on the Status of Women is continuing its work and will soon release a status report on the initiative. Chaired by Women's Center director Donna Lisker, the commission has found that many challenges identified in the WI report still remain.
"Campus security is one continuing issue. We've had a very challenging year in terms of campus crime," Lisker said. "Sorting out how our security dollars are spent is an ongoing concern. There are also issues with graduate and professional students. We heard wonderful things about mentoring in Fuqua and nursing, for example, but then other schools present different challenges. Part of the issue is that there are so many different environments, solutions have to be individually tailored.
"But the bottom line is that huge progress has been made. The number of employee benefit changes in the past two years has been staggering. The flexible work schedule initiative has the potential for great improvement in the quality of our employees' lives. And the number of employees using staff parental leave has been tremendous.
"The level of excitement shown by alumni at regional Women's Initiative events has been fabulous. This is a topic that really grabbed them. It's not just the students, faculty and staff who have responded. We've been bowled over by the number of alumni who have offered help on this project."