Establishing the Foundation for Future Organizational Reform and Transformation at a large private university to expand the representation of women faculty

Abstract

The ADVANCE IT-Catalyst project, "Establishing the Foundation for Future Organizational Reform and Transformation at Rochester Institute of Technology" is a three-year study across six colleges which include computing, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines funded through the National Science Foundation ADVANCE Institutional Transformation - CATALYST (project # 0723719, http://nsfadvance.rit.edu/). The research objective is to identify barriers for current women STEM faculty in regards to rank, tenure, career advancement, leadership role progression, and resource allocation in order to establish how well the university addresses issues that have been found to be important in the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women faculty. During the study, the research team seeks to answer six primary research questions: 1) What is the distribution of STEM faculty by gender, rank, and department? 2) What are the outcomes of institutional processes of recruitment and advancement for men and women? 3) What is the gender distribution of STEM faculty in leadership positions? 4) What is the allocation of resources for STEM faculty? 5) Are there barriers to the recruitment and advancement of women? 6) How successful are existing structures at addressing these barriers? Climate survey results, in conjunction with objective human resource data review and benchmarking of policies and benefits against peer schools with a focus on elements that have been tied to potential barriers are used to address each question. This paper explores answers to each research question and summarizes accomplishments made over the grant period and plans for institutionalizing various initiatives. © 2011 American Society for Engineering Education.