Welcome to U.C.-Berkeley. My thanks to the members of SWEM and CCSW and especially to Deborah Nolan and Carmen McKines for all of their hard work in putting this conference together. I especially want to commend the conference organizers for dedicating this conference to my colleague and friend, the late Barbara Christian. Barbara was chair of African American Studies when I arrived at Berkeley nearly twenty years ago and represented the best in what a faculty member and colleague can be. We all miss her deeply.
I am going to direct my remarks primarily toward the status of women faculty members. Later you will her from experts on the areas of gender in staff matters and in graduate student matters.
What is the status of women faculty members on this campus? On the positive side, the numbers have grown from 11 % of the ladder-rank faculty in 1981 to 18 % in 1991 and almost 25 % in 2000. The availability pool of women with doctorates has also increased during this period and now represents over 30 % of all Ph.D.'s nationally. In fact, this past year approximately 40 % of all doctorates went to women. There were also gains in professional staff representation. Today, about 63 % of UC-Berkeley's professional staff are women.
Unfortunately, continued growth in these positive numbers is threatened and may even be reversed. The hiring rate for women who are new hires has dropped from 33 % of the total hires before Proposition 209 to 27% after Proposition 209. Moreover, in certain areas the graduate pipeline for junior women faculty is shrinking. In electrical engineering and computer science at UC-Berkeley, over half of the female students entering the graduate program drop out. In fields like psychology, while 65 % of the graduate students are women, relatively few choose college teaching as a career. There has also been a decline in female administrators at the decision making level of college administration.
What are the reasons for these disturbing trends? The most obvious explanation is the impact of Proposition 209 that eliminated the use of race and gender as a factor in hiring and admissions procedures in the state of California. The elimination of target of opportunity hiring --under which a substantial number of women and minority faculty members were hired prior to 209-- removed one of the few carrots the administration could offer to departments who chose to diversify their faculty. The atmosphere created by Proposition 209 has also led to the perception on the part of many women and minorities outside California that the state in general and the university in particular are hostile environments for women and minorities. We believe, although we do not have the resources to document it, that this "chilling effect" has decreased the number of female and minority applicants for UC-Berkeley faculty positions. A less well-known factor in the declining numbers of new hires of women and underrepresented minorities is the ratio of senior to junior faculty hires in the mid-nineties. As a result of the three early retirement programs the UC system introduced in the late 1980s and early 1990s, many departments sought to replace senior colleagues with new senior appointments. Thus the more normal junior to senior hire ratio of 80% junior to 20% senior shifted up towards 40% senior. Obviously, women and underrepresented minorities are present in significantly greater numbers at the junior ranks than at senior levels. The administration is now committed to returning to the more traditional ratio.
What is UC-Berkeley doing to counter these disturbing trends? In response to the decline in hiring the Chancellor created a Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Diversity in 1999 and asked it for an analysis and recommendations. The committee represented a broad spectrum of faculty, staff, students and even a regent. It was chaired by the Dean of the Graduate School for Public Policy and issued a report to the Chancellor in July 2000 (The report may be accessed on the university's web-site). The committee's recommendations fall into four general categories. 1) Accountability: we need to hold administrators responsible for promoting diversity. It must become a regular part of academic planning and managerial evaluations. Those who produce results should be rewarded for their actions. 2) Education and Training: if we are to hold people accountable we must see that they receive the education and training to be effective. Chairs, deans, search committees, and staff all need thorough and regular training around diversity issues. 3) Data Collection and Analysis: we don't currently have all the information we need to address diversity issues. The committee recommended a climate survey of faculty and staff, a special analysis of the role of diversity in science, and an analysis of the impact of the American Cultures requirement. 4) Infra-structure: the responsibility for implementing these recommendations and the others that might flow from future studies needs to be carefully assigned, coordinated, monitored and evaluated. The administration must provide the resources necessary to effectively implement these recommendations.
What is the university already doing to address these recommendations? The Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost and the Vice Provost have asked each department to do a self study of its diversity efforts over the past five years and to compare their success with those of peer programs. The self-studies are to be submitted with each department's FTE requests for the coming year. The Office of Faculty Equity Assistance has prepared a new manual for faculty recruitment that includes best practices, current affirmative action policy, and a list of resources. It also distributes a packet of information concerning the tenure process to all new junior hires that supplements the Vice Provost's annual workshops on tenure for junior faculty. Through the efforts of staff affirmative action officers, the school of engineering engaged in a successful interactive theatre project that highlighted situations dealing with gender issues. There are now efforts underway to make this project campus wide. The university also participated in a three-campus survey of search committee practices. The survey involved some 601 searches and attempted to examine the impact of intervention strategies on searches. The survey should provide empirical evidence of the importance of best practices, including intervention strategies, in conducting searches. Plans are also underway to conduct a faculty climate survey in the spring semester and a faculty survey in the fall semester of 2001. In a recent climate survey at the University of Michigan, women reported working slightly more than their male colleagues. They also said that resources and support services were not distributed evenly. Women reported less opportunity to interact and collaborate with colleagues. Most importantly, women of all ranks were more likely to report experiencing discrimination or harassment. It would not surprise me to find similar results in the survey we will be doing at UC-Berkeley. Finally, the administration is committing additional resources to develop the infra-structure necessary to coordinate and monitor these various initiatives.
Even if all these recommendations are implemented, the ultimate responsibility for your advancement and happiness falls on your shoulders. In that regard it is important to keep three things in mind. First, know the landscape. Ask yourself where you want to work and what kind of colleagues you want. Establish a support network and know the politics of your department and your campus. Are you more comfortable in a small college knowing most of your colleagues and students or do you want the stimulation of a large multiversity? Second, know your stuff. You will be more respected and more effective as a change agent if you are highly regarded in your field. If you are not, people will tend to view your activism as a cover for your lack of expertise. Third, know yourself. Do you respond well to the pressure of a research I university or would you prefer to spend more time teaching? Strike a balance between teaching, research and service.* Remember - you are in this for the long haul!
*From Mildred Garcia, Succeeding in an Academic Career.