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Northern Illinois University

President Commission on the Status of Women

Minutes: January 14, 2004

Present: Karen Baker, Barbara Burrell, Virginia Cassidy, Deborah Haliczer, Sharon Howard, Kathy Lockard, Sue Ouellette, Carol Patch, Lise Schlosser, Julia Sober, Josephine Umoren.

Absent: Stacy Allie, Joanne Dempsey, Sally Conklin, Glenda Jones, Lisa King, Amy Levin, Julie Robertson, Randi Wolfe.

Guest: Tim Griffin (NIU Ombusman) and Kim Townsend(Deborah Haliczer’sAssistant, working on various projects of interest to the commission)

The meeting was called to order at 1:05 p.m. by vice-chair Barbara Burrell in Lowden Hall 304. Kathy Lockard made a motion to approve the minutes from the December 17, 2003 meeting with corrections, and Virginia Cassidy seconded the motion. The minutes were unanimously approved.

Old Business

AADR have met and they are in the process of scheduling a meeting of all campus constituencies to gather general diversity information. They will also be reviewing the social justice information gathered by the Social Justice Task Force. They will meet again in February. Non-discrimination training is continuing for everyone on campus. Notification for non-compliance is being sent to deans, chairs, directors, etc.

Kathy Lockard, chair of the Campus Climate and Quality of Lifereported that Voices for Change workshops are no longer mandatory but optional for students and will be presented by request. Diane Pospisil-Kinney, Soar director, is currently working with Chris Kubak, which is positive. Karen Baker will look into whether the Voices for Change Workshops might be worked into the VESSA (Victim Economic Security Safety Act) project. Kathy Lockard reported that Keith Jackson’s (current chair of the Campus Security and Environmental Quality Committee) position on the call box issue is neutral and answers seem unclear. It was decided after some discussion that Chief Grady should be invited to the PCSW to address this and other women’s safety issues at NIU. Julia will contact Chief Grady as to his availability.

The Personal and Professional Developmentsubcommittee report was given by Josephine Umoren. A speaker is being lined up for a networking luncheon in February. The International Women’s Day luncheon will be held March 3rd, with Beth Finke as the speaker.

The RESEARCH subcommittee has been busy gathering information on the family medical leave policy. They are also working on surveying departments and possibly users regarding the use of the medical leave policy. A review of the ACE agenda recommendations is in process. They will be in contact with Madelyn Nelson to follow-up on her concern regarding the collection of statistics by gender on campus and formulation of the questions needed to collect the data; possibly an annual report that will provide trend data will result.

The AWARDS AND RECOGNITION subcommittee chair Sharon Howard reported that there were 97 nominations for the Outstanding Women Student Awards for 90 different individuals. The ceremony will be held on Honor’s Day, which will be April 18th this year. The subcommittee (Stacy Allie, Joanne Dempsey, Deborah Haliczer, Sue Ouellette) will meet soon to proceed with the Wilma D. Stricklin and Martha Cooper Awards.

SALARY EQUITY TASK FORCE had no report.

New Business

  • Tim Griffin, NIU Ombudsman, reported to the members how women have made use of his office over the past year. His office has served 1,000-1,100 individuals over this past year, 396 of which were women; of these contacts 300 to 400 were referrals. They continue to have more contacts each year by e-mail and phone. The Ombudsman office is unique in that it is a neutral party dealing with confidential issues that have some relationship with the university. He distributed a report requesting it to be kept in confidence, and within the commission. The data contained in this report includes incidents that may be cited in several categories. Any questions about this data should be referred to him directly. He graciously reviewed the numbers, pointing out those that might be of interest to the PCSW. Overall in general he feels the University has been moving in a positive direction over the thirteen years that he has been here.
  • Sharon Howard requested $500 student work study funds to assist with the award process. Deborah Haliczer made a motion to approve the request and Lise Schlosser second the motion. Motion was approved unanimously.
  • Stacie Elder, the current PCSW chair, has resigned her position at the University and will no longer be a member of the PCSW. Barbara Burrell, the current vice-chair, graciously consented to take over the duties of chair for spring semester. She was appointed by affirmation.
  • Josephine Umoren volunteered to perform the duties of vice-chair for the spring semester. She was approved as vice-chair for spring semester unanimously.

Announcements

  • None

Adjournment

A motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Deborah Haliczer and seconded by Julia Sober. The motion was approved unanimously. Barbara Burrell adjourned the meeting at 3:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Betty Baugh