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Northern Illinois University

President Commission on the Status of Women

Minutes: May 7, 2008

Present: Amanda Bartling, Virginia Cassidy, Deborah Haliczer, Adrienne Holloway, Glenda Jones, Celeste Latham, Judith Lukaszuk, Shirley Mashare, Regina Rahn, Lesley Rigg, Rhonda Robinson, and Christine Stakal.

Absent: Karen Baker, Monique Bernoudy, Kay Chapman, Jill Dunlap, Tifarah Jones, Lisa Kay, Amy Levin, Erika McCall, Julie Robertson, Josephine Umoren, Talia Whitehead, and Kerith Woodyard.

The meeting was called to order by Chair, Rhonda Robinson in Lowden Hall 304 at1:05 p.m. Lesley Rigg moved to approve the minutes from the April 9, 2008 meeting. Shirley Mashare seconded the motion. The minutes were approved unanimously.

Old Business

AADR report- No report

Campus climate and quality of life subcommittee- Judith Lukaszuk summarized the data reviewing complaints from 5/14/06 through 5/12/07 from the Ombudsman report. The numbers given where gender specific. It was suggested that a trend analysis be done including this year’s numbers that will be available by the end of June. Including the male statistics will give us an opportunity to compare employment data and should be part of the matrix which should be up-datable on an annual basis. Many thanks to the committee members for their contributions this year.

Professional Development Committee- Julie Robertson sent a report in her absence. Members: Lisa Kay, Regina Rahn, Julie Robertson (Chair).  Thanks to the committee for making this year’s networking a great success.

This has been a busy year for the Subcommittee!

  • To increase networking opportunities, the frequency of networking luncheons was increased from one or two luncheons a semester to three luncheons. Arrangements were made with the Chandelier Room to do preliminary planning of luncheon dates prior to the respective semester. As a result, six luncheons were held during the 2007-2008 academic year.
  • To increase the number of attendees, the list-serve used to advertise the luncheons was expanded to include administrative secretaries from all departments on campus. Secretaries are asked to distribute the networking luncheon fliers to all employees in their departments. Average attendance was 32 attendees (range: 17-48).
  • In an effort to encourage student participation, the decision was made to increase the price of the luncheon to $10.00 so that students could attend free. This new policy was instituted at our last luncheon on April 25, 2008. As a result 14 students attended!

    • The following is a list of the networking luncheon dates, presenters and topics for Academic Year 2007-2008:

    • 9-28-07:  Lesley Rigg, Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Biological Sciences and David Goldblum, Assistant Professor, Geology, presented: "Living and Working Environmentally: One Family at a Time".
    • 10-19-07: Tanuja Singh, Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Marketing, College of Business, presented: "Global Communications—The Cultural Dimension".
    • 11-16-07: Mira Reisberg, Assistant Professor, Art Department, presented: "Maya Gonzalez: Portrait of the Artist as an Ecofeminist Children’s Book Illustrator".
    • 2-8-08: Monique Bernoudy, Associate Athletics Director, presented: "Women in Sports: Competing for Equity".
    • 3-28-08: Jeanette Rossetti, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing and Health Studies, presented: "Factors that Make Outstanding Professors Successful in Teaching".
    • 4-25-08: Amy Ozier, Assistant Professor, School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences, presented: "What am I truly hungry for – Food or Freedom?"

    Goals for Academic Year 2008-2009

    • Continue coordination with the Chandelier Room to offer three networking luncheons a semester.
    • Revise networking luncheon flier to indicate that men are welcome to attend!
    • If a formal mentoring program for employees is instituted through Human Resources, explore the possibility of establishing a link between that mentoring program and the networking luncheons.

     

    Awards and Recognition sub-committee- The committee chair, Josephine Umoren was not able to attend today’s meeting, in her absence Betty Baugh reported that four of the fifty Outstanding Women Student recipients were not able to attend the ceremony held April 20, 2008. Sally Webber was in attendance to receive her Outstanding Mentor Award but Deborah Bryant was unable to attend. Barbara McCord was present to receive her Women Who Make a Difference Award. Those members who attended the ceremony agreed that the ceremony went well and was well attended by faculty and family members. Glenda Jones and Betty Baugh attended the Journalism Banquet to present the Martha Cooper Journalism Award to Elizabeth Stoever. The Award web sites have been up-dated with the current information and the Outstanding Women Student photo gallery is being created. Thank you to all those individuals involved in making this year’s award process successful.

    Research subcommittee- Lesley Rigg shared the revised Status of Women report with members and discussed revisions asking for any additional in-put. An appointment will be made with President Peters for Lesley Rigg and Rhonda Robinson to present the final product sometime next week. Rhonda Robinson thanked all those who worked on and contributed to the completion of this report.

    New Business

    Rhonda Robinson reported that the Strategic Planning Initiative proposal is moving along. Letters have been sent to request information on current mentoring programs to the Colleges of LA&S, Education and Visual & Performing Arts. No responses have been received as yet.

    Virginia Cassidy and Deborah Haliczer announced that Rhonda Robinson was willing to continue as chair and Shirley Mashare willing to continue as vice chair for the 2008-2009 term. Deborah Haliczer moved we accept them as our officers for next year. Lesley Rigg seconded the motion.  The motion was approved unanimously.

    Rhonda Robinson will be composing an annual report to President Peters summarizing the PCSW activities including suggestions in language of recommendations from the research report. Items such as STEM issues, mentoring, campus climate, will be mentioned. She will be asking for support of student to attend the networking luncheons. She will also be thanking him for his support of the award ceremony.

    Adrienne Holloway and Rhonda Robinson attended a meeting regarding Salary Equity representing PCSW chaired by Joe Grush and Harold Kapper. There was discussion of past studies and possible changes that could improve the results of the data collection.

    Announcements

    • The search for Assistant Director of the Women’s Resource Center has been opened with a deadline at the end of the month, 5/31/2008. The last search failed, identifying two individuals who had already accepted positions.
    • Benefits Choice period is now open. Those interested in the Sick Leave Bank or Flexible Spending Plans must sign up in May.
    • The SPS Council is going to create a guide to committees that we discussed at our last meeting.
    • We will hold a summer meeting June 4th at Yen Ching, noon.

    Adjournment

    Rhonda Robinson thanked all members for their contribution this year to PCSW. Chris Stakal moved that the meeting be adjourned, Shirley Mashare second the motion and it was unanimously approved. Meeting adjourned at 2:30 p.m.

    Respectfully submitted,

    Betty L. Baugh