Present: Virginia Cassidy, Kay Chapman, Jill Dunlap, Deborah Haliczer, Glenda Jones, Tifarah Jones, Amy Levin, Doreen Mace, Shirley Mashare, Adriana Moreno Nevarez, Regina Rahn, and Christine Stakal.
Absent: Karen Baker, Amada Bartling, Monique Bernoudy, Adrienne Holloway, Lisa Kay, Celeste Latham, Judith Lukaszuk, Erika McCall, Lesley Rigg, Rhonda Robinson, Julie Robertson, Josephine Umoren, Taalia Whitehead and Kerith Woodyard.
The meeting was called to order by Vice-Chair, Shirley Mashare in Lowden Hall, Room 304. Amy Levin moved to approve the minutes from the September 12, 2007 meeting. Adriana Moreno Nevarez seconded the motion. The minutes were approved unanimously. Introductions where made for the benefit of everyone.
AADR report – No report.
Campus climate and quality of life sub-committee – Amy Levin reported that Judith Lukaszuk has agreed to chair the sub-committee. They have meet and decided to focus of four areas:
Personal Professional Development sub-committee – Julie Robertson sent a written report in her absence.
Members suggested possibly not scheduling all luncheons on Fridays or possibly exploring options of other locations such as the HCS w/brown bag lunches and individuals attending only the presentation. This was thought of a possible way to increase attendance and get more students involved.
Research sub-committee – Virginia Cassidy reported that Leslie Rigg, Barbara Burrell and herself have revised the Report on the Status of Women at Northern Illinois University submitted to President Peters March 7, 2007adding data sources. This revised report has been resubmitted to President Peters. Rhonda Robinson is in the process of obtaining an appointment with President Peters and Dr. Tom Krepel to discuss this report. It was suggest that she might also ask them about the membership at that time. We have three vacant positions at this time.
Awards and recognition sub-committee – Outstanding Women Students Award: The deadline for Nominations this year will be December 17, 2007. To cut printing cost we have created a 5 ˝ x 8 sheet outlining the awards criteria and information to send to staff and faculty as usual. This will cut the cost of printing from 2 pages to ˝ page for each person on the mailing list. They will be able to submit nominations electronically on-line or e-mail submissions in word format and of course mail a hard copy. If they do not have access to the internet they can always call for a nomination form.
The Wilma D. Striklin Award: Deadline is March 3rd and will be handled the same way. We talked about doing a networking luncheon in early spring to highlight Wilma’s achievements at NIU. Amy Levin has spoken to Julie Robertson about this and preliminary planning is taking place. It was suggested that Lynne Waldeland and Anne Kaplan be asked to be on the panel.
Martha Cooper Journalism Award: We are in the process of contacting TA’s and Instructors in English (123), Women’s Studies (6 +faculty associates), Communications/Journalism (90) and Reporters at the Northern Star (75). (total = 294+) A cover letter, along with award information, will be sent asking them to announce the award to their classes, encouraging participation and submission of entries. We are also asking these areas to post information on the award. Deadline for this award will also be March 3rd.
Women Who Make a Difference and Outstanding Mentor Award Members were sent the criteria on both these awards along with your minutes and agenda. Last year these awards were presented at the OSA ceremony with no search to the two nominations for the Stricklin Award. When we originally spoke about presenting these awards we spoke about doing it at a Networking Luncheon in May. It was decided to use a March 3, 2007 deadline for nominations of these awards and present them at the Outstand Women Student Awards in April. It was also decided to revise the Wilma Stricklin Nomination Cover Form to include all three awards since the nomination process is the same.
New Business:
Focus on women in areas of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) at NIU. Handouts were distributed by Amy Levin to members on the Status of STEM women at NIU and information from the report produced by PCSW in March 2007 regarding this population. Dr. Levin pointed out that in Biology women are well represented, though it's largely because women there are choosing health-related careers, and those careers are in areas in which women have traditionally been well represented. There was a NSF grant for institutional transformation to improve representation of females in 2005 and currently an ADVANCE proposal being written for submission fall 2007 but that should not be the reason for our focus on this area. There is a national sense on this focus. The Provost sponsored retreats for faculty; one in May 2007, and one scheduled for October 19 where Deborah Haliczer and Rhonda Robinson will lead a discussion of work/life issues for women in STEM fields. Dr. Tom Krepel of the Presidents Office would like to see this as a common theme for all commissions this year. This would NOT BE THE ONLY FOCUS but a focus of the commission for this year. Kay Chapman made a motion for the PCSW to focus on women in the area of STEM as a theme for this year. Jill Dunlap seconded the motion. The motion was approved unanimously. Ways to approach this were suggested as promotion of majors by advisors and attendance at various welcome/career events; mentorship for current students/faculty in those areas.
Announcements:
Adjournment:
Adriana Moreno Nevarez moved that the meeting be adjourned, Amy Levin seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved. Meeting Adjourned 3:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Betty L. Baugh