We are interested in creating opportunities for more and less experienced women scientists to have an initial conversation that might or might not lead to a longer-term relationship. That conversation (and potential relationship) might involve discussion of general career issues, or it might focus on a particular area or domain. Some women scientists may aim to develop relationships with more than one career advisor regarding different areas of their professional life, such as work and family or scholarship

List of marketing venues for applicants

The campus visit is your opportunity to sell your department & URI to the candidate. Thus, enthusiastically communicate that: You are interested in the candidate's scholarly credentials & work. URI is an intellectually thriving community. URI has flexible and family-friendly policies that aid in balancing work and life...

Sample titles of slides in this presentation are rationale, Lee and Mnitchell's unfolding model of voluntary turnover, extending the unfolding model, why academia, research goals, hypotheses, method, results, and summary.

The most recent University Strategic Plan for 2006 - 2009 reiterates the University's commitment to 'uncompromising integrity, with imagination and pride evident in every aspect of our work.' Thus, the goal of this tutorial, sponsored by the ADVANCE-IT Program is to provide search committees with the research-based best-practices tools they need to recruit a diverse faculty...

Though in reality the search process is often iterative it can conceptually be broken into a 3-stage process of activities to conduct before, during, and after a successful search; the success of each stage depends upon the effectiveness of its predecessor and determines its successor. Because there is a lot of information in the following pages, we strongly recommend that search committees coincide the time of review of each tutorial section with their procedural stage; that is, review "Before" before begi

Providing mentoring support of new faculty is one undertaking of the ADVANCE Program. Over the duration of the grant, ADVANCE has hosted training workshops and has produced many support materials. In 2006, the Provost of the University endorsed the creation of a campus-wide Faculty Mentoring...

The ADVANCEing Faculty Career Networking Awards Program targets tenure-track or tenured women who are building their research program or expanding their research into a new area. Applicants to this program must provide a clear proposal with goals that include specific activities to increase their exposure to senior colleagues at other institutions who can serve as collaborators, role models and sponsors.

In order to retain & build upon the momentum created "Before" the search, three activities remain critical: Advertising the position to build a candidate pool; Short listing candidates; Facilitating the campus visit & interview

This presentation explores the term 'fairness' in regards to male and female science faculty. The summary section includes areas of equal and unequal satisfaction, and recommendations are provided.

The purpose of this award is to sponsor research in any discipline by women faculty and research or service focused on gender equity by all faculty within the three ADVANCE departments.

"Creating a Positive Departmental Climate at Virginia Tech: A Compendium of Successful Strategies” was created as part of the AdvanceVT Departmental Climate Initiative (DCI). The Department Climate Committee collected policies and practices from a variety of sources to provide department chairs and heads with opportunities to learn about departmental issues at Virginia Tech, to understand more fully the ways in which these issues manifest themselves within departments, and to share both succ

Appoint an advocate or mentor who can help the candidate throughout the negotiation process. Transparency and advocacy in the negotiation process can not only help you set the tone, but also ameliorate any anxiety that could lead to undue hostility during contract negotiations...

This handout covers some guidelines for mentors. The areas of the handout are titled: Benefits, Qualities of a good mentor, Long term goals, Obligations and responsibilities, Goals, and Guidelines.

Develop a diversity reputation. Reflect upon the complexities of "Tokenism" at every step of the search process.

Results from the COACHE Survey of tenure-track faculty job satisfaction are reported in this presentation for the 2007 PI Meeting. Dimensions of the work environment, differences between STEM male and female faculty, and recommendations to improve the experiences of STEM women are discussed.

Diversify SC composition -- at least in terms of race/ethnicity, gender, area of expertise or educational background, values or views, and social skills...

The mid-career mentoring initiative at UNC Charlotte is designed to support associate professors and assist them in advancing to the rank of full professor. The initiative has two components – one that serves only female associate professors in the STEM disciplines and one that is open to all associate professors regardless of gender or discipline.

The Mid-career Peer Mentoring Program is designed for tenured women. It is intended to encourage tenured women to seek external funding, collaborate, and create networks, as ways to reduce the isolation that women often experience. This program also provides opportunities for interactions...

A Transition Faculty Research Award is available to sponsor research and scholarship activities that will enhance the professional growth of non-tenure-track (transition) women faculty leading to their promotion. Awards supporting research in the area of a faculty member's specialization as well as scholarly work on issues of gender equity in the academy will be considered. At this level, an award of up to $7,500 will be made and require a match of 50% from the department and/or school.

List of References

The faculty development component helps faculty define a holistic and integrated academic career. The program includes a Faculty Mentoring Program for Women (FMPW) for all tenure-track women and IMPACT Seminars for women and men, all ranks, designed to increase faculty effectiveness by developing new ways of integrating teaching, research, and service and fostering leadership development.

The following faculty development workshops consist of both existing programs supported by the university (e.g., effective teaching workshop and grant-writing workshop) as well as workshops designed to address the goals of ADVANCE.

ADVANCE continues to offer several faculty development opportunities, including an Incentive Fund, a series of workshops and seminars, a mentor training program, and monthly topical lunches.

Sample titles of slides in this presentation are At the start of the program, ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Program at the University of Rhode Island

Keep a checklist of good search practices for future reference...

In 2006, the Provost of the University endorsed the creation of a campus-wide Faculty Mentoring Program. Recognizing that many departments/colleges had excellent mentoring programs well underway, the need existed to have formal expectation and a set of resources in place to ensure that all new faculty were provided good mentoring.

Dual Career Interview Protocol For Faculty

In an attempt to discover PhD recipients' real-life job-market experiences, Smith , Wolf, and Busenberg (1996) interviewed over 300 recipients of prestigious Ford, Mellon, and Spencer doctoral fellowships. Their sample, representative of both gender (48% women) and racial (26% African American, 4% Asian or Pacific Islanders, 35% White, 32% Latino, 3% American Indian) diversity, spanned a wide range of academic disciplines. Their findings, some of which are outlined below, contrasted starkly with pervasive m

Assign at least two mentors to the new hire, from within & outside the department. Offer work-life resources (such as realtors, community resources, etc.) to the new hire...

This document is a set of tips derived from focus groups with junior faculty, and others.

ADVANCE has developed a comprehensive Faculty Mentoring Program, launched in 2007. Although excellent mentoring programs currently exist in many places at URI, we would like to offer assistance to colleges who would like to increase their mentoring efforts...

Negotiation and communication skills are vital for working with others in the department and colleagues elsewhere and obtaining a fair share of departmental and granting agency resources.

Sample titles of slides in this presentation are rationale, Lee and Mnitchell's unfolding model of voluntary turnover, extending the unfolding model, why academia, research goals, hypotheses, method, results, and summary.

Use proactive language in the job description to describe your department's commitment to diversity. The University's wording of Job Advertisements reflects the following: 'URI is an AA/EEO employer and values diversity and also is an NSF ADVANCE institutional transformation university, working to advance the careers of women faculty, especially in the science and engineering disciplines'.

General Collegial. Creating opportunities for collaboration. Introduce to other faculty on and off campus. Invite to collaborate. Facilitating students to work with them...

Systematically monitor hiring and promotion decisions to eliminate unintentional bias and create opportunities for all faculty. Include salary and workload equity in your thinking about such decisions...

More recently, the National Academies (2007) have offered corollary evidence, compiled from several research studies, refuting commonly held beliefs regarding women - all races - in all academic disciplines, including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Sample Language for Faculty Position Announcements

On Friday, December 2, 2005, the ADVANCE Program sponsored a pilot Mentor Training workshop for faculty. The target audience was science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) junior faculty, their mentors, and chairs in all STEM departments...

Establish selection criteria by relating them directly to the position description and determining weighting for different qualifications; e.g. can the candidate support URI's institutional commitment to diversity, can you widen the applicant pool by being flexible about years of experience, etc.

Use your previously determined selection criteria which are directly related to the position description to create an application rating form.

Four institutional factors are identified that can impede faculty career development, especially for women. While most faculty cope with one or more of these systemic factors as part of their work lives, when these factors are present together...

This report summarizes the results of a study designed to understand how new faculty become integrated into the university and their departments and to identify what Cornell could do to facilitate better integration...

In this study, we use data from Cornell's 2005 Faculty Work-Life Survey to examine the effects of a number of aspects of departments' demographic composition on faculty members' perceptions of departmental climate and personal integration. Our findings indicate significant differences between men and women on these outcome variables, and suggest that men's perceptions are much more influenced by department demography than those of women. We discuss the implications of these findings for further research on

Identify national pools of qualified candidates. Contact individuals or institutions that are especially successful at producing underrepresented candidates.

Evidence supports that career mentoring is a key component to junior faculty's success and overall retention rates. Although mentoring is important for all faculty, mentoring for women and historically underrepresented faculty, especially in areas where they have been underutilized, is particularly critical in order to increase connectedness to professional and social resources, reduce feelings of isolation...

Establish a mentoring program in the department. Develop guidelines for selecting mentors and for the mentor’s role...

Six vital actions, typically conducted before a search is launched, are critical for setting the stage for a successful search: Composing the search committee, Defining the search committee's charge, Defining and writing the position description, Determining selection criteria, Language for advertising & position descriptions, Prepping for the 'During'

The Future of the Faculty committee's purpose is to review policies, processes, and practices at UNC Charlotte that might impede the recruitment, retention, and full professional development of faculty members, particularly women faculty in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) areas.

Develop broad hiring goals to cast a wide hiring net...

Tenure-track or tenured women faculty in STEM disciplines may apply for a competitive Leap Grant; each grant awards up to $30,000. A total of 3-6 grants per year will be awarded to enhance research productivity and lead to advancement. Priority will be given to Assistant Professors...

Different language used for describing position descriptions.

Kent Fuchs and I have arrived at the following guidelines for the three year review for tenure track professors in the engineering college. We thank you all for your suggestions on this issue...

Includes information on average age of faculty, and salaries of newly hired faculty. Salaries for 12-month appointments are included, but have been converted to 9-month rates. Departments are matched across universities using the federal Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP).

1. Candidate submits a 3rd year portfolio at the required date (communicated by the Chair). 2. A departmental committee reviews the packet and prepares a short report that includes what’s going well, what is missing or not at the level required and what the candidate should do from now until tenure to maximize the possibility of success. (Ideally, members of such a committee might act as mentors throughout the assistant professor’s pre-tenure years. However, a well-structured 3rd year review is possible wit

Keep a checklist of good search practices for future reference

A list of tips on mentoring organized by tips for department chairs and tips for faculty and other mentors are listed on this webpage (ex: Understand the difference between mentoring and supervising).

This handout provides a brief summary of a presentation that was created at a workshop to inform faculty, chairs, and deans about the recruitment and retention of faculty from underserved groups, describes information collected from chair chats, and summarizes resources that are essential reading.

Persistent myths -- at individual and institutional levels -- about why faculty cannot be diversified often form another level of resistance to using best-practices in recruiting faculty; however, research indicates that those myths reflect reality about as well as a lion mimics a guppy.

Top 10 Tips for Academic Leaders to Accelerate the Advancement of Women in Science and Engineering

This webpage lists links to the Faculty Handbook at Virginia Tech by section.

The Faculty Mentoring Program now includes over 100 women. Participants attend monthly luncheons with their mentors to talk about issues that concern them.

UAB ADVANCE faculty research awards have assisted tenure-track and tenured faculty, as well as new faculty, in the Schools of Engineering, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and Social and Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Finance, Economics, and Quantitative Methods in the School of Business. The purpose of these awards is to provide support for research for women faculty in the targeted schools and departments.

Many search committees are impeded in their efforts to utilize best practices because they perceive guidelines such as ours to be thinly veiled attempts by special interest groups to enhance diversity by sacrificing either job criteria or qualified White males...

Understanding Faculty Satisfaction

This presentation covers mentoring, the kinds of relationships and mentors, and ten best mentoring practices.

A job offer, rather than signaling the end of a successful search, is really the beginning of a successful retention plan for your new hire, involving: Contract negotiations. Settling in. Final steps to evaluate the search.

Make equity a conscious priority. Such a commitment produces a good hire whose qualifications match the position description.

Covered in this document are three steps to have an effective meeting: introductions, establishing guidelines, and decide what to do at the next meeting.

Gender Schemas. Stereotype Thread. Confirmation Bias...

This handout on faculty mentoring covers tips, issues, and how to find and approach potential mentors.

Advancement includes promotion of females to full professorship and positions of University leadership. Included in the ADVANCE grant funding are monies to support Graduate Research Assistantships for qualifying faculty...." Reports from 2004 to 2008 are available.