The ISU Advance team will be getting expert help with a program designed to increase recruitment and retention of minority and women faculty on campus.

Denice Denton, dean of engineering at the University of Washington, and Joan Williams, director of the program on gender, work and family at the American University Law School, will be visiting Iowa State in the next two months to help facilitate conversation on how to recruit and retain minority and women faculty in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. Denton and Williams will also give help on the institutional transformation grant proposal currently being written by the Advance team.

Jacquelyn Litt, acting director of women’s studies and associate professor of sociology at Iowa State, said the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics are still the most male-dominanted fields.

“We are calling in experts from around the country to essentially share their experience on campus transformation project,” Litt said.

Jessica Skibbe, research assistant for the Advance team, said both Denton and Williams have been successful in programs to recruit and retain minorities and women.

“I guess if you are learning from someone who’s already been successful, that’s as good as you can get,” Skibbe said.

According to a study conducted by the Office of Institutional Research in fall 2000, only 15.1 percent of the faculty in science, technology, engineering and mathematics departments at Iowa State were women.

Among those, only 7.7 percent were full professors.

“Basically these women are coming in and not getting positions,” Skibbe said. “It’s a huge problem.”

Litt said the goal of the program is to get women in leadership positions, such as department chairs, but it will be difficult.

“If they don’t make it up to full professors, they’re not going to be department chairs,” she said.

Bonnie Bowen, lecturer in ecology, evolution and organismal biology, said there are a lot of reasons there are so few women and minorities in leadership positions. One reason she listed was demographics; it takes time to reach the status of full professor and not as many women were hired in the past.

Bowen said another reason was because of a small bias that exists against women in powerful positions.

“It’s not always direct discrimination, but it’s lots of little things that add up that make it hard to get full professor,” Bowen said.

Some of the policies being considered by the administration include things such as a part-time tenuretrack appointment. This would involve professors being hired part-time, but still being able to attain tenure.

Diane Debinski, associate professor in ecology, evolution and organismal biology, said this will help faculty who need more flexibility.

“It’s kind of odd, but at the same time for people who have children, it might be a good thing,” Debinski said.

“They can feel like they’re not working themselves into the ground.”

Another policy currently being looked at by the Board of Regents is the arrival-of-children policy.

Litt said this will allow faculty, men or women, to take 6 weeks off when they have a child either by birth or adoption.

So far, the administration has considered both policies even without the grant, Litt said. “They’re the ones who have been very supportive,” Litt said.