Elsewhere

(Elsewhere summarizes developments on other UW System campuses and in the system administration. For more system news, visit: http://www.uwsa.edu/univ_rel/wn.htm.)

Lyall presents ideas on status of women
UW System President Katharine Lyall proposes several recommendations in response to a new study on the status of women students, faculty and administrators.

The systemwide study was co-chaired by Betsy Draine, a UW–Madison associate vice chancellor, and Provost Vicki Lord Larson of UW-Oshkosh. The last systemwide assessment of this kind was in 1981.

“Since 1981, the environment and many of the issues affecting women on our campuses have changed, although some have not,” Lyall says. “The issues that concern our women faculty and staff today have evolved from ‘first order’ issues of getting policies and practices in place to ‘second order’ concerns of campus climate and the thousand small things that make a workplace friendly and supportive.”

Women now make up 55 percent of the student body, and female faculty have grown from 19 percent to 28 percent of total faculty; 35 percent of senior administration – dean and higher – are women.

“We have indeed made strides for women since 1981, but we still have work to do to increase women faculty in some of the sciences and math, to mentor university women for success and career advancement, to ensure affordable childcare and safety on our campuses, and to help all our employees, male and female, better balance their work and their personal lives,” Lyall says.

Among her specific proposals:

• Collect data on the status of women and continue to identify “best practices” that will maximize the contributions of women, faculty, staff and students to the educational mission.
• Continue fundraising efforts to support Plan 2008 pre-college opportunities and financial aid.
• Ask each institution to address the key areas for progress identified by the Committee on the Status of Women and report by January 2001 its plans to meet these challenges.

The committee’s report can be found at: http://www.uwsa.edu/univ_rel/wn.htm.

Chancellor finalists named
Five finalists have been named for the position of chancellor of UW-River Falls. A Board of Regents committee will interview the finalists Tuesday, Feb. 22. The finalists are Frederick J. Dobney, executive vice president and provost, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Mich.; Kurt F. Geisinger, academic vice president, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, N.Y.; Leah S. Harvey, vice president for student and academic affairs, Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, Minn.; Ann M. Lydecker, provost and vice president for academic affairs, Bridgewater State College, Bridgewater, Mass.; and Suzanne Williams, interim president, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minn.

Parks program underway
UW-Superior will receive $400,000 over three years for Project SPARKS – a new program in which university students and faculty will use local state parks to develop a geology and environmental learning program for schoolchildren.

Business help launched
Small and start-up businesses will find information, help and networking opportunities all in one site when the state’s first-ever Business Information Center opens this month on the UW-Parkside campus.