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APPENDIX A THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK: ISSUES AND OPPORTUNITIES A REPORT OF MEMBERS SUBCOMMITTEE ON WOMEN'S EDUCATION Chancellor's Commission on Women's Affairs CHAIR: Dr. Mary Leonard, Staff Psychologist, Counseling Center and Associate Professor, Counseling and Per- sonnel Services MEMBERS: Ms. Marilyn Brown, Director, Office of Institutional Studies Ms. Pam Cranston, Doctoral Student, Counseling and Personnel Services Dr. Stewart Edelstein, Associate Dean, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences Ms. Myrna Goldenberg, Graduate Student (UMCP) and Professor of English Montgomery College Ms. Marsha Guenzler, Assistant Director, Campus Activities Dr. Ruth Heidelbach, Associate Professor, Curricu- lum and Instruction Ms. Diane Herz, Undergraduate Student, Economics Dr. John Howarth, Director, General Honors Program Dr. Pat Hyer, Assistant to the Vice President for Policy and Planning, Central Administration Dr. Eleanor Kirkham, Associate Professor, Japanese and Far Eastern Studies Dr. Janet McKay, Assistant to the Chancellor Ms. Helen O'Ferrall, Secretary, Undergraduate Studies Ms. Shelly Ossana, Doctoral Student, Counseling Psychology Rev. Elizabeth Platz, Chaplain Dr. Carol Robertson, Associate Professor, Music Dr. Sharon Rubin, Assistant Dean, Undergraduate Studies EXECUTIVE SUMMARY With this report, the Subcommittee on Women's Education completes nearly two years of frequent meetings, thoughtful discussions, and self-education. We found that overt and systematic discrimination against women in admissions, financial aid, and entry into various academic programs has been eliminated. Indeed, the campus has moved beyond precisely "equal treatment" in some cases to establish important programs to meet the special needs of women students. There is, however, much more that needs to be done to create a collegiate environment conducive to the intellectual and personal development of women students. Women are now half of the undergraduate and graduate student body. Our "success" as an institution is very much tied to their academic and personal development, as well as their post-college achievement. These issues are worthy of our concentrated attention and additional resources. We believe that creating an equitable and nurturing environment for women students will measurably improve the quality of the educational experience for all students at UMCP. The outcome of the Subcommittee's deliberations and research should now be turned over to a campus wide committee under the auspices of the Vice Chancellors of Academic Affairs and Student Affairs. This committee should be charged with reviewing and implementing the recommendations below. These are focused on three areas: curriculum, interaction between faculty and students, and the entry of female students into non-traditional majors and careers. I. CURRICULUM A. Establish a curriculum reform project of summer support for faculty interested in revising a course or curriculum to incorporate scholarship on women. B. Bring to the campus during the course of the next few years a number of consultants and curriculum experts to advise on how the campus might more effectively consider curriculum and its impact on the female student. C. Encourage departments to invite experts in the new scholarship on women to meet with faculty to discuss these issues and their implications for departmental programs, courses, and research, and to collect and share relevant course syllabi and bibliographies which are now available from many source. D. Approve and implement policies currently under consideration which would encourage, or require, students to include a course on women in their undergraduate curriculum. E. Sponsor a campuswide conference on curriculum and women in 1988-89 to consider further programs and curriculum development activities. II. FACULTY-STUDENT INTERACTION: THE "CLASSROOM CLIMATE*" A. Include discussion of the classroom climate in all undergraduate and graduate student orientation programs and in the special advising seminars currently being developed for freshmen. B. Periodically evaluate the classroom climate on the campus through campuswide surveys and interviews. C. Offer faculty development seminars at least once a year on the classroom climate and include a discussion of the classroom climate in all new faculty orientations. D. Issue a University statement on expectations about the classroom experience and the interactions of faculty and students at College Park. Inform the University community of such expectations through distribution of a brochure, inclusion of the statement in official documents, and other means as appropriate. III. ENTRY OF WOMEN IN NON-TRADITIONAL MAJORS AND CAREERS A. Prepare a briefing book on.the educational status of women students and review the results in the Dean's Council, Campus Senate, Graduate Council, and the Academic Services Council. B. Request departments and colleges in which women are underrepresented to establish special recruitment and academic and personal support programs in order to increase female participation. Consider targeting financial aid packages and graduate assistantships and fellowships to women students as a strategy to increase female participation in underrepresented fields. C. Ensure that selective admissions policies in effect in certain departments and colleges do not work against a campus commitment to increase the participation of women in fields where they are currently underrepresented. D. Request the Career Development Center to conduct a study on the placement of recent graduates by gender and field and to work closely with employers to promote equity and opportunity for female graduates. E. Support and encourage activities designed to work with young female students and school systems on issues of educational and career choices. *The term "chilly classroom climate" was coined by Hall and Sandler (see Note 7, Reference Notes) to describe the many subtle and sometimes overt behaviors of faculty and other students that can create an unfavorable learning environment for women, e.g. disparaging comments, sexist humor, and male predominance in classroom discussions. See "Possible Causes" section of the report for a discussion of this issue. THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN STUDENTS AT UMCP: ISSUES AND OPPORTUNITIES Introduction The Subcommittee on Undergraduate Women's Education was created by the Chancellor's Commission on Women's Affairs to explore and recommend strategies for creating a model educational experience for women students at the University of Maryland College Park (UMCP). The project has as its goals improvements in instruction, research, and support services that will contribute to the development of a supportive environment for women students and to the academic excellence of the campus as a whole. The Subcommittee used the first year of its deliberations to educate itself about existing programs at UMCP and on other campuses throughout the country, to touch base with a number of interested parties on campus, to identify problem areas, and to consider appropriate and feasible strategies for accomplishing its goals. This brief document summarizes the Subcommittee's deliberations and describes several problems which need broader and more intensive campus consideration and action. The report first describes national issues in the education of women students--the results of recent studies on academic and career achievement, the effects of college on self-esteem, gender differences in classroom interaction, and underrepresentation of women in certain disciplines. National issues are followed by data on women students at UMCP. The Subcommittee then suggests three areas requiring more intensive campus involvement and improvement, along with strategies for pursuing these issues. It is our hope that campus faculty and administrators come to share the Subcommittee's concern about the education of women students at College Park and join in our longterm commitment to improvement. Women College Students: The National Scene Important changes have occurred in higher education over the last 15 years. With Title IX as an impetus, colleges and universities revised their longstanding policies on admissions, athletics, financial aid, and student services to eliminate overt discrimination against women. Doors which had been closed opened. Educational aspirations which had been suppressed reached new heights. The most visible change has been an enormous increase in the participation rates of women as students at all levels. The University of Maryland reflects these changes. In 1985-86 at College Park, 49 percent of the Bachelor's recipients, 51 percent of the Master's degree recipients, and 44 percent of the doctoral degree recipients were women. The education of women is now literally central to the postsecondary enterprise nationally and at UMCP. While overall access has improved, recent research suggests that the quality and outcomes of the educational experience may still be very different for men and women students. What are some of the problems? While high school girls achieve grade point averages as high or higher than high school boys, men outperform women on the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test). In 1983-84, the average male score was 46 points higher on the math portion and 10 points higher on the verbal section--long considered the strong suit for women. Once on campus, women students often experience sex segre- gated classrooms. Male students and faculty still dominate engineering and the scientific disciplines, while women students (but not necessarily women faculty) predominate in much of the humanities, education, nursing, and related fields which have always attracted women. These patterns of generalized sex segregation are carried over into the workplace and help to channel women graduates into lower paying jobs. After graduation, women students can expect to earn far less than their male counterparts: female college graduates typically earn less than male high school dropouts. A college degree means significantly greater earning power for a man than a woman. Male college degree holders can expect to earn $329,000 more than a male high school graduate. In contrast, female college graduates will earn only $142,000 more than female high school graduates.1 What about the value of a college education to the individual woman? Does it increase her self-esteem, raise her educational and occupational aspirations, and prepare her for leadership in the workplace, her community, and her family? The evidence, unfortunately, suggests that colleges and universities fall short of their goals for the academic and personal development of women students. Several studies have found that women experience a decline in academic and career aspirations during their college years2 and that women undergraduates feel less confident about their preparation for graduate school than men graduating from the same school.3 Two recent studies illustrate this theme of a "crisis in confidence" among samples of very talented women students. A longitudinal study of high school valedictorians and salutatorians in Illinois found a decrease in self-esteem among the academically talented women, but not men, in their sample. At the time of high school graduation, 23 percent of the men and 21 percent of the women in the study (n=81) considered themselves "above average in intelligence." By the time they were college sophomores, an almost identical percentage of the men--22 percent--graded themselves as highly as they did the first time, while only four percent of the women felt they compared that favorably. This lowering of women's estimates of their own intelligence occurred without any drop in academic performance. As they left college, women in the study had grade point averages higher than those of the men and were as successful as men in receiving academic honors, merit-based scholarships, and other awards.4 Similar concerns are raised by a recent report on persistence of male and female engineering students at Purdue University. Researchers found that women (56 percent) were "almost as likely as men (64 percent) to persist in engineering studies." Women persisters had higher math and verbal SAT scores and slightly higher grade point averages than did men. Yet the women rated themselves less strong in these areas than the men, who rated themselves stronger in spite of having lower scores.5 The higher grade point averages, career aspirations and success attained by graduates of women's colleges, compared to female graduates of coeducational colleges--where 90 percent of women students attend--are yet other indicators that many college and universities do not provide an environment conducive to the maximum educational and personal growth of women students.6 These differences in post-college achievement persist even after controlling for socio-economic status and entering SAT scores. Possible Causes How does this happen? How and why do colleges appear to preserve rather than reduce stereotypic differences between the sexes? Researchers have explored a number of possible explanations which, taken together, offer some valuable understanding of the process. Of particular interest are those areas over which colleges and universities exercise some control. While it may be impossible to ensure that college graduates of like ability achieve relatively equal starting pay, promotions, and lifetime salaries, colleges can take action to improve aspects of the collegiate experience. A publication by the Association of American Colleges, The Classroom Climate: A Chilly One for Women?, drew a great deal of attention to the fact that men and women students may have very different experiences in the typical college classroom.7 Hall and Sandler summarize the results of more than 50 research studies on male and female interaction patterns in and out of the classroom and suggest that many (often inadvertent) faculty behaviors can create a learning climate that communicates different expectations for women than men. Disparaging comments, sexist humor, more effective feedback and attentive responses to male students than female, direct sexual overtures, and selection of male assistants are some of the ways in which women students can come to believe their intellectual contributions are not seriously sought or valued. The authors argue that these subtle and sometimes overt behaviors create a chilling classroom climate that puts women students at an educational disadvantage. Thus, "everyday inequities"--many fairly trivial by themselves--may, when taken together throughout the experience of an individual, create an environment which maintains unequal opportunity. A number of researchers have begun to document gender differences in college classroom interactions and to examine the consequences for the educational and personal growth of women students. For example, a study of videotapes of 24 faculty members and their classes at Harvard revealed that male students dominated class discussions when the teacher was a man and most of the students were men. In that setting, the most common at Harvard and many coeducational institutions, male students talked two and a half times as long as female students. In contrast, the presence of female instructors--a more unusual situation-"had an inspiring effect on female students," who talked three times as long as when men were teaching.8 Male dominance of "classroom talk" would not be so serious if there were not decades of research indicating that active student participation in the classroom is related to higher achievement and more positive attitudes toward school. Explanations for the higher self-esteem and career success of graduates of women's colleges compared to female graduates of coeducational institutions often center on the presence of female faculty mentors. Women's colleges typically have a much larger percentage of female faculty than coeducational institutions, a factor that Tidball feels may be especially important in explaining the disproportionate contribution of women's colleges to female medical school entrants and science doctorates.9 Women Students at the University of Maryland College Park This section focuses on information collected and analyzed by the Subcommittee on issues and conditions for women students at UMCP. In reviewing a wealth of statistical data on applications, enrollments, degrees earned, student age, progression, and major, the Subcommittee found that: o Among first-time students, women had lower math and verbal SAT scores than men--61 points less for the average combined score in Fall 1986. o The acceptance and enrollment rates for women were very consistent with their application rates. About half of the undergraduate and graduate students are female. o An even larger percentage of women (65 percent) than men (57 percent) pursue graduate study on a part-time basis. Male and female undergraduates are about equally likely to attend part- time (16 percent). o Male and female undergraduates have approximately the same average age (22 years); the average female graduate student (33 years) is older than the average male graduate student (30.6 years). The distribution of men and women among the "older than 25 years" group is quite different: men outnumber women in the age bracket 25-34 and women outnumber men in the 34 and older categories. o Women are underrepresented in the mathematical, science, and engineering disciplines (23 percent of undergraduates and 15 percent of graduate students) and overrepresented in education, human resources, library sciences and certain humanities disciplines. The UMCP Counseling Center has conducted numerous studies over the years which reaffirm stereotypic differences between men and women in extracurricular interests, self-image, and preferences for major fields. One recent study by the Center found that women were less confident than men in dealing with computers,leaving those with computerphobia at a serious disadvantage in pursuing a wide variety of careers.10 Math instructors reported to the Subcommittee that women students are particularly anxious about their math competency and this acts as a barrier for women students in considering many majors. The Subcommittee also examined data from the annual survey of baccalaureate recipients ("alumnae/i survey"). Gender differences in several areas are worthy of note. Among respondents employed full-time, women earned less than men ($15,000 to $17,999 versus $21,000 to $23,000). There were consistent differences in occupational status between men and women with the same college degrees. Men were more likely than women to go into the higher paying scientific/technical or business occupations, irrespective of their academic programs. For instance, for psychology majors, 38 percent of the women were in the lower-paying occupations, whereas only 13 percent of the men were in these occupations. Women were more than twice as likely to be employed in non-professional jobs as men (15.6 percent compared to 20.5 percent). Although a similar proportion of male and female respondents planned to pursue an advanced degree eventuallY, men were more likely than women to have begun their graduate studies within a year after baccalaureate graduation (26.4 percent of men compared to 20.5 percent of women).11 The Subcommittee reviewed data from three closely related studies conducted at UMCP which examined male and female students' perceptions of the college learning environment using the Campus Environment Survey (CES).12 The three studies compared responses of sample populations of: 1) female and male undergraduates; 2) returning women students with children and traditionally-aged female undergraduates without children; and 3) female Women's Studies Certificate students and female and male undergraduates from other programs. The first of these studies was conducted under the auspices of the Chancellor's Commission on Women's Affairs.13 It examined gender differences in student's self-esteem and perceptions of the campus environment based on a survey of 649 female and 410 male undergraduates. Seventy-five percent of the respondents were White; 15 percent were Black; 10 percent were other races. Female respondents perceived more gender bias in the campus environment than did males. When the data were analyzed by race, White females perceived significantly more bias than did White males; no significant differences were found between Black males and females or Asian American males and females (the small number of Hispanic and American Indian subjects precluded analyses with these groups). Male undergraduates reported significantly higher self-esteem than did female undergraduates. When analyzed by race, the data showed that White males reported higher self- esteem than White females, but the differences were not significant for Blacks or Asian Americans. Both male (5 percent) and female (10 percent) students reported knowing women students who had been threatened with poor grades if they refused to become sexually involved with their professors. Three percent of the women in this study and five percent in the second study reported that a professor had offered them a good grade if they became sexually involved. The combined responses of younger and older women in the second study 14 revealed that: 57 percent agree that some professors have poor reputations for their treatment of women students; 41 percent report that-professors have not lectured about current contributions by and about women; 51 percent perceive readings and texts predominantly about the achievements of men in our culture; and more than a third feel that they do not have ability in math and have been discouraged from majoring in math and science. In the third study,15 Women's Studies Certificate students perceived more gender bias and differential treatment than other women students. All women students perceived more bias than male students. For instance, male students were much more tolerant of sexist humor and derogatory comments about women in the classroom and more likely to agree with the statement that "Most 'sexual harassment' is an appropriate response to normal attraction between students," than their female counterparts. Women students, unlike men, report that they are afraid to walk alone on campus at night and that they avoid evening classes due to fear for their safety. (Female respondents in all three studies expressed strong agreement on these items.) Although female students in the Women's Studies Certificate Program were significantly more likely to observe and criticize gender bias in the overall campus environment, they report very positive experiences on several questions which can act as a guide for the learning environment for women (and men) campuswide. For example, Women's Studies Certificate students report significantly greater guidance and support from their faculty and advisors than men or women in other programs -- they were more likely to have been invited by a professor to assist in class; they feel they are viewed as a serious student by their advisors; and more have found female faculty role models in their field. These are very positive findings that come, no doubt, from the considerable attention given by Women's Studies faculty to collaborative learning/teaching styles and close interaction between students and faculty. It is a model that the campus should consider adopting more broadly. Some gender differences were also reflected in the responses of undergraduate students to the "Quality of Life" survey, conducted in 1986 for the Middle States accreditation self-study. Ten of nearly 100 questions yielded significant differences between female and male undergraduates; three related to the general issue of "campus safety." Whereas, 63.8 percent of the men considered personal safety on campus to be excellent or good, only 40.6 percent of the women did. Similarly, 59.7 percent of the men rated campus security as excellent or good, while only 47.7 percent of the women students did. Campus security and personal safety are serious concerns for women students which appear consistently and emphatically in every study. Last, in a research study from the UMCP Counseling Center, 331 dorm students who had not used the Counseling Center responded to the problem checklist, a commonly used instrument to document concerns of clients. The findings indicated that: o Women had much greater difficulty than men in standing up for their rights (p>.007). o Women reported significantly more concerns around sex discrimination than men (p>.05) o Women reported feeling nervous and tense much more fre- quently than men (p>.002). o Women reported difficulty with making decisions more frequently than men (p>.02). A number of themes emerge from these diverse studies on undergraduates at College Park: gender differences in interactions with faculty in the classroom and in advising situations document the "chilly climate" experienced by many women students; female faculty role models are in short supply (although perhaps less so for the small percentage of students in the Women's Studies Certificate program); women students have lower self esteem and find it more difficult than men to stand up for themselves; women perceive the course work and text books to be primarily oriented toward men's achievements in our culture with little integration of the past and current achievements of women in classroom lectures or discussions; and safety concerns have created great anxiety for women students which in turn limits their choice of classes. To some degree, our women and men students live in different worlds, experience the campus environment in very different ways, and achieve different outcomes as a result of their college experience. In reviewing the many differences in outcomes of the college experience for men and women nationally, Astin summarized his findings as follows: ...it seems clear that colleges do not serve to reduce many of the stereotypic differences between the sexes. With the exception of liberalism, where men and women converge during the college years, most sex differences are not eliminated or even reduced by the undergraduate experience. Even though men and women are presumably exposed to a common liberal arts curriculum and other educational programs during the undergraduate years, it would seem that these programs serve more to preserve, rather than to reduce, stereotypic differences between men and women in behavior, personality, aspirations, and achievements.16 What Is a Nurturing Environment for Women Students? In developing the first Every Woman's Guide to Colleges, the creators of the Guide crystallized research and experience on the kind of collegiate environment most conducive to the intellectual and personal development of women students. A college attuned to women's needs is a place where women students are: o able to see and interact closely with numerous female role models on the faculty and administration, o encouraged to enter non-traditional fields of study (engineering, sciences, business) and careers, o active learners and full participants in classroom interactions with faculty and male students, o able to learn from a curriculum infused with the new scholarship on women, o encouraged to increase their sense of self-worth and intellectual achievement, o encouraged to consider or renew full or part-time study at any point in their life span with adequate recognition and support for their family obligations. o physically safe and free of sexual harassment, o active participants in intramural and intercollegiate athletics, and o equitably represented in student leadership positions The Women's Education Subcommittee believes that the University of Maryland has an obligation to create not only an equitable but nurturing environment for women students and that in doing so, it will measurably improve the quality of the educational experience for all students. Long Range Goals for the Improvement of Women's Education Early in the deliberations of the Subcommittee, we found that the College Park campus already has a number of programs in place and several groups working to meet the needs of women students. Among these programs and groups are: the program on sexual assault presented by Officer Cathy Atwell, a coordinating task force on rape and other security issues, a women's studies program, a number of feminist scholars and faculty, some existing research on women students at UMCP, a very active Women's Commission, a proposed day care center, and a program for returning women students. With the important exception of the Women's Studies Program, the Subcommittee found little systematic attention being devoted to increasing the educational and intellectual development of women students--what is taught and how it is taught and how these affect the self-esteem and career aspirations of our students. Thus, the Subcommittee believes that the campus should focus special attention on these very difficult issues. Three long-range goals are proposed for consideration: o transforming the curriculum to infuse it with the new scholarship on women and to be sure that course offer- ings truly reflect the full range of human experience and are not limited to the perspectives of white males, o improving the classroom climate for women students by encouraging more equitable treatment of women and men students in classroom interactions, and o encouraging more women to prepare for and pursue majors and careers in non-traditional fields, e.g. the sciences and engineering. The issue of "curriculum transformation" deserves special discussion since it may not be well understood by many in the University community. After more than a year of study on this topic, Subcommittee members are convinced that incorporation of the new scholarship on women in the curriculum is far more than an "equity" issue -- it is a matter of "excellence" as well. Elizabeth Minnich speaks to this better than most: We are working for the enrichment of our curricula, of our lives, not to tack on something new that has been simply overlooked but should be included now in the name of equity. Equity is not the only point: excellence is, and the examined life, and our sanity, and the pos- sibility of a well-founded rather than defensive pride.17 To achieve excellence, the curriculum must reflect the explosion of research by and on women. These findings will not only revitalize much of current teaching, but will also provide a more complete understanding of the disciplines; cultivate a climate favorable to inquiry into long-held unexamined assumptions, values, and methodologies of the disciplines; stimulate further scholarship and research that incorporates fresh approaches and new knowledge; and enable us to reach, more closely than otherwise, the intellectual honesty that motivates our work. Many scholars have described the "invisible paradigms" that inform our scholarship and that have relegated women, minorities, and other dis-empowered components, of society to lesser or trivial roles. Feminist scholars have raised fundamental questions about such issues as: "periodization of history, genres in literature, the role of the 'private' or 'domestic' sphere in politics, and the choice, design, and interpretation of scientific research questions.18 The new scholarship is nothing less than "an intellectual revolution of major proportions" and consequently, has the potential to transform the curriculum in a profound way. Programs that foster deliberation, experimentation, scholarship, and, finally, the revision of course outlines and classroom strategies must be developed. Curriculum transformation of the sort described here is difficult to accomplish. It demands short and long term plans and programming. It cannot be achieved by adding a unit about women to an existing course any more than scientific truth can be achieved by "adding the fact that the world is round to a course based on the assumption that the world is flat."19 To correct traditional studies, the curriculum must be revised step by step, beginning with acknowledging the gaps in the knowledge base, then recovering the lives and contributions of "missing half," assessing the recovered knowledge, integrating this information into existing courses, re-conceptalizing the courses (and by extension the discipline), and finally, transforming the paradigms by which we understand our disciplines and generate new knowledge that reflects new understandings.20 Recommendations contained in the next section are the result of the Subcommittee's considerable research and deliberation on how to initiate a successful curriculum trans- formation project at UMCP. Also included are recommendations on improving the classroom climate and encouraging women to pursue non-traditional careers. Next Steps: An Agenda for Action While it would be relatively easy to call for greater sensitivity in the classroom, in the delivery of campus services, in our approach to academic advising and career development services and in the structure of our curriculum, it is extremely difficult to effect substantive and long-lasting changes. In many ways, our educational programs are conditioned by long-standing social beliefs, hiring practices and other conditions within the professions which affect women's attitudes about themselves and the decisions they might make about their career and professional choices. In other ways, our campus programs contribute to and perpetuate practices which send unintended messages to all students about our expectations and their opportunities and choices. The Subcommittee grappled with the question of the kind and extensiveness of its recommendations on how to enhance and expand the educational and intellectual development of women undergraduates, and by so doing, enhance the intellectual climate on the campus for all students, faculty and staff. Faculty play a key role in our recommendations. Curriculum, advising and faculty student contact are central factors affecting the intellectual development of women undergraduates on the campus. Our recommendations, therefore, focus on informing, educating, and working with faculty and teaching staff to improve the classroom environment, revise curriculum and course syllabi, and take special note of the unintended messages which may be communicated to all students, and particularly female students. The leadership in this area must come directly from the faculty, and from the academic administration of the campus. Our recommendations are framed in the context of mounting a long-term, active, campuswide effort to improve the education of undergraduate women on the campus. Such a program requires well stated rationale and goals, positive incentives to encourage participation, and administrative and financial support. The Subcommittee believes that "mainstreaming" concerns about women students is essential to long-term change and improvement. That means sharing our findings with those administrative offices and all colleges where changes in policies, priorities, and attitudes must occur and asking them to take responsibility for these is sues with our support. since many of our recommendations call for campus-wide efforts related to academic programs and to student Cervices, we suggest that responsibility be vested jointly in the offices of the Vice Chancellors for Academic Affairs and Student Affairs. Creation of a campus-wide committee would be a helpful tool in considering and implementing the change strategies we have proposed. While we make recommendations below for specific offices and organizations which should be involved, it is crucial that such a committee have some one person in charge who is committed to improvement-for women and in a position to provide serious lead- ership for this effort. The membership of the committee as a whole should be carefully tailored to include individuals who are sensitive to the issues and in a position to implement reco- mmendations. In order to involve as many offices as possible and appropriate, it may be helpful to establish subcommittees in particular areas, broadening participation at this level rather than creating an unmanageable and ineffective primary committee. Among the offices or functions which might be represented are: Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Commission on Women's Affairs Undergraduate Women's Education Subcommittee Women's Studies Program Undergraduate Studies Graduate Studies Career Development Center Graduate Council Counseling Center Summer Programs Undergraduate Student Representatives Graduate Student Representatives Educational Policy Committee of the Campus Senate The Committee would be expected to make periodic reports to the campus on the status of women students, progress made, and new programs developed. The Committee's budget would be submit ted annually to the Campus Finance Committee. The recommendations we urge this committee and the Vice Chancellors to consider are below: I. Curriculum A. Establish a curriculum reform project of summer support for faculty interested in revising a course or curriculum to incorporate scholarship on women. The program would provide for 10 projects each summer for the next three years, to support one month release time and a small amount of operating dollars for resource materials. Colleges and departments could supplement these funds to increase the number of faculty participating. The funds for this project would be provided by the campus and administered by the committee described above. Leaders of curriculum transformation projects on other campuses have found that a faculty seminar or study group (intensive for several weeks and/or numerous sessions over a year or more) is an important ingredient for success. In the seminar, faculty from the same discipline or from related disciplines examine the basic assumptions in the field, discuss readings, and review new research. Continuous involvement from outside consultants and Women's Studies faculty is critical. Faculty involved in the program would make recommendations to their department for changes in course content, materials, and approach, and assist with expanding curriculum transformation on campus. B. Bring to the campus during the course of the next few years, a number of consultants and curriculum experts to advise on how the campus might more effectively consider curriculum and its impact on the female student. Steps should be taken to insure that curriculum experts cover a diverse range of disciplines and professional programs. C. Encourage departments 1) to invite experts in the new scholarship on women to meet with faculty to discuss these issues and their implications for departmental programs, courses,and research, and 2) to collect and share relevant course syllabi and bibliographies which are now available from many sources. D. Approve and implement policies currently under consideration which would encourage, or require, students to include a course on women in their undergraduate curriculum. E. Sponsor a campuswide conference on curriculum and women in 1988-89 to consider further programs and curriculum development activities. II. Faculty Student Interaction: The Classroom Climate A. Include discussion of the classroom climate in all undergraduate and graduate student orientation programs and in the special advising seminars currently being developed for freshmen. B. Periodically evaluate the classroom climate on the campus through a campuswide survey and interviews conducted by the Office of Institutional Studies. Evaluation findings should be aggregated by department and college and distributed to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, deans, and department chairs. (Self-study material prepared by Karen Bogart, Institutional Self-Study Guide on Sex Equity for Postsecondary Education Institutions (Washington, D.C.: Project on the Status and Education of Women, Association of American Colleges), should be considered for this purpose.) C. Offer faculty development seminars at least once a year on the classroom climate in all new faculty orientations. Short-term(one or two days) training packages using extensive videotaping and feedback have been used on several campuses with good success. Seek the advice of the Campus Senate Committee on Professional Affairs on how best to handle issues pertaining to the classroom climate on the campus. Include a discussion of classroom climate issues in the Faculty Handbook and in other ways make faculty sensitive to the classroom climate findings contained in the various national reports and studies. D. Issue a University statement on expectations about the classroom experience and the interactions of faculty and students at College Park. Such a statement on the classroom climate should be included in existing codes of behavior and policies defining academic values expressed in the various catalogs and handbooks of the University. This statement should also include methods of recourse and adjudication concerning this matter. The brochure "Eliminating Sexism in the Classroom,n from Oregon State University is a good example of how to communicate the University's expectations in this area to faculty and students(sample available from the Women's Commission). III. Entry of Women in Non-traditional Majors and Careers A. Request the Office of Institutional Studies to prepare a briefing book on the educational status of women students on the campus, including an analysis of the distribution of undergraduate and graduate student majors by discipline and professional program, and an analysis of career paths and salary differentials of UMCP graduates. Results should be reviewed by the Dean's Council, the Campus Senate Educational Policy Committee, the Graduate Council and the Academic Services Council.Data on possible problem areas should be tracked over time and reviewed periodically to determine appropriate action. B. Request departments and colleges in which women are underrepresented to establish special recruitment and academic and personal support programs in order to increase female participation. Expansion of programs designed to alleviate math and computer "phobias" is one example. Targeting financial aid packages and graduate assistantships and fellowships to women students should be considered as a strategy to increase female participation in underrepresented fields. Underrepresentation in a field should be defined in comparison to the percentage of female students on the campus (about 50% at both the undergraduate and graduate levels), rather than in comparison to national, or other, percentages. C. Ensure that selective admissions policies in effecting certain departments and colleges do not work against a campus commitment to increase the participation of women in fields where they are currently underrepresented. D. Request the Career Development Center to conduct a study on the placement of recent graduates by gender and field and to work closely with employers to promote equity and opportunity for female graduates. E. Support and encourage activities like the Non-traditional Career Fair, sponsored by the University's Apprenticeship Program, and similar activities designed to work with young female students and school systems on issues of educational and career choices. Implementation of these recommendations, and others the new committee may deem appropriate, should begin to create the nurturing environment we seek for women students. These changes will have important positive consequences for all students since improved interaction between students and faculty, a balanced curriculum, and increased encouragement for students to consider a greater variety of majors and careers are critical elements of an excellent undergraduate education for either men or women. It is an agenda worthy of immediate and considerable commitment across the campus. Reference Notes 1 U.S. Department of Labor, Women's Bureau, "The Earnings Gap between Men and Women (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1979). 2 Alexander W. Astin, Four Critical Years: Effects of College on Beliefs, Attitudes and Knowledge (San Francisco: Jossey- Bass Publishers, 1977), pp. 114, 129. 3 Elaine H. El-Khawas, "Differences in Academic Development during College," Men and Women Learning Together: A Study of College Students in the Late 70's (Office of the Provost, Brown University, April 1980), pp 7-8. 4 Karen D. Arnold and Terry Denny, "The Lives of Academic Achievers: The Career Aspirations of Male and Female High School Valedictorians and Salutatorians," Paper presented a the Ameri- can Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, April 1, 1985. 5 Study reported in U.S. Women Engineering, November/December 1985. Cited in On Campus with Women, Vol. 16, No.1 (Summer 1986), Association of American Colleges, p. 6. 6 See for example, M. Elizabeth Tidball, "Baccalaureate Origins of Entrants into American Medical Schools," Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 56, No. 4 (July-August 1985), pp.385-402. 7 Roberta M. Hall and Bernice Sandler, "The Classroom Climate: A Chilly One for Women?" (Washington, D.C.: Association of American Colleges, 1982) 8 Catherine G. Krupnick, "Women and Men in the Classroom: In- equality and Its Remedies, "On Teaching and Learning (Journal of the Harvard-Danforth Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard College), May 1985, pp. 18-25. 9 See Note 6. 10 Rose M. Abler and William E. Sedlacek, "Sex Differences in Computer Orientation by Holland Ty??" Research Report #3-86, UMCP Counseling Center. 11 Office of Institutional Studies, UMCP, "Results of the Survey of Recent Alumni UMCP Graduates, 1983-84," June 1986. 12 The Campus Environment Survey (CES) has evolved as a composite of several different questionnaires used in previous studies. It has been designed to assess how students experience their college learning environment. Different forms of the CES have been used in four completed studies (including three Masters' theses) and it is currently being used in three addi- tional studies (including one Masters' and one Ph.D. thesis). Please contact Dr. Mary Leonard, UMCP Counseling Center (ext. 4046) for further information on the instrument. 13 Shelley Ossana, "The Relationship between Womens Perceptions of the Campus Environment and Self-Esteem as Moderated by Women's Identity Attitudes," (Unpublished Master's Thesis, UMCP, 1986). 14 Linda Blankenship, "Examining Gender Differences: The Campus Environment Survey," (Unpublished Master's Thesis, UMCP, 1985). 15 Margie Spitz, "A Comparison of Returning Women and Traditional-Aged Undergraduates' Perceptions of Microinequities on a College Campus," (Unpublished Master's Thesis, UMCP, 1985). 16 Astin, p. 216. 17 Elizabeth K. Minnich, "A Feminist Critique of the Liberal Arts," in Liberal Education and the New ScholarshiP on Women: Issues and Constraints in Institutional Change. A Report of the Wingspread Conference. Washington, D.C.: Association of Ameri can Colleges, 1981, p. 33. 18 Marilyn R. Schuster and Susan R. Van Dyne, eds., Women's Place in the Academy: Tranforming the Liberal Arts Curriculum. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Allanheld, 1985, p. 4. 19 Schuster and Van Dyne, p. 4. 20 Schuster and Van Dyne, pp. 15-29.