Faculty-Equity Efforts at UCI’s College of Medicine
We would like to clarify the work of the dean’s advisory committee on the status of women for the College of Medicine at UCI. The committee has three men and five women as members.
The importance of faculty equity in the College of Medicine has been recognized for many years. Over three years ago, a group of women faculty first met with Dean Walter Henry to request that the College of Medicine administration address these concerns. The current committee on the status of women received its charges from Henry in September, 1989. In 1991, the committee requested faculty data existing within the College of Medicine in order to:
* Generate data on the distribution of men and women in the College of Medicine by series, rank and type and level of compensation.
* Describe the patterns of hiring at the College of Medicine for men and women by series and rank.
* Generate data on faculty advancement.
* Investigate salary equity.
* Develop plans to improve hiring advancement and retention of women faculty.
Our findings on the faculty as of October, 1991, have already been disseminated. A report using the most recent data (as of January, 1993) will be distributed within the next two weeks.
Although it is critical to distribute data on equity issues, the much more challenging task is still before us. Developing ways to improve the hiring and retention of women faculty is therefore the current focus of our committee. In fact, the committee is successfully working toward that goal. For example, with the support of the dean of the College of Medicine:
* We have been given access to the data to follow up on hiring, salary levels, and retention of the faculty over time.
* We have initiated discussions with the academic leadership of the College of Medicine and obtained approval to meet with the chair of each department within the College of Medicine and investigate departmental procedures for hiring, retention, and salary equity on a case-by-case basis.
* We received approval from the dean to review each individual faculty recruitment to assure appropriate affirmative-action procedures. Furthermore, all search committees now include at least one woman.
* We are currently working with Dean Henry to create a position on his staff with the charge of faculty development and improvement of procedures for hiring and promotion of faculty and ensuring equity.
We are pleased to have made so much progress already. However, we recognize that changing the current longstanding situation will require the cooperation of all members of the university community to redirect efforts to meet the challenge of the 21st Century.
HODA ANTON-CULVER
Chair, advisory committee on the status of women
UCI College of Medicine
