New CEW Director Named

Gloria D. Thomas, Ph.D., has been named Director of the Center for the Education of Women, effective January 1, 2009.
Dr. Thomas earned her Ph.D. in Higher Education at UM's Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, and she will return to Ann Arbor after eight years at the American Council on Education (ACE) in Washington, DC.

Dr. Thomas is Associate Director of the ACE Office of Women in Higher Education (OWHE), collaborating on OWHE's four annual leadership forums, managing the office's budget, and establishing ACE Women's Networks in each state with a particular focus on connecting women of color administrators. She also serves as Associate Project Director of the ACE- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Projects to Advance Faculty Career Flexibility in the Center for
Effective Leadership. In this role, she oversees a series of projects to promote career flexibility for tenured and tenure-track faculty.

Dr. Thomas's experience with institutional climate issues will position her to further CEW's commitment to advocacy and service for staff and faculty. In addition to expertise gained through work on the Sloan Project, she brings her well-developed connections to women's organizations across the country, including her membership on the board of the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW) and her deep engagement in the ACE state networks.

Dr. Thomas has served as an anonymous reviewer of proposals submitted to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and lead or co-authored five successful grant proposals netting $1.5 million in funding to ACE over a four-year period. This experience has prepared her to oversee CEW's current research projects as well as to expand its research agenda through collaborations on campus and with other women's centers.

With this appointment, Dr. Thomas returns to CEW, where she worked as the staff coordinator of the Women of Color in the Academy Project (WOCAP) and a graduate assistant while completing requirements for her Ph.D. Her former association with CEW and UM will allow her to quickly establish relationships with CEW benefactors and build campus connections.

Dr. Thomas succeeds Carol Hollenshead, who is currently in phased retirement.

Registration for CEW Programs and Events Now Open
Registration for CEW programs and events is now open. Review your choices and register early. Select from Career and personal development workshops, building your financial future, special events, programs for students and research fellows and work life balance.

CEW's Library Expands Its Reach Thanks to the Campaign Library Fund

Now anyone, whether they are on the UM campus or in Cambodia, can learn which books are in the CEW library, and read a brief abstract of the contents," says Jeanne Miller, CEW's Director of Information Services. This summer, Jeanne and her staff of library student workers have been converting the existing online catalog to a new web-based product accessible via the CEW website. "Our resources are now available to a much broader audience," Jeanne notes. "The change to this new system expands CEW's reach in significant ways. First, it means that women and men who are unable to come into the office can still find resources to address their immediate needs. For example, a woman staying in a domestic abuse shelter could easily access our resources." Read more about the CEW library.

UM Alumnae Council Supports CEW's Outreach
Program for Community College Students

CEW will host the following two programs in October for Community College Students.

CEW Open House for Community College Transfer Students
Thursday, October 9, 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
CEW, 330 E. Liberty Street
We invite UM students who have transferred from community colleges (and those considering coming to the UM) to meet the CEW career counselors in order to learn about our scholarships, programs and services. This open house will include a brief program and the opportunity to connect with representatives from campus and community resources. A networking reception will follow the program.  Registration is required, and space is limited. Please call 734-764-6005 for more information or register at www.cew.umich.edu. Deadline to register: Tuesday, October 7th. Co-sponsored with the Jack Kent Cooke Community College Transfer Student Project. Register online

Tools for Success Seminar for Community College Transfer Students: Navigating UM
Saturday, October 18, 10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
CEW, 330 E. Liberty Street
This interactive program for potential and current transfer students will provide useful information regarding time management, test-taking techniques, stress management, study strategies, student life, financial aid, child care facilities and other campus resources available to students. The seminar will also focus on the development of college survival skills. Registration is required, and space is limited. Please call 734-764-6005 for more information or register online. Deadline to register: Thursday, October 16th. Co-sponsored with the Jack Kent Cooke Community College Transfer Student Project.

New Study Finds Michigan Economy Threatened by Lack of Women in Science and Technology

"Michigan Women and the High-Tech Knowledge Economy," a new paper by Susan Kaufmann, CEW Associate Director for Advocacy, explores how well women in Michigan and the U.S. are preparing to take their places in the developing high-tech knowledge economy. Women's low representation in the physical sciences, engineering and computer science and technology threatens to derail Michigan's goal of greatly increasing the educational attainment of state residents in those fields. This paper explores barriers girls and women experience while outlining actions that state and federal government, local school boards, colleges and universities, and Michigan families can take to ensure that women take their full place in the highly-trained workforce that Michigan needs to be an innovative competitor in the global economy. Read more.

 

New data on non tenure track faculty in the U.S.
The Dual Ladder in Higher Education - Research, Resources, and the Academic Workforce Dual Ladder Clearinghouse, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is a three year grant examining how non tenure track faculty are affected by the “dual ladder” in higher education.

CEW presents preliminary findings and analyses based on our 2005 survey regarding institutional policies and practices concerning full and part time instructional faculty in non tenure track positions.  The online survey asked administrators to provide information on non tenure track faculty at their institutions, including their utilization, their working conditions, benefits and compensation, and mobility between tenure track and non tenure track positions.

Key findings of Non Tenure Track Faculty: The Landscape at U.S. Institutions of Higher Education include the expectation that use of non tenure track faculty will increase more slowly than the literature might indicate, that although the terms “part time” and “non tenure track” are often used interchangeably nearly half of non tenure track faculty are employed full-time, and that mobility between non tenure track and tenure track positions varies a great deal by type of institution, and that the presence of a faculty union makes a sizeable difference to the frequency with which benefits are offered to non tenure track faculty.

The Executive Summary includes key findings along with methodology and background.

The full report, Non Tenure Track Faculty:  The Landscape at U.S. Institutions of Higher Education, includes the Executive Summary as well as tables and charts reporting analysis of the
survey data. Read more.

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Designing and Implementing Family-Friendly Policies in Higher Education Now Available

Designing and Implementing Family-Friendly Policies in Higher Education, a newly-released publication from CEW’s Sloan-funded project on the academic workforce is now available from CEW.  This publication offers suggestions for creating effective, flexible policies at institutions of higher education and includes specific examples from various colleges and universities.  Download this report. Thanks to generous funding from the Sloan Foundation, you may request printed copies of this publication at no charge.  Please email us at acadclearinghouse@umich.edu

 

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