COUNCIL Coverage


Council: October 4 Meeting

This month's Council meeting had abbreviated status reports to allow ample time for the annual State of the University reports by the President and Provost, as stipulated in Council's Bylaws (the President's report begins on the next page; the Provost's report will be in next week's issue).

GAPSA Chair Kyle Farley announced that there had been a "great turnout" for the Provost's lecture series; GAPSA plans to partner with the UA; GAPSA's "Thursday Blenders" are going well in the new Hall of Flags; they have planned a social at the former PSFS building, now a Loews Hotel; and their web site, www.gapsa.upenn.edu, has been redone after five years.

UA Chair Michael Bassik mentioned the free legal services for students; their Resolution on Outdoor Recycling which the UA passed at their meeting on October 2, (CLICK HERE TO SEE RESOLUTION) which calls for paper-recycling receptacles near trash receptacles on Locust Walk and the Perelman Quad. He also said that the UA Voter Registration Drive has registered more than 350 new voters.

Anna Loh, chair of PPSA, reported that the first joint meeting with the A-3 Assembly was held last month. Regina Cantave, chair of the A-3 Assembly, said that Isabel Sampson-Mapp will discuss mentoring and volunteer opportunities at the Assembly's October 18 meeting.

UMC Chair Jerome Byram mentioned Unity Week which will be held November 12-19. He said that the UMC intends to strengthen alliances with coalitions on campus, collaborating on inter-cultural work.

Two Council committees presented their 1999-2000 reports: Pluralism was given by Dr. Stephan Dunning (Almanac September 26) and Admissions and Financial Aid was given by Dr. Robert Giegengack (Almanac September 26).

Gender Equity Progress Report

The progress report of the Faculty Gender Equity Committee was presented by the committee co-chairs, Dr. Phoebe Leboy and Dr. Barbara Lowery. They shared a preview of some highlights from the vast amount of information they have collected. Their final report is expected in the spring.

Their census subcommittee has determined that there are approximately 525 women on the standing faculty at Penn which accounts for 24 % of the standing faculty. However, there is a range from a low of 6% of the engineering faculty who are women to a high of 98% of the nursing faculty who are women. Half of all female faculty are in the medical school as is half of all Penn's faculty; however, 40% of the departments in that school have no women who are full professors and 25% have no tenure track women.

They reported that the number of women faculty is lower than expected and the rate of increase has slowed over the past few years. Women tend to be underrepresented in the tenured ranks among associate and full professors. There is a disproportionate percent of women at the rank of assistant professor, in the untenured ranks. For example, in SAS, 35%of the women are untenured while only 16%of the men are untenured.

Their salary equity subcommittee has found that among the non-health schools there appears to be no significant difference in salary by gender.

Their quality of life subcommittee found that 25% of the deans were women in 1999-2000, 24% of associate, vice and deputy deans were women but only 8% of department chairs were women. There are 288 currently filled endowed chairs of which 14% are held by women. While there are 27 term chairs at SAS currently filled and 33% of those are held by women. Most schools have few, if any, term chairs.


Almanac, Vol. 47, No. 7, October 10, 2000

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