SENATE From the Senate Office |
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February 19, 2013,
Volume 59, No. 22 |
The following is published in accordance with the Faculty Senate Rules. Among other purposes, the publication of SEC actions is intended to stimulate discussion among the constituencies and their representatives. Please communicate your comments to Sue White, executive assistant to the Senate Office, either by telephone at (215) 898-6943 or by email at senate@pobox.upenn.edu
Faculty Senate Executive Committee Actions
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Chair’s Report: Faculty Senate Chair Susan Margulies announced that the Senate Committee on Committees will be meeting in late February and is charged with nominating faculty to serve on various Senate and University-wide committees. She passed out a document describing the various committees and asked SEC members to use the document to get the word out to their constituency members and colleagues. She noted that faculty nominations should be sent to the Office of the Faculty Senate. She reminded SEC members that the March SEC meeting will be held at the Annenberg Public Policy Center in the Agora and will feature a conversation on The Future of Research-Intensive Institutions of Higher Learning with guest speakers Ronald Ehrenberg, professor of industrial and labor relations and economics at Cornell University, and Andrew Delbanco, professor of American studies and humanities at Columbia University.
Update from the President: President Amy Gutmann updated SEC on the following three topics: the Commission on Student Safety, Alcohol and Campus Life; continuing efforts to diversify the student body, the faculty and senior leadership; and the upcoming Report on Governance and Administrative Structure. She reported that the Commission on Student Safety, Alcohol and Campus Life will be chaired by Dr. Charles O’Brien, a PSOM faculty member who is an internationally renowned expert on alcohol dependency and addiction. She stated that the Commission will form working groups and will consult broadly with all constituencies of the Penn community. She encouraged SEC members to contact her if they have any interest in serving on one of the following working groups: Facilities, Student Experience and Perceptions, Policies and Resources, Academics and Safety. She stated that the Commission’s goal is to identify ways for Penn to be a leader in providing a safe environment. President Gutmann updated SEC on the status of Penn’s Action Plan for Excellence and Diversity. She explained that all 12 schools have diversity action plans and that three Presidential Term Professors have been appointed. She reported that the Call for Proposals for the Excellence thorough Diversity Fund was published in Almanac on February 5 with an April 1 deadline for submissions. She noted that the Gender Equity report was just published on January 15. The Minority Equity Report will be published next academic year and the Vice Provost for Faculty will be asked to include a two-year progress report on the Action Plan for Faculty Diversity in that update. She stated that the Consultative Committee process will be reviewed in an effort to identify means of strengthening it. President Gutmann explained that she and the chair of the Penn Board of Trustees, David L. Cohen are near completion of a review of the administrative and governance structures at Penn and expect to release a report to the Penn community in the near future.
Update from the Vice Provost for Faculty: Vice Provost for Faculty Lynn Lees updated SEC on the recently published Gender Equity Report. She explained that the report is published once every three years and this report contains data from 2011. She reported that women as a percentage of standing faculty is on an upward trend and is now at 30.7% noting that this varies by school and by discipline. Vice Provost Lees reviewed the change in women standing faculty over the past 10 years and the change for women standing faculty by rank over the past five years which shows progress. She reported that Penn is in the middle of the pack in comparison to peer institutions. She reviewed an upward trend in women in leadership positions for the past three years. She described a new regression analysis for female faculty salaries that was performed in consultation with the Senate Committee on the Economic Status of the Faculty. After controlling for discipline, rank, time in rank and chair status, the raw difference of 17.6% between female and male salary is reduced to 2.6%. Discussion ensued regarding additional factors that could be considered in future analyses.
Vice Provost Lees outlined the gender equity initiatives that her office has undertaken this year including: co-sponsorship of the Penn Forum for Women Faculty programs, faculty survey analyses, evening childcare pilot, dual career hiring supports, pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships. Vice Provost Lynn Lees gave a brief update on this year’s progress with faculty diversity: three Presidential Term Professorships, Diversity Search Advisors training and support, continued monitoring of schools, increased requests for the Faculty Opportunity Funds, rising use of job ads on diversity sites, new appointments in multiple schools and the newly published Call for Proposals for the Excellence through Diversity Fund. She reviewed the process for hires using the Target of Opportunity Fund, which has a rolling deadline. She outlined other initiatives that her office is working on this year: Faculty Climate Survey data that was circulated to Schools, analysis of the Faculty Climate Survey data in cooperation with the Senate, discussions in health schools concerning job tracks, provision of health care benefits for eligible part-time faculty in 2014, and several upcoming workshops and lectures for faculty developments. |