ADVANCE Grant Enters Final Year at USU - Significant Accomplishments Seen

Hiring female faculty members in target areas at Utah State University has risen dramatically as a result of a five-year National Science Foundation ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Award.

USU is one of 32 schools nationally to receive the grant, and as the university enters the fifth and final year of the award, significant results are noted, said USU’s ADVANCE Program Coordinator Trish Kalbas-Schmidt.

 

The trend of losing faculty women to non-retirement attrition has been completely turned around, and the rate is now lower than that of male faculty members. An impressive number of women have been promoted to full professor during the grant’s operation.

 

The NSF formed the ADVANCE program in 2001 with the goal to increase the participation of women in the scientific and engineering workforce through increased representation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers. Through ADVANCE awards, NSF seeks to support new approaches to improve the climate for women in U.S. academic institutions, facilitating women's advancement to the highest ranks of academic leadership.

 

The ADVANCE program at USU, which promotes gender equity and faculty effectiveness throughout the university, was launched in fall of 2003. The program’s principle investigators, through hard work and a clear mission, are seeing results, said Kalbas-Schmidt.

 

Driven by the mission of fostering a supportive workplace environment, the program’s principle investigators and program leader have been involved in many areas on campus. Professional development for faculty and administrators has been provided, as has leadership training. The program also addresses work and life family issues, assists in faculty searches and has initiated department transformations. USU ADVANCE has provided needed faculty programs, including collaborative seed grants, the associate-to-full grants and transitional support grants.

 

Highlights of ADVANCE-initiated transformative impact at USU are discussed in detail below.

 

 

The collaborative seed grant program is designed to boost collaborative research by female tenure and tenure-track professors in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) departments. In three years of seed grant funding, the program has invested in faculty of both genders by awarding nearly $184,000 to 26 faculty proposals from all seven colleges.

 

Seed grant funding supports mentoring of assistant professors by established faculty and with peers. Grants also encourage collaboration with other universities. The seed grants have supported USU faculty research in different countries and have provided training for principle investigators in nationally recognized labs. In addition, with more than half of all funded projects including student involvement, the seed grants reach beyond faculty by providing research opportunities such as field and laboratory experiences at local and regional campuses for undergraduate and graduates students.

 

 

Transitional support and Associate-to-Full Faculty grants in the amount of approximately $86,000 have been awarded to 15 men and women faculty since the beginning of ADVANCE. These grants allow or provide faculty members bridging funds to support research during times of family crisis, including medical emergencies. Others have been able to target specific research goals that aid promotion to full professor, such as completing work on a scholarly book or traveling to a research site in Africa with an infant. These small amounts of money have enabled faculty to keep research on track, not only helping the individual but, at the same time, helping their departments and the university to retain and promote valued faculty members.

 

 

Utah State University’s ADVANCE team set a recruitment goal of hiring women in the STEM departments at or above their availability in the national pool. Overall hiring for the STEM colleges was at 54 percent of availability during the five years prior to ADVANCE. In stark contrast, hiring women in the same areas has risen to 92 percent of availability since the onset of ADVANCE. The number of STEM women faculty has risen from 30 in 1996 to 50 in 2006.

 

 

Prompted by the relatively high rates of non-retirement attrition among women faculty, the USU ADVANCE team’s retention goal was to drop rates for women to levels seen among male STEM faculty members. In the five years prior to ADVANCE, USU lost 39 percent of women STEM faculty due to non-retirement attrition. According to the October 2006 faculty survey, that trend has now been completely turned around and the non-retirement attrition rate for women has become lower than that of men. Constantly losing and replacing faculty (which, in part, requires additional start-up funds for laboratories and research programs) is very expensive; retention of both men and women faculty means the university’s investment in start-up funds for new faculty is also retained.

 

 

At the start of the ADVANCE project, five women were full professors in the four STEM colleges, and only five women had been promoted from associate to full professor during the previous 16 years, with no promotions in the four years immediately prior to the start of ADVANCE. The advancement goal of the USU ADVANCE team was two fold. First, to have women promoted from associate to full professor in the STEM departments. Second, for promotion rates of women to equal those of men. These goals have been met and exceeded at Utah State. Six women have been promoted to full professor during the Utah State ADVANCE project. In 2005, 2006 and 2007, a higher percentage of women associate professors were promoted to full than men associate professors in the STEM disciplines.

 

“ADVANCE’s influence on USU’s campus is unmistakable,” said Kalbas-Schmidt. “As the grant embarks on its final year, its impact will be felt by both current and future generations of faculty, administrators and students on this campus. ADVANCE has definitely left a very distinctive imprint at Utah State University”

 

For information on USU’s ADVANCE program, contact Kalbas-Schmidt at 435.797.8069 or by email at trishk@cc.usu.edu. More information is available at the program’s Web site. ADVANCE is supported by National Science Foundation Grant No. SBE-0244922

 

Contact: Trish Kalbas-Schmidt (435) 797.8069, trishk@cc.usu.edu