PERFORMANCE PLAN AND METHODOLOGY

The ISU-ADVANCE program will achieve Comprehensive Institutional Intervention through the implementation of a Participatory Action model for change, while implementing and continuing university level programs for enhancing retention and advancement of women. Coordinating with the Agriculture, Engineering, and Liberal Arts & Sciences deans we will initiate cultural change in two focal departments per college (Animal Science; Chemical & Biological Engineering; Ecology, Evolution, & Organismal Biology; Genetics, Development & Cell Biology; Mechanical Engineering; and Physics & Astronomy). We will add another focal department per college in the third year (Chemistry; Plant Pathology; and Materials Science & Engineering) for a total of 9 overall.

ISU-ADVANCE TEAM has worked with the deans to select departments of sufficient size (at least 15 members with prospects for multiple hires over next 5 years), with some established diversity, and with a commitment to ADVANCE goals. Working with focal departments is an effective model for ADVANCE programs, as shown by programs at Case Western Reserve, Kansas State, and Utah State. Involvement of department chairs also has been important in achieving ADVANCE goals at Case Western Reserve, Kansas State, Wisconsin, Washington and University Maryland Baltimore County (National ADVANCE PI Meeting Abstract, 2005).

To facilitate knowledge transfer among focal departments, chairs will meet quarterly under the direction of ADVANCE TEAM member Dr. Vance. Prior to commencing intervention within focal departments, one Equity Advisor per focal college, and one ADVANCE professor per designated focal department will be established. Diversity and leadership training for persons in these positions (and focal department chairs) will be held to orient these participants to the ADVANCE program and its goals, and to ensure proficiency in practices and policies for supporting diversity. Table 1 outlines key aspects of our focal department strategy.

In each focal department, we will use a 3-step Participatory Action Model process:


Step 1: Focus group meetings. The purpose of focus group meetings is to determine if there are additional barriers that women and underrepresented groups face in the context of their departments. Focus group meetings also provide department members opportunity to discuss their perspectives, thus illuminating how various barriers are experienced by department members in terms of departmental culture, practices and structures, how they affect work, productivity, effectiveness, and job satisfaction, and the impact this has on the effectiveness and success of the department (Ely & Meyerson, 2000b).

Step 2: Needs assessment meetings. The purposes of the needs assessment meetings are to develop department buy-in, share with departments results from focus groups, make explicit aspects of culture and practice that selectively reduce opportunities or isolate individuals (e.g., unintentionally exclusive language/networks), and develop training strategies tailored to the unique needs of each department.

Step 3: Interventions. The purpose of the interventions is to change department-specific aspects of culture, practice and structure that systematically impede the advancement, recruitment and retention of women faculty and underrepresented faculty of color. Interventions will be projects of collaboration involving ADVANCE departmental teams and appropriate department members.

In the second and third year of the project, the ADVANCE TEAM will compile an ISU ADVANCE Toolkit summarizing results from steps 1, 2, and 3. We will use this toolkit to implement Comprehensive Institutional Intervention in three additional focal departments in the third and fourth years of the grant. This toolkit will enable implementation of our comprehensive cultural change program in other departments after ADVANCE grant funding ends, and it is a key part of our dissemination plans.

Three-step process for change in focal department culture, practice and structure

The 3-step focal department participatory action plan will aid in retention and promotion of female faculty and underrepresented faculty of color (and facilitate recruitment) by cultivating department culture and practices that involve more transparent decision making processes, decreased levels of isolation among women and faculty of color, better mentoring for faculty across status groups, and greater receptivity toward and support of flexible career policies. The steps outlined below focus on subtle and overt causes of barriers to equity, and eradicating barriers by first making them explicit and then employing department members as agents of change.

Step 1: Focus group meetings (year 1 in 6 focal departments [start with 2 in first semester, then bring in other 4 after fine-tuning basic procedures], and year 3 add final 3 focal departments).

Discussion of department culture and practice will explore the experiences of women faculty, especially women of underrepresented race/ethnic groups, and will center on:


1. Aspects of culture and practice that pose barriers to transparency, isolate women and underrepresented faculty of color, hinder effective mentoring, and discourage implementation/use of flexible career policies; and



2. Aspects of culture and practice unique to the department that pose additional barriers to women and underrepresented faculty of color.

Discussion of department structure will focus on:


1. Aspects of department operating procedures that pose barriers to transparency, isolate women and faculty of color, hinder effective mentoring, and discourage implementation/use of flexible career policies; and



2. Aspects of structure unique to the department that pose additional barriers to women and underrepresented faculty of color.

Step 2: Assessment meetings (year 1 in 6 focal departments and year 3 in additional 3 focal departments). Regarding department culture and practice, these meetings will address questions such as:


• What are the dominant symbols?
• What kinds of language and practices prevail?
• What are the evaluative norms of workplace culture in the department, and do they include gender or race biases?
• How do culture and practice create patterns of inclusion/exclusion that potentially isolate traditionally underrepresented groups? For example, departments may find an underlying culture that values the "ideal scientist" as one who has responsibilities only in the lab. Since women scientists continue to bear primary responsibility for child care this could result in negative value judgments, which may not be conscious, but could affect women's advancement.

Regarding department structure, these meetings will cover topics such as existing networking structure within departments and avenues for facilitating greater integration of women and people of color into existing networks and/or establishing new networks.

Step 3: Interventions (years 2-5). Regarding department culture and practice, interventions will include ADVANCE departmental teams developing "best practices" based on the outcomes of focal group and assessment meetings, designed to foster culture and practices of inclusion and support. ADVANCE departmental teams will design training for search committees, P&T committees, and curriculum committees. For example, regarding isolation, best practices may include avoiding sports metaphors in formal department meetings, or making conscious efforts to make eye contact with members of all status groups among faculty in department meetings or job candidate meetings.

Regarding department structure, interventions will include department-specific actions as well as policies and programs implemented across STEM fields, and in some cases, university-wide. Best practices applicable across the institution will be developed to address known barriers that exist across STEM departments and barriers unique to individual departments.


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