Women's Faculty Council (WFC) Report 2016-2017

Women’s Faculty Council (WFC) Report 2016-2017

Prepared by: Sarah Milligan

Executive Officers:

Chair - Dr. Smita Mohanty
Chair Elect - Sarah Milligan
Secretary / Treasurer - Dr. Tracy Quan
Faculty Council Liaison - Dr. Steph Link

The WFC was very active for the 2016-2017 academic year.

Membership Meetings: We held 6 WFC meetings. 5 of these meetings included included additional programming from invited sources.

September 2016 - WFC Academic year kick-off meeting. Brainstorming priorities for the year.
October 2017 - WFC meeting and reports. Presentation provided by Jean Van Delinder updating group on campus efforts towards an NSF ADVANCE project.
November 2016 - WFC meeting and reports. Presentation provided by VPR Ken Sewell updating on research support and opportunities at OSU.
February 2017 - WFC meeting and reports. Research Week WFC / ITLE sponsored panel Women in Leadership
March 2017 - WFC meeting and reports. WFC / ITLE sponsored panel Gender Bias, Women, and Advocacy
April 2017 - WFC Research Award Reception. Updates given.

Administrative Work:

WFC Research Awards

Fall 2016 the executive officers focused a lot of time and effort soliciting funding for the annual WFC Research Awards, as well as sending out the communication requesting application for the WFC Research award and the Undergraduate Scholarship Award due in February and March 2017.

We reached out to 19 different colleges and divisions on campus and received commitments of support from 14, totaling $13,750, with a carry-over from previous College of Engineering support of $4,000
We received actual cash transfer or fulfilled commitments for $11,250
We awarded $11,250 from these commitments in addition to $2,000 of the College of Engineering support

Sponsors for the WFC Research Award included:

Center for Veterinary Health Science
College of Arts & Sciences
College of Engineering, Architecture, & Technology
College of Human Sciences
College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources
Graduate College
Institute for Technology and Learning Excellence
Office of the President
Spears School of Business
Vice President for Institutional Diversity
Vice President and Provost for Academic Affairs
Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer
Vice President for Student Affairs

There were 14 volunteer WFC Research Award application reviewers from 11 different departments. Marianna Patrauchan volunteered to chair the awards committee and work was done between March 1 – March 31^st to review and score the applications.

Undergraduate Scholarship

The Ann Ryder and Clara Smith WFC Leadership Endowed Scholarship for Undergraduates realized $944 from the endowment to be awarded for this scholarship. WFC executive officers donated funds to allow for a $1,000 award. There were 3 volunteer reviewers to review the 4 persona application pool. Tracy Quan chaired the review committee.

Planning

The Executive Board met regularly between November 2016 and March 2017 to work on programming, increasing membership participation, and general logistics.

Special Programmatic Efforts:

Book Group

The WFC hosted a 5-part (January – April, 2017) book club in conjunction with ITLE on the book Lean In.Including WFC officer participation, 25 participants signed up for the discussion group and on average, 8-10 regularly attended.

Public Panels

In Spring 2017 – the WFC in conjunction with ITLE hosted 2 public panels on issues relevant to women on camp

February 21^st– Research Week: Women in Leadership Panel

Panelists:

Dr. Pamela Fry, Associate Provost, Associate Vice President for Undergraduate Education, and Professor in the College of Education
Dr. Sheryl Tucker, Graduate College Dean and Professor of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences
Dr. Brenda Smith, John and Sue Taylor Professor and Regents Professor of Nutritional Sciences, College of Human Sciences
Dr. Jean Van Delinder (facilitator), Associate Dean of the Graduate College and Professor of Sociology

March 29^th– Gender Bias, Women, and Advocacy Panel

Panelists:

Dr. Shelia Kennison-Professor of Psychology, Founder/Co-Director of the Oklahoma Network for Teaching of Psychology (ONTOP)
Dr. Kitty Cardwell-Professor of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Director of National Institute of Microbial Forensics in Food and Agricultural Biosecurity (NIMFFAB)
Dr. Estella Atekwana (facilitator)-Regents Professor and Head of the Boone Pickens School of Geology

WFC annual awards reception - April 27^th

Awarded 18 research awards out of almost 80 applicants. Research Awards totaled $13,250. AnnRyder and Clara Smith Leadership Endowed Scholarship for Undergraduates awarded $1,000. Awardees and their advisors attended, as well as sponsors and WFC members at large.

Targeted Committees/Efforts:

COACHE working group

WFC executive board appointed a representative, Cinthya Ippoliti, to fill the invited roll on the COACHE survey follow up working group chaired by Jean VanDelinder. Meetings for this committee began late in the Spring 2017 semester and will continue on with a goal of evaluation and recommendations on actionable items based on areas of deficiency from the 2015 COACHE survey undertaken by OSU. Ippoliti will report back to WFC membership on discussions and recommendations

Award Nominations

Based on discussions in panels, with membership, and WFC executive boards invited attendance to the annual OSU faculty and staff awards ceremony, the WFC executive board determined to be an active participant in increasing the number of women faculty being nominated for prestigious campus awards. In 2017, we targeted the OSU Eminent Faculty Award for greater gender inclusion – considering this is one of the highest university research awards and has only been given to 2 women in the history of the award (began in 1997). WFC executive board members requested nominations from WFC membership for women faculty to be nominated for the OSU Eminent Faculty Award and from the responses received, chose 1 faculty member to formally nominate for this award. The nomination was accepted and the faculty member and her department administrators worked towards amassing the required information for submission to the awards review committee.

WFC membership were invited in April/May to nominate 2017-2018 Chair-elect and Secretary/Treasurer candidates as well as volunteers for the WFC Faculty Council Liaison.

Elected WFC executive board for 2017-2018 academic year:

Chair: Sarah Milligan
Chair- Elect: Dr. Steph Link
Secretary/Treasurer: Dr. Kim Loeffert

Appointed by Executive Committee:

WFC Faculty Council Liaison: Shida Henneberry