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UNL gets $3.8 million to support women in science

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By the Lincoln Journal Star

Tuesday, Sep 02, 2008 - 05:34:36 pm CDT

A $3.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation will help the University of Nebraska-Lincoln recruit, promote and retain women in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, UNL announced Tuesday.

Women now comprise less than 20 percent of faculty in those disciplines. Nationally, women comprise 29 percent of science and engineering faculty at four-year colleges and universities, according to the NSF.

The five-year grant will enable UNL to create new programs to recruit and support women through each stage of their career. The grant is from the NSF’s ADVANCE program.

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The program’s goal is to ensure the pool of applicants for jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics departments match or exceed the percentage of women who receive doctoral degrees in those fields, said Mary Anne Holmes, UNL geosciences professor and program director for the ADVANCE-Nebraska office being set up through the grant.

“We want the best faculty we can get and the way we’re doing business now is not attracting the widest applicant pool,” Holmes said.

ADVANCE-Nebraska will be a clearinghouse for job applicants to learn about UNL’s family-friendly policies and for department chairs to get information about hiring practices nationwide.

One of the office’s key roles will be facilitating dual-career hires.

“When a department wants to hire a top candidate, it has to move quickly because they are probably being recruited by other schools. We don’t want to lose good candidates because we couldn’t find a place for his or her spouse,” said Barbara Couture, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs. Couture will oversee ADVANCE-Nebraska.

The grant will fund recruitment activities such as sending UNL faculty to national conferences to search for talented candidates; inviting top female researchers to give presentations at UNL; and bringing recruits to campus for pre-interview visits.

Current and new faculty in science, technology, engineering and mathematics will benefit from additional professional development opportunities and informal mentoring workshops in which high-level female faculty will discuss their paths to success. Ideas for these activities were generated through surveys and forums in which more than 100 faculty participated, Holmes said.

Throughout the duration of the grant, a team of UNL researchers will study whether ADVANCE programs affect the professional and social networks of female faculty in UNL’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics departments.

Since 2001, ADVANCE program grants have been awarded to 30 other major universities, including Arizona, Colorado, Cornell, Iowa State, Michigan and Wisconsin.

“UNL is in good company,” said Prem Paul, vice chancellor for research and economic development. “This is one way we can do our part to help develop a more diverse workforce in the science and engineering fields and attract the best, most talented people to UNL.”


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Confused wrote on September 2, 2008 10:37 am:
" So, this $3.8 million is being used to hire & recruit women only. It will also be used to create jobs so that we don't loose a canidate if "we couldn’t find a place for his or her spouse" How is that not discrimination. How is it that someone is the best canidate for a job just because their spouse is qualified? What a crock! "

 equal rights wrote on September 2, 2008 10:44 am:
" Where is the grant to support men? "

 interested wrote on September 2, 2008 11:04 am:
" fair and balanced is a totally cool approach in science that lacks women role models. sounds good. "

 frustrated at misdirection of my taxes wrote on September 2, 2008 12:31 pm:
" More government money wasted. Bridges don't care if the engineer is male or female. Math equations are indifferent to gender. Technology doesn't require particular chromosomes. How about using the money to train and retain the best and the brightest, instead of giving advantage to those that fit a social categor? "

 Gerard Harbison wrote on September 2, 2008 12:32 pm:
" Well, it's nice UNL's faculty is finally being told what's in this grant. When they started 'surveying' us in the Spring, I filed a complaint with the research compliance office, noting that research subjects have to be given, under standard ethics guidelines, some notice about the uses to which the research would be put. UNL's in house research compliance officer said he saw no problem with their non-disclosure. I asked a couple of national experts on research ethics, who indeed saw a problem.

If you don't like this sort of thing, vote for the Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative in November. "

 Frank wrote on September 2, 2008 12:55 pm:
" Wow, the University is being given (and happily accepting) grant money to promote discrimination. "The program’s goal is to ensure that the pool of applicants for jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics departments match or exceed the percentage of women who receive doctoral degrees in those fields, said Mary Anne Holmes. What a joke. Find the best candidate and hire and promote that candidate. Why is that simple concept so hard for people to grasp? "

 Rob wrote on September 2, 2008 1:26 pm:
" More taxpayers money wasted in the name of a GRANT. "

 me wrote on September 2, 2008 1:28 pm:
" How about a grant to feed and keep people warm this winter that can't afford to live in this country anymore because all the jobs have gone to China? Oh wait... That would be a waste of money because the rich couldn't pick out other rich people to give the money to. I don't like the sound of a job going to some woman just because she is the spouse of someone. Makes me sick UNL. "

 To interested wrote on September 2, 2008 1:31 pm:
" You can't use the word fair if you are recruiting only 1 gender.

I want a grant to see how to improve the male:female ratio in Home Economics, Fashion Design, Women's Studies, and... "

 Sara wrote on September 2, 2008 1:42 pm:
" Aacepting and acting on this grant is an insult to women who want to be hired for their credentials and not their chromosomes. If UNL accepts the money it is a sexist act of an administration who is out of touch. "

 for the love of Pete wrote on September 2, 2008 1:43 pm:
" Learn the definition of 'discrimination' before you spew what you spew every time anything like this comes up (white males). "

 Smile wrote on September 2, 2008 4:31 pm:
" Get a grip, people. How many of you read past the headline? The initiative here is to increase the number of women in science, engineering, and math programs in the following ways:

1. Increase the number of women applicants for jobs.

2. Create a family-friendly environment that will attract women and not penalize them for, say, taking time off to have a baby.

TO BE CLEAR, this approach DOES NOT involve hiring an unqualified person for the job. It means having, say, 50% of the applicants be female instead of, say, 5%.

This approach will also increase the attraction and retention of top MALE APPLICANTS who have spouses with professional qualifications. "

 scientist also mom and wife wrote on September 3, 2008 10:08 am:
" How paternalistic! "Family-friendly" to "recruit women"? The message is that families are women's concern only and that women should all have families. And that women need special help to succeed. So we build a huge administrative system to support the paternalistic administrators, instead of doing the obvious: treating scientists who happen to be women as scientists and letting them do their science instead of taking part in "womens programs". "

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