Higher Education

While women have made enormous strides in higher education, progress has been uneven. Women now receive a majority of undergraduate degrees but disparities remain, particularly at graduate, doctoral and post-doctoral levels. Colleges and universities still reflect inequities based on race, ability, geography and income. And more efforts must focus on advancing women and women of color into tenured and leadership positions with institutions of higher learning. There is growing concern about the rising cost of higher education and how to improve quality and access. The financial crisis of 2008-09 has shrunk many endowment funds and reduced the number of scholarships available as well as making state and community colleges more competitive and less accessible. The effects of corporatization on college campuses are also a source of concern for the quality and independence of scholarship, including for women’s studies and other inter-disciplinary programs.

Mont. Regents OK new policy for sexual assaults

Teaser:

The Montana University System issued new policies for handling sexual assault claims.

Editorial:

From Sports Illustrated / The AP:

The policy calls for prompt investigation and written conclusion of all complaints. And key members of the Montana Board of Regents, hoping to ensure that all the state's campuses comply with federal and state gender equity laws, made it clear that their analysis of the university administration's handling of the situation isn't over.

The U.S. Justice Department earlier this month opened its investigation into the way the university and the city responded to sexual assault and harassment reports, which prompted a second investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights.

The university has come under fire for mishandling rapes over the past two years, particularly in the cases involving football team members. The football coach and athletic director were fired in March, mostly without explanation, but a cloud still hangs over the program.

[...]

Source:

Sports Illustrated

URL:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/more/wires/05/25/2080.ap.us.university.sexual.assault.5th.ld.writethru.0855/index.html

Date:

May 29, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

The Future of the Ph.D.

Teaser:

"Why do we produce so many Ph.D.'s when fewer than half of them will ever hold tenure-track jobs? Is this 19th-century German model of apprenticeship suited to the 21st century?" asks Mary Ann Mason.

Editorial:

From The Chronicle of Higher Education:

"I will be nearly middle-aged by the time I get my Ph.D., I won't have a family, and probably won't have a job." That comment, from a female Ph.D. candidate in history at a University of California campus, is a familiar refrain.

The pursuit of a doctorate—a sometimes decade-long, low-wage quest that may or may not end with a faculty job—has been under more critical scrutiny than ever this year. Whydoes it take so long to earn a Ph.D.? (Recipients are age 34, on average.) Why do we produce so many Ph.D.'s when fewer than half of them will ever hold tenure-track jobs? Is this 19th-century German model of apprenticeship suited to the 21st century?

And finally, does this venerable male model of graduate training match the needs of its new disciples, half of whom are women?

Not long ago I spoke at a conference at the Johns Hopkins University discussing some of those questions. American universities award more than 60,000 doctoral degrees annually to U.S. citizens and noncitizens. Roughly half of those degrees are from the 63 research institutions in the elite Association of American Universities, and half from other doctoral-granting programs. That total has grown from fewer than 25,000 Ph.D.'s awarded annually in the 1960s when universities were expanding and most Ph.D.'s could find an academic job.

Today the faculty employment trend is sharply in the opposite direction. Over the past 30 years, universities have relentlessly reduced the centrality of tenure in higher education. Full-timers who were either tenured or on the tenure track made up 55 percent of the teaching faculty in 1970, 1975, and 1980. Since then, various federal data sets document the steady growth of adjunct positions and the decline of tenure-track jobs in the academic work force. By 2007, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, tenured and tenure-track academics constituted only 31 percent of the teaching faculty while 49 percent worked part time and 12 percent were non-tenure-track full-timers.

[...]

Source:

The Chronicle of Higher Education

URL:

http://chronicle.com/article/The-Future-of-the-PhD/131749/

Date:

May 8, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Gender Segregation in Fields of Study at Community Colleges and Implications for Future Earnings

Submitted by asklar on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 10:30am

Postsecondary education yields myriad benefits, including increased earnings potential, higher lifetime wages, and access to quality jobs. But postsecondary degrees are not all equalin the benefits they bring to students and women tend to obtain degrees in fields with lower earnings. Women with associate degrees earn approximately 75 percent of what men with associate degrees earn (U.S. Department of Commerce and the Executive Office of the President, 2011). This wage gap occurs in part because women with AA degrees—like women at all degree levels—often work in lower-paid, female-dominated occupations (Hegewisch, et al. 2010).

by Layla Moughari, Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Barbara Gault, Ph.D. (May 2012)

URL:

http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/gender-segregation-in-fields-of-study-at-community-colleges-and-implications-for-future-earnings

Member Organization:

Institute for Women’s Policy Research

Single Student Parents Face Financial Difficulties, Debt, Without Adequate Aid

Submitted by asklar on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 10:24am

Parents with dependent children were nearly one quarter of students enrolled for credit at American postsecondary institutions in 2008. These students face significant challenges to remaining enrolled and graduating, including limited access to affordable child care, difficulty balancing the demands of school with the demands of work and family, and financial limitations that make it difficult to remain enrolled. Student parents are more likely than traditional students to say that financial difficulties are likely to result in their withdrawing from college (Miller, Gault, and Thorman 2011).

by Kevin Miller, Ph.D. (May 2012)

URL:

http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/single-student-parents-face-financial-difficulties-debt-without-adequate-aid

Member Organization:

Institute for Women’s Policy Research

Housing Resources and Programs for Single Student Parents at Community and Technical Colleges

Submitted by asklar on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 10:19am

Parents with dependent children now make up almost one in four students pursuing higher education in the United States (Miller, Gault and Thorman 2011). Single parents face particular challenges pursuing higher education, including securing safe and affordable housing. Single mothers often must spend over half of their income on housing expenses, leaving them with less money for educational expenses and vulnerable to housing crises that can easily derail their pursuit of a degree (Bush 2010). An analysis of effective strategies to support single student parents identifies affordable housing as one of the most important factors to ensuring student success (Women Employed 2011).

URL:

http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/housing-resources-and-programs-for-single-student-parents-at-community-and-technical-colleges

Member Organization:

Institute for Women’s Policy Research

Georgetown University will not offer student contraception coverage

Teaser:

Georgetown University president John J. DeGioia announced that the school will not adjust student health care plans to cover birth control.

Editorial:

From Catholic News Agency:

The president of Georgetown University cited the importance of Catholic identity in his announcement that student health care plans will not be adjusted to include coverage of birth control.

However, he also indicated that the D.C.-based Jesuit university will continue its practice of offering such coverage to employees.

In an April 26 email to the university community, President John J. DeGioia said that after “thoughtful and careful consideration,” the administration has decided to “continue our current practice for contraceptive coverage in our student health insurance for the coming year.”

DeGioia also said the university will not change its approach to contraceptive coverage for employees in 2013.

Georgetown’s current student health plan does not cover birth control for contraceptive purposes. But according to the National Women’s Law Center, employees of the university can choose between multiple plans, including some that include birth control coverage.

[...]

Source:

Catholic News Agency

URL:

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/georgetown-university-will-not-offer-student-contraception-coverage/

Date:

May 2, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Out-of-Bounds Relationships

Teaser:

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is distributing a publication to all its member institutions urging athletic departments to create policies that “unambiguously and effectively” prohibit sexual relationships between coaches and student-athletes.

Editorial:

From Inside Higher Ed:

Of course, these relationships create conflicts of interest. But the issues run deeper than that, argue authors Deborah L. Brake, a University of Pittsburgh law professor, and Mariah Burton Nelson, executive director for the American Association for Physical Activity and Recreation.

The authors state that such relationships do not necessarily constitute sexual harassment because some of the relationships are consensual. But regardless of whether they are consensual, these relationships are a form of sexual abuse (though not necessarily criminal assault) because the employee holds a position of power over the athlete – rendering an athlete’s consent, stated or unstated, illegitimate. “The public understands that children can be manipulated into ‘agreeing’ to behaviors that are inappropriate and even criminal because they are, relative to adults, powerless,” the document reads. “Whether the student-athlete is 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, or older, she or he is significantly less powerful than a head coach, assistant coach, athletics trainer, sport psychologist, athletics director, or other athletics department staff with supervisory control or authority over student-athletes."

[...]

Source:

Inside Higher Ed

URL:

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/05/01/ncaa-asks-colleges-prohibit-romantic-relationships-between-athletes-coaches

Date:

May 2, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Expert Profile

Location:

United States

40° 42' 51.6708" N, 74° 0' 21.5028" W

See map: Google Maps

As Member Center Relations Liaison, Kadija Ferryman coordinates the activities pertaining to NCRW’s over 100 Member Centers. At the Council she builds relationships with existing members, conducts outreach with potential centers, connects Member Centers to research opportunities within the Council and beyond, and works on special projects such as the annual Member Center Awards and Annual Conference. She worked for six years as a public policy researcher at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. where she conducted in-depth research on public housing transformation in cities across the country. She is a graduate of Yale University and is currently pursuing a PhD in Anthropology at the New School where she completed her Master’s degree.

Location

New York, NY

United States

40° 42' 51.6708" N, 74° 0' 21.5028" W

See map: Google Maps

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Close, but No Degree

Submitted by asklar on Sun, 04/15/2012 - 12:45am

Even in New Jersey’s highly educated workforce, with 44 percent of adults possessing at least a two‐year degree, almost a fifth of adults age 25‐64 have started college but never finished.

Inexpensive policy changes can enable the state’s agencies and colleges to improve college completion rates in the state and simultaneously meet workforce goals, according to a new report,Close, but No Degree, by the Center for Women and Work (CWW) at the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University.

URL:

http://smlr.rutgers.edu/cww-report-close-but-no-degree

Member Organization:

Center for Women and Work

College-Educated Women And Marriage: No Longer Risk Being "Old Maids"

Teaser:

The Huffington Post reports on a new study by NYU sociologists that finds that college-educated women are no less likely to get married than women without a college degree.

Editorial:

From the Huffington Post:

According to a new study by NYU sociologists Paula England and Jonathan Bearak, prepared for the Council on Contemporary Families, college-educated women are now as likely to get married as their less-educated peers -- even if the weddings happen in a somewhat older age range. These findings contradict the previously prevailing idea that women who pursued higher education were more likely to delay finding a mate past some stereotypical “marriageable age” while studying and building demanding careers. The study reports that, “as late as 1950, a quarter of white female college graduates 40 years of age had never married, compared to compared to only 7 percent of their counterparts without a college degree.” The latter category includes education levels ranging from less-than high school to some college.

England and Bearak explain the new paradigm:

[Now] by age 40, the well educated have caught up with the less educated and even surpassed them in the percent that have married. Thus, ultimately the more educated are as likely or even more likely to marry as any other group.

[...]

Source:

The Huffington Post

URL:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/12/college-educated-women-and-marriage_n_1421792.html

Date:

April 13, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

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NCRW is a network of leading university and community based research, policy, and advocacy centers with a growing global reach dedicated to advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls. We also have a Corporate Circle comprised of senior diversity professionals from leading U.S. and global member companies and a Presidents Circle of college and university leaders who share our commitment. NCRW harnesses the collective power of its network to provide knowledge, analysis, and thought leadership on issues ranging from reducing women’s poverty to building a critical mass of women’s leadership across sectors.

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