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.

CIRP Surveys and Services

Submitted by asklar on Mon, 02/06/2012 - 1:23am

The Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) contains the well-known and long-running CIRP Freshman Survey and follow up assessments such as the Your First College Year (YFCY) and the College Senior Survey. The UCLA Higher Education Research Institute also administer the HERI Faculty Survey, which examines issues from the faculty standpoint. A variety of data related services based on the results of these surveys are available. Please click on links below to get more information.

URL:

http://www.heri.ucla.edu/herisurveys.php

CIRP Freshman Survey Media Coverage

Teaser:

The articles have started to come in on the CIRP Freshman Survey results, and as usual everyone takes a slightly different look. Here are a few of the stories.

Source:

HERI Blog

URL:

http://heri.ucla.edu/blog/?p=1344

Date:

January 26, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Acosta/Carpenter Women in Intercollegiate Sport A Longitudinal, National Study Thirty-Five Year Update: 1977-2012

Submitted by asklar on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 11:35am

In 2012, forty years after the enactment of Title IX, there are an average of 8.73 womenʼs teams per school and a total of about 200,000 female intercollegiate athletes: the highest in history.

In 1970, prior to the 1972 enactment of Title IX, there were only 2.5 womenʼs teams per school and only about 16,000 total female intercollegiate athletes. In 1977/1978, the academic year preceding the mandatory compliance date for Title
IX, the number of varsity sports for women had grown to 5.61 per school.

A decade later, in 1988, the number had grown to 7.71 and at the turn of the century, the growth continued to 8.14.
Today, in 2012, the average number of womenʼs teams per school sets an all time record of 8.73 giving weight to the adage: “If you build it, they will come.”

URL:

http://acostacarpenter.org/AcostaCarpenter2012.pdf

Member Organization:

Project on Women and Social Change

Female Participation in College Sports Reaches All-Time High

Teaser:

Forty years after the passage of federal legislation used to prevent gender discrimination in college sports, female participation opportunities have reached a record high.

Editorial:

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Nearly 200,000 female athletes will suit up this year on 9,274 NCAA teams. That's an average of 8.7 women's teams per college—the highest number ever, according to a report to be released on Monday.

Although some sports have seen a decline in participation—including ones with high numbers of minority athletes—the overall numbers have grown markedly during the past two years. That is remarkable, considering the budget constraints many institutions have faced, say the report's authors, R. Vivian Acosta and Linda Jean Carpenter, professors emerita of Brooklyn College. They've been studying women's sports since the enactment of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

"This gives credence to the good will and understanding that if athletics belongs on campus, it belongs there because it has some connection to the educational mission—and if so, those opportunities should be open to both men and women," Ms. Carpenter said in an interview.

[...]

Source:

Chronicle of Higher Education

URL:

http://chronicle.com/article/Female-Participation-in/130431/

Date:

January 23, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Barbara Buckley Biography and Video Interview Now Available

Submitted by acmoor on Wed, 01/18/2012 - 3:20pm

Member Organization:

Women's Research Institute of Nevada

The Women’s Research Institute of Nevada (WRIN) is excited to announce the addition of the biography and video interview of Barbara Buckely to their growing collection on their website, wrin.unlv.edu

The WRIN website serves as a site of research and education about the history of women in southernNevada. The site contains video, audio, and images of the women featured. WRIN is continually adding new women to the site that currently includes more than 75 Nevada women. The site serves as a source to researchers and a general education tool for students and the community. WRIN will be spotlighting a new biography each month.

Science grant to help women

Teaser:

A National Science Foundation grant recently awarded to Gonzaga University is aimed at bringing more women into science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers, often called the STEM fields.

Editorial:

From the Spokesman-Review:

The nearly $600,000 grant also seeks to help advance women who are teaching in colleges and universities.

While representation in science and technology fields has improved during the past half-century, “women remain vastly underrepresented among working engineers and in many STEM fields,” said Joanne Smieja, a GU chemistry and biochemistry professor, who is leading the effort.

A 2010 study by the American Association of University Women concluded that there are three reasons for the inequality between men and women in the sciences: “Social and environmental factors shaping girls’ achievements and interest in math and science; the college environment; and continuing importance of bias, often at an unconscious level, blocking women from STEM.”

The five-year project is in its first year.

The grant money will help Smieja lead a nationwide network of 70 female faculty members from 12 undergraduate institutions in an effort to change the “current culture in STEM fields.” The project will use mentoring to encourage female faculty to advance in their careers.

...

Source:

The (Spokane) Spokesman-Review

URL:

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/jan/17/science-grant-to-help-women/

Date:

January 17, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Instead of Work, Younger Women Head to School

Teaser:

Workers are dropping out of the labor force in droves, and they are mostly women. In fact, many are young women. But they are not dropping out forever; instead, these young women seem to be postponing their working lives to get more education. There are now — for the first time in three decades — more young women in school than in the work force.

Editorial:

From the New York Times:

Many economists initially thought that the shrinking labor force — which drove downNovember’s unemployment rate — was caused primarily by discouraged older workers giving up on the job market. Instead, many of the workers on the sidelines are young people upgrading their skills, which could portend something like the postwar economic boom, when millions of World War II veterans went to college through the G.I. Bill instead of immediately entering, and overwhelming, the job market.

Now, as was the case then, one sex is the primary beneficiary. Though young women in their late teens and early 20’s view today’s economic lull as an opportunity to upgrade their skills, their male counterparts are more likely to take whatever job they can find. The longer-term consequences, economists say, are that the next generation of women may have a significant advantage over their male counterparts, whose career options are already becoming constrained.

...

Source:

New York Times

URL:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/business/young-women-go-back-to-school-instead-of-work.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=women&st=cse

Date:

January 4, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

New Hampshire Ends Affirmative-Action Preferences at Colleges

Teaser:

Public colleges in New Hampshire are precluded from using affirmative-action preferences in hiring or admissions decisions under a new law that took effect on January 1 after being passed by the state's legislature last year with relatively little public opposition.

Editorial:

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

The measure prohibits New Hampshire's university system, community-college system, postsecondary education commission, and other state agencies from giving preferences in recruiting, hiring, promotion, or admission "based on race, sex, national origin, religion, or sexual orientation."

Both chambers of the state's legislature, which came to be dominated by conservative Republicans as a result of the 2010 elections, overwhelmingly passed the measure last spring. The measure went into law after Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, took no action on it.

In sharp contrast to other states that have experienced highly publicized battles over similar bills or ballot initiatives, New Hampshire passed its measure with little input from national advocacy groups on either side of the affirmative-action debate.

...

Source:

Chronicle of Higher Education

URL:

http://chronicle.com/article/New-Hampshire-Ends/130196/

Date:

January 4, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Annual Report on Sexual Harassment and Violence at the U.S. Military Service Academies

Submitted by asklar on Wed, 12/28/2011 - 4:40pm

The annual reports on sexual harassment and violence at the three U.S. Military Service Academies provide data on reported sexual assaults involving cadets and/or midshipmen, as well as policies, procedures and processes implemented in response to sexual harassment and violence during the Academic Program Year.

URL:

http://www.sapr.mil/index.php/annual-reports

Military academies report more sexual assaults

Teaser:

The Defense Department said the nation’s military service academies had received 65 reports of sexual assault during the 2010-2011 academic year, the highest total since the Pentagon began maintaining data in 2004.

Editorial:

From the article:

...

On Tuesday, the Defense Department said the nation’s military service academies had received 65 reports of sexual assault during the 2010-2011 academic year, the highest total since the Pentagon began maintaining data in 2004.

The academies reported 41 such assaults in the 2009-2010 academic year.

It’s unclear whether those figures represent a step in the wrong direction, with assaults actually on the rise, or a step in the right direction, with more victims willing to come forward to report assaults. The Defense Department said it “does not have the ability to conclusively identify the reasons for this increase in reporting behavior.”

...

Source:

Washington Post

URL:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/military-academies-report-more-sexual-assaults/2011/12/27/gIQADaT7KP_blog.html

Date:

December 28, 2011

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

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What We Do

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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