The Women's Initiative report has drawn a range of responses from the student body, administration and faculty. While many have focused on the idea of "effortless perfection," in the five months since the release of the report administrators have set the groundwork for farther reaching impact at the University including a new first-year seminar program for female students, set to begin next spring.
Donna Lisker, director of the Women's Center, said the Baldwin Scholars Program will combine curricular and co-curricular activities to develop leadership skills in undergraduate women, starting with members of the class of 2008. The Baldwin scholars will take a seminar together--similar to what the FOCUS program provides--taught by female faculty members. Lisker envisions the class of 18 women as providing support to one another and developing connections to female faculty members, promoting a mentoring program which she says is lacking at the University.
In addition to advising for undergraduates, Provost Peter Lange pointed to mentoring programs for graduate students and junior faculty that are being developed.
"We will be putting together a task force to evaluate and improve the level of mentoring for all faculty, which will include women," Lange said.
The hiring of female faculty is a priority for President Nan Keohane, as $1 million has been set aside for strategic hiring. "With the raw data we showed about the number of woman assistant professors--which is pretty striking--it's no longer possible to ignore it," Keohane said. "Now we can say, look, chapter and verse, we have a problem."
Lange said the hiring initiative is in the early stages of planning. "We're hoping for some good appointments," Lange said. "The funding is in place and we're starting to use it in a strategic way."
Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences William Chafe said that the University had specific areas in mind for recruiting and hiring.
"We are actively involved in the diversity initiative, focusing on such issues as recruiting more women to science and engineering," he wrote in an e-mail.
While many of the goals set by the initiative remain in planning stages, substantial progress has been made to the childcare system at the University. "People's lives have been changed by the increasing number of child care slots. And people's lives have been changed by the provisions of parental leave," Keohane said. "Those are really rewarding."
Lorna Chafe, child care consultant, said that the University had greatly increased spaces available for children--doubling the size of the child care center and adding many spaces for infants. She added that the University has begun working with local centers to give priority to Duke employees. "We are trying to meet the greatest need not only in our center but in other centers as well," Lorna Chafe said.
She highlighted the implementation of a three-week paid leave for the primary parent who works at duke and who has been here for at least 12 months. "It's a beginning toward a maternity leave--a first step," Lorna Chafe said.
The Women's Center has also received more attention in recent months, which Lisker credits to the influence of the initiative. She said her work with the center has been helped by an increase in programming on the part of various groups on campus to promote women's issues.
"A major difference is now there are lots of other organizations outside the women's center that are taking on similar roles," Lisker said.
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