President establishes new advisory group

President establishes new advisory group
Committee will counsel president, provost on issues facing women faculty

BY TERRY SHEPARD

Building on work begun more than two years ago, President David W. Leebron has created a Presidential Committee on Faculty Women at Rice University to counsel and advise the president and provost on the range of issues facing female faculty members at the university.

“The June 2003 report of the Ad Hoc Advisory Committee on Faculty Women included research that indicates both that real progress has been made at Rice and that certain issues remain with respect to the opportunities we offer female faculty members,” President Leebron said.

“We cannot succeed as a university unless we address these issues and make sure that Rice is, and is perceived as, a supportive and equal environment for the extraordinarily talented women here at Rice and the women we hope to recruit. As we develop the charge for the committee, I hope it will focus on how we can most effectively retain and recruit women faculty.”

Saying it was the best way to build on the foundation the ad hoc group had established, the president and provost invited all its members to join the committee. Those members are:

• Janet Braam, Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
• Katherine Ensor, chair, Department of Statistics
• Nana Last, School of Architecture
• Kathleen Matthews, dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences
• Helena Michie, Department of English
• Katharine Donato, Department of Sociology
• Jennifer George, Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management
• Randi Martin, chair, Department of Psychology

After soliciting names of potential candidates, including male faculty members, to complete the committee, President Leebron additionally named:

• Mikki Hebl, Department of Psychology
• Kathleen Kaun, Shepherd School of Music
• Carrie Masiello, Department of Earth Science
• Susan McIntosh, Department of Anthropology
• Marcia O’Malley, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
• Anthony Pinn, Department of Religious Studies
• Rebecca Richards-Kortum, chair, Department of Bioengineering
• Paula Sanders, Department of History
• Ken Whitmire, chair, Department of Chemistry

President Leebron and Provost Eugene Levy will meet with the new committee before commencement (May 14).

The 2003 report of the Ad Hoc Advisory Committee indicated that “the overall academic climate of Rice University was reported to be favorable” but that women faculty expressed lower degrees of satisfaction than men on most measures. The entire previous report is available at <http://professor.rice.edu/images/professor/AcademicClimate.pdf>.