By Michelle Kennedy
News-Chronicle
The number of women hired at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay is rising, according to the University's Report on Equality for Women. The report and the committee to research it, which will be presented to the Chancellor Mark Perkins before he leaves for Towson University in July, were commissioned by the chancellor in response to a directive by UW System president Katherine Lyall in February 2000.
However, the report also finds that UWGB is having difficulty retaining women in the positions for which they are hired.
Committee co-chairwoman Laura Riddle said that although women are being hired at an assistant professor level, they are not staying. "So, either they are leaving before their promotion or they're not being promoted, for whatever reason," Riddle said.
According to the study, there are 102 male and 55 female faculty members; of those, 37 percent of the men and only 16 percent of the women have been promoted to full professor.
Full professors are tenured, receiving a higher salary, better retirement benefits and increased job security. Further, there are almost twice as many female assistant professors, 49 percent, as male assistant professors, 28 percent.
Riddle is just one of nine female full professors at UWGB.
The study also shows that the retention rate is poor not just among faculty. Between 1996 and 1998, 76 percent of all academic staff resignations were from female employees.
The report states that respondents "need a learning and working environment conducive to balancing work and personal life."
CHILD-CARE NEEDS OUTLINED
The university had an on-campus child-care center until 1994, when the building was closed due to renovation needs. Because it was not a profitable entity, Perkins said, the university had no choice but to shut it down. The university also had a women's resource center, which was closed in 1995 because of a need for additional space.
"The (child-care) building was in such disrepair, people started to pull their children out of the program," said Sandy Stokes, who chairs the women's studies department. "Soon, the UW System wasn't contributing and it could no longer sustain itself."
Perkins said that UWGB had national consultants come in and review the child-care center's viability. The center was in a large amount of debt at that time, so the decision was made to close. He has agreed that the issue needs to be examined further.
Deb Furlong, director of research, said that in a detailed, voluntary study, the university found that faculty, staff and students had three main requirements for child care:
- That it have a strong child development curriculum.
- That it allow for flexible, part time scheduling.
- That it have a sliding fee scale; necessary mostly for classified staff and students.
Furlong also said that through the study, she has identified between 80 and 120 children of faculty and staff who could be well-served by a child-care center. Two years ago, a survey revealed that as many as 300 students at UWGB could have one or more child needing day care.
"It's definitely a bigger percentage than we thought," Furlong said. "We have collected a lot of data about the need on campus. This summer, our agenda will be looking at how the other UW campuses finance their programs. We 're not sure if they are fully state-funded, or if they have separate, sustainable income."
UWGB is currently the only UW System four-year school without on-campus child care available to employees and students.
WOMEN'S CENTER ALSO MISSED
The lack of child care has also affected the university's ability to recruit minority students, Stokes said.
"They have been trying to increase the minority population," she said. "But many young women, who maybe have a child, won't come here because there is no child care. Aside from the need, the child-care center was a wonderful lab for human development and early childhood education majors. When there is one on a campus, the curriculum and the enthusiasm are going to be of the highest quality."
According to the report, the difference between the amount of money spent on child care between female and male faculty members is nearly 2:1. Women spent, on average, $4,200 per year on child care, whereas men spent an average of $2,600 per year. Fifty percent of the student parents who responded to the survey said that their financial aid did not cover both child care and tuition completely.
An unexpected survey result was the finding that young, male employees working in maintenance and custodial positions are among those with the most problems finding suitable child care.
"They are the ones whose jobs are in danger if they need too many days off to care for sick children, or if there are snow days for the kids but not for them," Furlong said. "A great partnership could be created between the classified staff and the students in looking for creative, affordable day care."
The loss of the women's resource center has left a void on campus as well, Stokes said.
"It was such a popular place," she said. "We had a very active brown-bag lunch series, where faculty members would present their research and host discussions. It was a great place for nontraditional students to hang out.
We were originally told that there would be space for it in the new University Union, but then it was cut out of the plan again.
Women's resource centers are commonplace on most UW campuses as well as on the campus of St. Norbert College. The centers are a good source of information for women on financial, political and health issues.
"It's just so sad," Stokes said. "It seems to make the nontraditional students and female employees with children feel like they aren't a priority in the school."
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