AVÀÇÂÛ̳

The UAF Faculty Senate passed the following at its Meeting #121 on March 1, 2004:

MOTION:
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The UAF Faculty Senate moves to approve a BA in Child Development & Family Studies.

EFFECTIVE: Fall 2004 and/or Upon Board of Regents' Approval.

RATIONALE: See new course requests #64-71 and full program proposal #72 from the Fall 2003 review cycle
on file in the Governance Office, 312 Signers� Hall. ECE major requirement of 33 credits and three specialized
concentrations of 15 credits in Administration, Curriculum and Teaching, and Family Support for a total of 126
credits; requires seven new courses.

Brief Statement of the Proposed Program
Bachelor of Arts in Child Development & Family Studies

Mission: The mission of the CDFS program is to provide necessary preparation for early childhood educators who wish to advance their professional knowledge and career opportunities with specialized study in curriculum, administration or family support.

Delivery Method: The program will be offered through flexible course delivery methods to early childhood educators, living in both rural and urban AVÀÇÂÛ̳ outside of Anchorage bowl.

Intent: The intent of this degree is to qualify persons interested in upper level, higher paying employment in the early childhood career field.

Background: In the Headstart Reauthorization Act, 50% of Headstart Teachers are required to have a Bachelors degree by 2008, with the intent that eventually all Headstart teachers will be so qualified. In addition, qualifications beyond an Associate degree are required or recommended for all preschool teachers and many other positions in the field including: family advocates, home visitors, curriculum coordinators and administrators. Employers for all of these positions regularly seek applicants with baccalaureate degrees. Recently employers have been hiring candidates from out of state in order to find qualified applicants.

Furthermore, many of the current graduates of the ECE AAS degree want greater knowledge in this field, even if it is not required for their jobs. Since there is no relevant degree available here, they go out of state, seek a less satisfying degree through the complex interdisciplinary process, change careers completely, or leave the university with unfulfilled career aspirations, unprepared for the more challenging positions in the early childhood profession.

According to multiple sources there are approximately 5000 early childhood jobs in AVÀÇÂÛ̳. The new BA in ECE at the UA campus is trying to prepare people for approximately 50% of those jobs, plus K-3 teachers in the Anchorage bowl. The UAF program is intended to serve the rest of the state, focusing on Child Development and Family Studies, rather than Education. Most early childhood professionals are mature women, with growing families and strong family values. Many work in small villages and cannot leave their families and communities to move to the city and obtain the UAA degree. The BA CDFS, with distance delivery, is designed for them.

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The UAF Faculty Senate passed the following at its Meeting #121 on March 1, 2004:

MOTION:
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The UAF Faculty Senate moves to amend Section 3, (Article V, Committees, Permanent) of the Bylaws to establish a permanent "Committee on the Status of Women."

CAPS - Addition
[[ ]] - Deletion

PERMANENT

7. THE COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN. MEMBERSHIP WILL CONSIST OF EIGHT PEOPLE, ONE OF WHOM WILL BE A SENATOR, THE OTHERS TO BE ELECTED AT LARGE FROM AMONG UAF FACULTY.

THE PURPOSE OF THIS COMMITTEE IS TO MONITOR THE STATUS OF WOMEN FACULTY AT UAF AND TO WORK PROACTIVELY FOR GENDER EQUITY.

SUCH ACTIONS WILL INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:

MAINTAINING LISTS OF WOMEN FACULTY WITH HIRE, TENURE AND PROMOTION DATES.

ORGANIZING AND SUPERVISING SURVEYS ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN AND ASSESSING THE CULTURAL CLIMATE OF THE UNIVERSITY AS IT PERTAINS TO WOMEN.

RECOMMENDING POLICY TO ADDRESS THE NEEDS OF WOMEN FACULTY.

SUPPORTING MENTORING OF WOMEN, BOTH NEW AND MID-CAREER FACULTY, INCLUDING RUNNING WORKSHOPS ON MENTORING, PROMOTION & TENURE, NEGOTIATING TECHNIQUES AND OTHER FORMS OF FACULTY DEVELOPMENT IDENTIFIED AS NECESSARY.

ADDRESSING FAMILY-WORK ISSUES, SUCH AS CHILD CARE, PARENTAL LEAVE, SPOUSAL/PARTNER HIRE.
COORDINATING WITH OTHER CAMPUS AND UNIVERSITY GROUPS WHICH DEAL WITH WOMEN'S AND GENDER ISSUES.

AND ANY OTHER ISSUES WHICH WOULD HELP WOMEN TO ACHIEVE EQUITY AT UAF.

EFFECTIVE: Immediately

RATIONALE: Women faculty at UAF have not achieved a level of equity congruent with their numbers either at the University or in the academic profession. This is apparent through several miscellaneous data, any one of which might be explained away, but which together make up a picture of inequity. For example:

• The Faculty Opinion Survey prepared for Statewide Human Resources, July 2003, found that only 55% of faculty (male and female) agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, "Women faculty are treated fairly here." This compares with a nationwide response rate of 85% agreement. When men�s and women�s responses are separated, women�s disagreement rate goes up (), p. 37.
  
• Since the formation of the UAF Faculty Senate in 1988, there has been only one woman president.
• In the 12 years of Usibelli Awards, only five awards have gone to women�3 women received awards for service and one each for teaching and research. Out of a total of 36 awards, women have received only 14% ().
  
• According to the United Academics website (www.unitedacademics.net), there were 11 recipients of retention raises in the past year and a half. None went to women.
• Of the 26 members of the UAF Chancellor Search Committee, only 9 (36%) are women. Of the 8 UAF faculty members, only 2 (25%) are women. CLA, which has the largest number of women faculty, is represented on the committee by two men ().
  
• There are 158 full professors at UAF; of these, 20 (13%) are women. Of these, only 10 are in the liberal arts, the disciplines which have the highest concentration of women faculty.
  Put another way, out of 200 women faculty at UAF, only 20 (10%) are full professors. Out of 407 men faculty, 138 (34%) are full professors.
  Or, out of a total of 607 faculty members, 33% are women, mostly concentrated at the lower levels of the academic hierarchy ().
  
• 58% of the students at UAF are women (). It is not unreasonable to expect that women would make up a greater percentage of the total faculty at UAF and be more equitably represented in various faculty venues.
  These inequities may be due to any number of individual reasons, to conscious or unconscious discrimination, or the unwillingness or inexperience of women to take advantage of opportunities. In any case, we need to find out why and then take action to address the problem. A Committee on the Status of Women would be the focal point for remediative action.