CCW believes that CU-Boulder has made progress on some of the policy recommendations that the CCW made in its 1998 and 1999 Status of Women Reports. We believe that the top administration must publicly express its commitment to continued progress on these issues in order to effect change. With this in mind, we again list below the policy recommendations that we put forth in the 1999 Status of Women Report, augmented with the results from the focus groups.

Campus Community

1. Provide administrative leave time and encourage managerial training for all faculty and staff who supervise other personnel.

   And several of us have asked for ... some workshops, training, blah blah blah, and it's repeatedly been ignored. So there is some blind spot somehow that we don't need this. ... And we're saying, yes, there [are] enough women here. There are strong women and they have voices ... but not at the decision making levels. (Professional Exempt Staff Member)

2. Create and implement official procedures for opportunities, support (including leave time), and recognition of community and university service by staff comparable to the procedures already in place for faculty. [Diversity Plan KS 1.A.3, KS 3.D.5] Career development courses have been expanded by Employee Development, and most participants in these new classes are women. Nonetheless, many classified staff women are not encouraged, and sometimes not permitted, to take advantage of such opportunities.
3. Guarantee performance evaluation training for all supervisors of classified staff including faculty, professional exempt, and other classified staff who are supervisors.
4. Continue to increase orientation sessions for new students, faculty, and staff on diversity issues in order to prevent harassment. [Diversity Plan KS 1.A.9] A strong educational component must be integrated into presentations at freshmen orientation about behavioral expectations in the classroom; however, there must also be enforceable consequences that are widely and vocally supported by the University community. Make sexual harassment training highly visible, mandatory and with consequences for those who do not attend, especially faculty.

   It's almost like, maybe, required training or something that people will just ... have to go through and learn a little bit more about the issues, because I doubt if there are a whole lot of people who actually sat down and read the sexual harassment guidelines from beginning to end, and then even having done that, feel like they have a real clear handle on what's appropriate, how to deal with it if it happens to them or if they're accused of it. That might help some level of relations on campus, if there was a little more information about that. (Staff Member)

5. Continue to work toward insuring that sexual harassment complaints are appropriately addressed and that adequate disciplinary actions are taken against known harassers.

   But it seems I've heard of multiple cases and I've heard of many people who have had sexual harassment cases and have just been absolutely tormented. Every single chance that there was to go to court, the university has taken them to court. (Staff Member)

6. Create campus-wide methods and develop and implement procedures to ensure equitable classroom climates across the disciplines and evaluate the success of the implementation. [Diversity Plan KS 1.A.2, KS 1.A.4]

   And it seems to me that it's a sham to say that the white male FCQs are just the same as the minority or the women's FCQs, that it's a fair standard of judgment. I know it's not the only one, but it is relied upon with some ... heaviness. Along these lines of no accountability, it does turn out that if you receive these FCQs — and I don't know how many of us have-the ones that are — that just have four-letter words or stay with your clothing or whatever, they're another form of discrimination that the university forces you to participate in. (Faculty Member)

7. Guarantee that student women's access to an equitable educational environment is not hindered by safety concerns. [Diversity Plan KS 1.A.2]

   But I think that as a woman I don't necessarily feel safe on campus after dark...And I think that they're negating the fact that women don't feel comfortable, and they're ignoring the fact that women don't feel comfortable on campus at certain hours, and I might not come to campus and have the same access to the resources here because my safety — I don't feel like my safety is provided for. (Student)

8. Create and implement effective mentoring opportunities for all faculty and staff. [Diversity Plan KS 3.A.7] The lack of a mentor seriously affects research areas open to students; for the vast majority of non-faculty women, it can be responsible for impaired mobility and feelings of isolation. The University must support networking associations of women across campus and employment divisions.

   There needs to be a support network in place. If you're going out there as a lone ranger, forget it, you know. But if you've got alliances within the job and also with an informal personal support network to kind of encourage you and bolster you, that's very helpful (Professional Exempt Staff Member)

9. Reexamine whether the implementation of the plan to address feminine hygiene issues based on the recommendations supplied to the administration by the CCW during the 1998-1999 academic year has been successful. Modify implementation plans if monitoring reveals that concerns were not satisfactorily addressed.
10. Establish procedures to capture exit survey information to identify retention issues for all groups of women. [Diversity Plan KS 1.A.2]
11. Examine feasibility of childcare facilities on campus, including drop-in childcare. Perhaps the existing program and facility at the Recreation Center could be expanded and pagers could be provided to parents.

    But to me, that is really remiss, not to have a children's center for the employees on campus. And I've got to imagine that that maybe is because the administration is more male-dominated. I don't know. I mean, as a mother, that would have been one of my priorities, to get out there. And, you know, there is nothing wrong with the children's center. It's great. The teachers are wonderful, they have great activities, they take great care of your kids. It's just that they're not financed ... enough to actually serve the university community. (Faculty Member)

Diversity

1. Aggressively recruit and promote women and minority personnel across all employment categories at CU-Boulder. [Diversity Plan KS 3.A.2, KS 3.A.3, KS 3.C.1, KS 3.C.2, KS3.C.3, KS3.C.4, KS 3.D.2]
2. Recognize gender and ethnicity as inter-related, rather than independent, categories throughout CU-Boulder policies and practices.

   It seemed to me that it [a diversity plan] actually kind of got stopped at the administrative level, and that it was the university who didn't come back and really say, "Okay, now you guys can go ahead and actually implement this." If ... the university administration does not tell a department or institute to do something like that, at least given the current nature of who's in control, it's probably not going to happen. There are too many other things that are high priorities, and unless, I think, people are told to actually do that, they're not going to do it. (Faculty Member)

   It's culture and gender. I've come across people who just assume that, oh, being your ethnicity, being a female, you are this, quote, unquote, stereotype, this subservient type of person ... And I've run across that more times than I've ever seen on other campuses. (Professional Exempt Staff Member)

3. Examine personnel makeup vis-ö-vis the State of Colorado demographics. [Diversity Plan KS 3.C.6]

Opportunities for Advancement

1. Develop a tracking system to quantify recruitment and retention of women and minority personnel. [Diversity Plan KS 3.C.6, KS 3.D.9]
2. Create and implement additional opportunities for staff development, service, and professional growth and actively encourage and support staff participation. [Diversity Plan KS 1.A.10, KS 3.D.2, KS 3.D.5]
3. Create and implement a skills bank for classified staff to be used for upward mobility and advancement opportunities prior to recruitment of potential hires from outside of the University.

   I think the administration feels as if they're doing all these really good things vis-ö-vis dismantling the old boy network, but the lower levels ...don't always feel it trickling down. That's just a perception. (Faculty Member)

   I think time is on our side, because a lot of the old guard people have to retire eventually ... (Faculty Member)

   We are getting — as you said, the junior faculty are more diverse and that kind of thing. But it's a very long time to wait. (Faculty Member)

   And that is something that means each one of us is having to set our own boundaries as we go, because there is no limit to the requests. If we do something well, then the next request will be something even more so. We are finding ourselves working for Administrative III salaries and creating Web pages, for instance. (Staff Member)

4. Develop a process for identifying women faculty and staff who are interested in serving on campus committees.

Salary and Equity

1. Continue to insure and monitor that salary equity procedures for tenure-track and tenured faculty, as well as for non-tenure track and part-time faculty, are being carried out by all academic units, and create and implement such procedures for unclassified staff. [Diversity Plan KS 3.B.4, KS 3.B.6]

   ...[A] huge thing that operates against equality or women's rights in this university is the tenure system. I mean, you would have to be either the most arrogant person on earth or more sure or more morally driven or something pre-tenure to raise your voice against a male-dominated [situation] or even a situation where it's just the squeaky wheels. (Faculty Member)

2. Provide funding for an in-depth analysis of salary data comparisons to compensate for multiple variables (discipline, rank, highest degree, ethnicity, gender, etc.). [Diversity Plan KS 3.B.4, KS 3.B.6]. This is now provided for faculty.