The Department of Biological Sciences has been awarded a $5,000 Advance FORWARD Equity Award in recognition of accomplishments in supporting and advancing gender equity. In his nomination letter, Kevin McCaul, dean of science and mathematics, highlighted the department’s efforts to increase the number of women faculty to be more consistent with the proportion of women doctoral graduates in the discipline. He noted during the past four years, the biological sciences department has hired six tenure-track faculty and one professor of practice, six of whom are women. The department also recently promoted its first female faculty member to the rank of associate professor with tenure. These structural changes have an ongoing effect of a more balanced organizational climate which will enhance future recruiting efforts and generally benefit the department overall.
McCaul listed the department’s other supportive efforts such as providing strong start-up packages for new faculty; investments to improve undergraduate advising while taking high volume advising pressure off assistant professors; and encouraging participation in Advance FORWARD opportunities, which led to faculty members receiving a variety of assistance including mentor travel awards, course release grants and a LEAP grant award.
The department also has a solid mentoring program in place to assist junior faculty, with one-to-one advising from senior faculty and is progressive in its response to extenuating family circumstances. Department faculty members are strong contributors to campuswide efforts toward gender equity and faculty advancement.
The Advance FORWARD Equity Award is awarded annually by the Commission on the Status of Women Faculty in conjunction with NDSU’s National Science Foundation Advance grant. The purpose of the award is to recognize and reward significant efforts departments have put in place to improve campus climate and gender equity within the faculty ranks. Another $5,000 award will be given next spring, considering department strategies to improve organizational climate and/or to enhance recruitment, retention, promotion or advancement of faculty. A fall kick-off event to recognize the past year’s awards and accomplishments and to initiate Advance FORWARD activities for academic year 2010-11 is planned for the first week of September.