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- Advancing Women at Virginia Tech: University Statistics - Fall 2016(Virginia Tech, 2017-02)AdvanceVT began in 2003 as a comprehensive program to promote and enhance the careers of women in academic science and engineering at Virginia Tech through institutional transformation. Although grant funding from the National Science Foundation expired in August 2010, AdvanceVT programs continue with support from partners across the university, including the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, the Graduate School, the Women’s Center, college deans, and the Women and Gender Studies Program. High impact initiatives have been expanded to address work-life balance and career development issues for men and women faculty in all disciplines. College liaisons have been expanded to all colleges, and all newly hired assistant professors receive mentoring micro-grants.
- Faculty Perceptions of Climate and Job Satisfaction by Race/Ethnicity: Findings from 2005 AdvanceVT Work-Life SurveySaddler, Tonya N.; Creamer, Elizabeth G. (Virginia Tech, 2007-08)There has been increased attention given to the status of ethnic minority faculty members in American higher education over the past few decades. While minority faculty continue to increase their presence in the professoriate, they represent approximately 15% of full-time faculty members in American colleges and universities. Of this figure, 6.6% are Asian American, 3.2% are Hispanic, and 5.3% represent Black faculty members (Cook & Cordova, 2006; Chronicle of Higher Education, 2006).
Because ethnic minorities are underrepresented in the academy, work life issues, including quality of life, impacting this population have become a national issue (Holcomb-McCoy & Addison-Bradley, 2005; Tack & Patitu, 1992). Perceptions about the work environment have been linked to overall satisfaction with work. For example, factors such as non-supportive colleagues, unwelcoming institutional and departmental climates, and departments lacking diversity contribute to an individual’s perception of the work place being collegial (Cooper, Ortiz, Benham, & Scher, 2002; Tack & Patitu, 1992). Such factors (among others) have been found to be directly related to predicting satisfaction with work environments for faculty members regardless of ethnicity (Saddler & Creamer, 2006).
This report examines factors associated with the satisfaction of ethnic minority faculty members at Virginia Tech. Data from the 2005 AdvanceVT Work-Life Survey provide insight about ethnic minority faculty members’ perceptions about university and departmental climate at the institution. Most of these data were shared in presentations during spring 2007 to the Task Force on Race and the Institution and the Black Caucus. The report is intended to generate dialogue about items to add to the AdvanceVT Work-Life Survey when it is re-administered in fall 2008. - AdvanceVT Annual Report : Year 5 : September 2007 – August 2008Layne, Margaret E. (Virginia Tech, 2008-06-17)The overall goal of AdvanceVT is to contribute to the development of a national science and engineering academic workforce that includes the full participation of women at all levels of faculty and academic leadership, particularly at the senior academic ranks, through the transformation of institutional practices, policies, climate and culture at Virginia Tech. The program has four major elements: advancing women into faculty careers, increasing the representation of women faculty in science and engineering, empowering women as leaders and scholars, and institutionalizing change.
Significant accomplishments during year five include the submission of a collaborative proposal for a PAID grant to disseminate AdvanceVT’s leadership coaching model throughout Virginia with the ACE Virginia Network, James Madison University, University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the Virginia Community College System. Also, after a two year effort, AdvanceVT unveiled Creating a Positive Departmental Climate at Virginia Tech: A Compendium of Successful Strategies. The compendium draws from results of an initial 2006 Departmental Climate Initiative survey, AdvanceVT workshop discussions on existing strategies, AdvanceVT 2003 faculty work-life survey data, a literature review, and materials from other institutions. In addition to maintaining a portfolio of workshops and seminars, AdvanceVT co-hosted the fifth annual “Advancing Diversity at Virginia Tech” conference on January 8, with the Office of Multicultural Affairs. AdvanceVT also began development of a database of potential faculty candidates, with a focus on candidates with diverse backgrounds, in collaboration with the Office for Equal Opportunity. - AdvanceVT Annual Report : Year 4 : September 2006 – August 2007Layne, Margaret E. (Virginia Tech, 2007-06-26)The overall goal of AdvanceVT is to contribute to the development of a national science and engineering academic workforce that includes the full participation of women at all levels of faculty and academic leadership, particularly at the senior academic ranks, through the transformation of institutional practices, policies, climate and culture at Virginia Tech. The program has four major elements: advancing women into faculty careers, increasing the representation of women faculty in science and engineering, empowering women as leaders and scholars, and institutionalizing change.
Significant accomplishments during year four include approval of a new part-time employment policy for tenure track faculty by the university governance structure and board of visitors, draft of a manual of successful strategies for developing and maintaining a positive department climate, presentations to the Task Force on Race and the Institution and the Black Caucus of findings from the 2005 faculty survey, and development and release of a request for information to commercial day care providers, in addition to maintaining a portfolio of workshops, seminars, grants, fellowships, and development programs. AdvanceVT hosted the Transforming the Professoriate conference for underrepresented graduate students and post-doctoral associates preparing for faculty careers in summer 2006. - Faculty Work-Life Survey Data Report : Work-Life IssuesGlass, Valerie Q. (Virginia Tech, 2006-01-30)Balancing work and family issues has captured a great deal of attention in higher education over the last several years. Both Academe (November-December 2004), the journal of the American Association of University Professors, and Change magazine (November-December 2005) have devoted entire issues to these topics. The American Council on Education, with the support of the Sloan Foundation, has also published an influential report (Agenda for Excellence: Creating Flexibility in Tenure-Track Faculty Careers), created panels at most major higher education association meetings, and held invitational conferences to encourage universities to adopt more flexible policies related to faculty careers. For all research universities, the critical connection is to be able to recruit and retain the best faculty talent from a doctoral pool that is far more diverse than it was a generation ago. And there is a growing body of research that tells us that work-life issues have an important impact on faculty productivity, satisfaction, and retention. For women scientists and engineers, balancing work and family emerged as the most significant issue they faced in a study by Sue Rosser, an influential figure in gender and science (Rosser, 2004).
Virginia Tech has been a participant in many of these national discussions. The AdvanceVT survey distributed to all teaching and research faculty in January 2005, and focus group discussions conducted in April 2005, provide a great deal of information about how Virginia Tech faculty members experience work-life balance issues. This report summarizes key findings from tenured and tenure track faculty at Virginia Tech about a range of work-life factors, including perceptions about the departmental and university climate, dual career issues, and balancing personal and family responsibilities. The report highlights implications of these issues for job satisfaction and intention to remain at Virginia Tech and attitudes about a number of new work-life initiatives, including policies to delay the tenure clock and dual-career hiring. - Faculty Work-Life Survey Data Report : Faculty Leadership IssuesGlass, Valerie Q. (Virginia Tech, 2005-10-19)The AdvanceVT Faculty Work-Life Survey, distributed to all teaching and research faculty in January 2005, addressed, among other things, leadership issues at Virginia Tech. This report presents findings from tenured and tenure- track faculty members (N=816) about items on the questionnaire related to leadership including: aspirations of Virginia Tech faculty members towards leadership positions, their views about the possibility of maintaining a balance between leadership and other responsibilities, trust and confidence in departmental and university leaders, perceptions about the representation of women and minorities in leadership roles, and departmental support for women and minorities.
- AdvanceVT Project Overview and Progress to DateLayne, Margaret E. (Virginia Tech, 2006-06-06)Virginia Tech proposed to the National Science Foundation a comprehensive program to promote and enhance the careers of women faculty in science and engineering. AdvanceVT has four major program elements addressing institutional barriers that have constrained the advancement of women faculty members in the sciences and engineering and targeting institutional culture, practices, and leadership development needs specific to Virginia Tech. These four program elements are institutionalizing change, empowering women as leaders and scholars, increasing the representation of women in science and engineering, and advancing women into faculty careers. A comprehensive portfolio of assessment techniques tracks the impact of individual program activities as well as the program as a whole.
- Faculty Work-Life Survey Data Report : Faculty Recruitment IssuesGlass, Valerie Q. (Virginia Tech, 2005-10-17)One of the primary goals of AdvanceVT is to increase the representation of women and minority faculty at all ranks in the sciences and engineering. Responses to the AdvanceVT Faculty Work-Life Survey, distributed to all research and teaching faculty in early spring 2005, included questions about the importance of recruiting women and minorities to faculty positions, the effectiveness of recruiting practices, and the contribution of spousal hiring to recruitment. There was also a behavioral measure as respondents who had served on a search committee in the last two years indicated if they had engaged in practices that are associated with diversifying the faculty.
- AdvanceVT Annual Report : Year 2 : September 2004 - June 2005Layne, Margaret E. (Virginia Tech, 2005-06-22)The overall goal of AdvanceVT is to contribute to the development of a national science and engineering academic workforce that includes the full participation of women at all levels of faculty and academic leadership, particularly at the senior academic ranks, through the transformation of institutional practices, policies, climate and culture at Virginia Tech. The program has four major elements: advancing women into faculty careers, increasing the representation of women faculty in science and engineering, empowering women as leaders and scholars, and institutionalizing change through policy review.
Significant accomplishments during year two include increased visibility for gender issues campus wide through an annual workshop with nationally recognized speakers; intensive work with department heads including two presentations to the campus-wide department heads’ breakfast roundtable, discussions at college level department head meetings on university policies, and a two-day orientation program for new department heads; education of search committees on unconscious bias; discussions with faculty focus groups on work/life issues; implementation of a campus-wide faculty survey; and initiation of an intensive leadership development program for women faculty. - AdvanceVT Annual Report : Year 3 : September 2005 – August 2006Layne, Margaret E. (Virginia Tech, 2006-07-14)The overall goal of AdvanceVT is to contribute to the development of a national science and engineering academic workforce that includes the full participation of women at all levels of faculty and academic leadership, particularly at the senior academic ranks, through the transformation of institutional practices, policies, climate and culture at Virginia Tech. The program has four major elements: advancing women into faculty careers, increasing the representation of women faculty in science and engineering, empowering women as leaders and scholars, and institutionalizing change through policy review.
Significant accomplishments during year three include increased visibility for gender issues campus wide through widely disseminated publications, a special university-wide conference on work life issues for academic leaders co-hosted with the President’s Office, engagement with Faculty Senate and the Commission on Faculty Affairs, and an annual AdvanceVT workshop hosted jointly with the Office of Multi-Cultural Affairs; intensive work with department heads including discussions at college level department head meetings on university policies and a two-day orientation program for new department heads; education of search committees on unconscious bias; dissemination of findings of the campus-wide faculty survey, focus groups, and exit survey; and completion of the first cohort of women faculty participating in the intensive leadership development program. - Virginia Tech Instructional Faculty Salary Equity Study 2014-15Durodoye, Raifu; Bush, Kristen; Pleitz, Jacob (Virginia Tech, 2015-11-20)The Virginia Tech Instructional Faculty Salary Equity Study was modeled after similar analyses conducted at like institutions. In both of those cases, the linear regression analyses approximated a methodology recommended by NSF and developed by AAUP (Paychecks: A Guide to Conducting Salary Equity Studies for Higher Education Faculty, by Lois Haignere, AAUP, 2002). In the Virginia Tech study, the regression analyses were supplemented with a hierarchical analysis that incorporated nested information (a faculty member is in a department and that department is in a college). The intent behind this multi-pronged approach was to support a more holistic understanding of compensation patterns at Virginia Tech (VT).
One-thousand three-hundred fifty-four full-time tenured/tenure-track instructional faculty were included in the analysis. Instructional faculty on leave without pay, or not working in academic departments were not included in this population. Nine-month equivalent salary was the independent variable in the models. Gender, minority status, years at Virginia Tech, years in rank, rank, and department were the primary factors considered. From the analyses, we were able to conclude that as mediating factors are introduced into the models, the influence of gender, as well as race/ethnicity, on salary seems to dissipate to negligible levels. In addition, years at Virginia Tech, years in rank, rank, and college seem to be the best predictors of salary. - Advancing Women at Virginia Tech: University Statistics - Fall 2014AdvanceVT (Virginia Tech, 2014-12)Sustaining AdvanceVT: AdvanceVT began in 2003 as a comprehensive program to promote and enhance the careers of women in academic science and engineering at Virginia Tech through institutional transformation. Although grant funding from the National Science Foundation expired in August 2010, AdvanceVT programs continue with support from partners across the university, including the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost, the Graduate School, the Women’s Center, college deans, and the Women and Gender Studies Program. High impact initiatives have been expanded to address work‐life balance and career development issues for men and women faculty in all disciplines. College liaisons have been expanded to all colleges, and all newly hired assistant professors receive mentoring micro‐grants. AdvanceVT continues to offer signature events such as leadership lunches, graduate student seminars, and the annual Advancing Diversity at Virginia Tech workshop.
- Advancing Women at Virginia Tech: University Statistics - Fall 2015AdvanceVT (Virginia Tech, 2015-12)Sustaining AdvanceVT: AdvanceVT began in 2003 as a comprehensive program to promote and enhance the careers of women in academic science and engineering at Virginia Tech through institutional transformation. Although grant funding from the National Science Foundation expired in August 2010, AdvanceVT programs continue with support from partners across the university, including the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost, the Graduate School, the Women’s Center, college deans, and the Women and Gender Studies Program. High impact initiatives have been expanded to address work‐life balance and career development issues for men and women faculty in all disciplines. College liaisons have been expanded to all colleges, and all newly hired assistant professors receive mentoring micro‐grants. AdvanceVT continues to offer signature events such as leadership lunches, graduate student seminars, and the annual Advancing Diversity at Virginia Tech workshop.
- ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Award: Virginia Tech - Project SummaryNational Science Foundation (Virginia Tech, 2002-09-25)Virginia Tech proposes a comprehensive program to promote and enhance the careers of women in science and engineering. The project has four major program elements that address institutional barriers that have constrained the advancement of women faculty members in the sciences and engineering (S&E) and target institutional culture, practices, and leadership development needs specific to Virginia Tech. The four program elements are listed here, with outcome measures and process activities that support each element.
- Advancing Women at Virginia Tech: University Statistics 2011AdvanceVT (Virginia Tech, 2012-03)Sustaining AdvanceVT: AdvanceVT began in 2003 as a comprehensive program to promote and enhance the careers of women in academic science and engineering at Virginia Tech through institutional transformation. Although grant fund-ing from the National Science Foundation expired in August 2010, AdvanceVT pro-grams continue with support from partners across the university, including the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost, the Office for Diversity and Inclusion, the Graduate School, the Women’s Center, college deans, and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. High impact initiatives have been expanded to address work-life balance and career development issues for men and women faculty in all disciplines. College liaisons have been expanded to all colleges, and all newly hired assistant professors receive mentoring micro-grants. AdvanceVT continues to offer signature events such as leadership lunches, graduate student seminars, and the annual Advancing Diversity at Virginia Tech workshop.
- Advancing Women at Virginia Tech: University Statistics - Fall 2013AdvanceVT (Virginia Tech, 2014-01)Sustaining AdvanceVT: AdvanceVT began in 2003 as a comprehensive program to promote and enhance the careers of women in academic science and engineering at Virginia Tech through institutional transformation. Although grant funding from the National Science Foundation expired in August 2010, AdvanceVT programs continue with support from partners across the university, including the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost, the Office for Diversity and Inclusion, the Graduate School, the Women’s Center, college deans, and the Women and Gender Studies Program. High impact initiatives have been expanded to address work-life balance and career development issues for men and women faculty in all disciplines. College liaisons have been expanded to all colleges, and all newly hired assistant professors receive mentoring micro‐grants. AdvanceVT continues to offer signature events such as leadership lunches, graduate student seminars, and the annual Advancing Diversity at Virginia Tech workshop.
- AdvanceVT Annual Report : Year 1 : September 2003 - June 2004Layne, Margaret E. (Virginia Tech, 2004-07-16)The overall goal of AdvanceVT is to contribute to the development of a national science and engineering academic workforce that includes the full participation of women at all levels of faculty and academic leadership, particularly at the senior academic ranks, through the transformation of institutional practices, policies, climate and culture at Virginia Tech. The program has four major elements: advancing women into faculty careers, increasing the representation of women faculty in science and engineering, empowering women as leaders and scholars, and institutionalizing change.
- Advancing Women at Virginia Tech: University Statistics - Fall 2012AdvanceVT (Virginia Tech, 2013-03)Sustaining AdvanceVT: AdvanceVT began in 2003 as a comprehensive program to promote and enhance the careers of women in academic science and engineering at Virginia Tech through institutional transformation. Although grant funding from the National Science Foundation expired in August 2010, AdvanceVT programs continue with support from partners across the university, including the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost, the Office for Diversity and Inclusion, the Graduate School, the Women’s Center, college deans, and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. High impact initiatives have been expanded to address work‐life balance and career development issues for men and women faculty in all disciplines. College liaisons have been expanded to all colleges, and all newly hired assistant professors receive mentoring micro‐grants. AdvanceVT continues to offer signature events such as leadership lunches, graduate student seminars, and the annual Advancing Diversity at Virginia Tech workshop.
- AdvanceVT Work/Life Policies : Summary ReportAdvanceVT (Virginia Tech, 2010-11)AdvanceVT’s 2008 Faculty Work/Life Survey showed that 59% of tenured and tenure-track faculty members at Virginia Tech believe it is difficult to have a personal life and earn tenure and 48% feel that their family responsibilities have slowed their career advancement. Female faculty members indicated that they have considered leaving the university in order to obtain better career opportunities for their spouse or partner (43%), as well as to achieve a better personal/professional balance (50%). To address these university-wide concerns, AdvanceVT has led the development and implementation of new and revised work/life policies, educated the university community about the availability of these policies, and created a dual-career hiring assistance program.
- An Examination of Departure Trends and Tenure Rates among Pre-Tenure Faculty: A Ten Year Cohort Study (1996 – 2005)Cameron, Tracey LaShawne; Hyer, Patricia B. (Virginia Tech, 2010-04)The environmental landscape of American higher education is undergoing a major transformation. With the increased minority enrollment and impending exodus of retiring faculty, recruiting and attracting a diverse and excellent professoriate is more important than ever before (Van Ummersen, 2005). Recognizing the critical role that a diverse faculty plays in the collegiate experience of students from underrepresented groups, colleges and universities have focused increased attention on hiring women and ethnic/cultural minorities (Smith, Turner, Osei-Kofi, & Richards, 2004). These efforts have resulted in the gradual increase of traditionally underrepresented faculty during the past decades.
While the availability of doctorates from more diverse backgrounds has fueled progress in faculty hiring, lower retention rates of women and minorities reduce the rate of progress in diversifying the tenured faculty workforce. Some turnover, whether voluntary or involuntary, is expected. It is necessary in instances of poor teaching performance or low research productivity. It is also a natural consequence of professional advancement (Xu, 2008; Zhou & Volkwein, 2004). Excessive turnover, however, yields undesirable outcomes. Turnover can influence departmental culture, disrupting progress and resulting in the redistribution of teaching loads, advising assignments, and committee tasks. It also presents a financial burden to the institution, resulting in lost return on investment (Xu, 2008). While turnover is inevitable, understanding the factors that contribute to unwanted losses and how these factors affect a faculty member’s decision to depart, warrant significant attention (Xu, 2008). The ongoing monitoring of recruitment and retention practices is one step towards ensuring faculty success and institutional excellence.