AdvanceVT Annual Report : Year 3 : September 2005 – August 2006

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.