Prospectus, March 11, 1974

EARLY SEMESTER SYSTEM APPROVED BY TRUSTEES; Parking Fines Begin Today; Parkland Takes Second In NIU Competition; IBHE Seeks Student Member; A Chance For Complete Creativity; Auditions; Streaking; Prospectus In Perspective; Letters To The Editor; The Short Circuit; President\u27s Report; A Little More Gore; Community Drug Abuse Program Started At Parkland; Behind The Books; Proposed Parkland Day-Care Center And Child Care Curriculum; Kottke Changes Style: Don\u27t Fret About It; Tournaments And Contests; Transfer Days At ISU This Spring; Kathy, Jeff To Merge Mar. 23; EIU Transfer Day Set For April 5; Classified Ads; Vet Ventures!; Day Senator; Parkland Holds Community Environment Seminar; Bridge Or Chess???; Women\u27s Billiards; Monday\u27s Coach; Lovingfoss Unanimous Pick For All-Star Team; Races, Contests Tournaments Spring Quarter; Streakers Bare All At U of I; Coed Volleyball; Used Book Sale; Serpico - Relevant But Incomplete; A Column By And For Women: Broader Representation On Committee Needed; SARP Winners Announced; Judge Roy Bean Here March 13; Crosswords; Parkland Offers New, Unique Classes; Special Election March 20-21; Callboard, Parkland Eventshttps://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_1974/1019/thumbnail.jp

A warmer climate for women in engineering

In 2000, University of Rhode Island (URI) President Carothers acknowledged, following an extended and sometimes acrimonious AAUP faculty union grievance process, that there had been a climate hostile to women faculty in the College of Engineering. The purpose of this paper is to describe the positive steps that were taken at URI subsequent to that grievance to improve the climate for women faculty in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields, and to place these steps within a framework for climate change. The paper starts with an overview of the percentages of women nationally in Engineering, followed by a description of the hostile grievance process that took place at URI. Next is a discussion of pro-active measures that were taken by many communities of faculty on the URI campus, including most recently, those of the ADVANCE grant funded by the National Science Foundation. These measures have been guided by a grounded theory approach to climate change that posits simultaneous change in individuals, interactional contexts, and institutional practices. As a result, URI has recruited a significant percentage of new women faculty in STEM fields in a relatively short time, and is working hard to ensure that they are retained. There have been many recent national initiatives to address the problem of the under representation of women in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines. It is well recognized that, beyond workplace equity, diversifying the practitioners in Engineering and other STEM fields will enrich these disciplines by bringing different perspectives, skills, and values to the fore, will help America remain globally competitive, and will more responsibly integrate Engineering practice with societal needs. Importantly, women and minority faculty also provide critically needed role models needed to attract and retain a more diverse student population. In Engineering, women comprise only about 20% of bachelor degree recipients, and are only 6% of full professors, 12% of associate professors, and 18% of assistant professors.[1] In addition to recruitment barriers, retention and advancement provide additional obstacles. Reduced tenure rates, slower promotion rates, inflexible and demanding work schedules that make balancing work and family difficult, heavy service and teaching loads, and a male-dominated, often hostile work climate that does not validate the needs or contributions of women participants all contribute to a higher attrition rate[2]-[5] for women than for men STEM faculty. The University of Rhode Island was representative of these trends until a series of events, culminating in the activities of the NSF ADVANCE program, provided avenues for positive change in the College of Engineering, which now serves as a model for diversity at the University. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2006

Media System, Public Knowledge and Democracy: A Comparative Study

This article addresses the implications of the movement towards entertainment-centred, market-driven media by comparing what is reported and what the public knows in four countries with different media systems. The different systems are public service (Denmark and Finland), a `dual' model (UK) and the market model (US). The comparison shows that public service television devotes more attention to public affairs and international news, and fosters greater knowledge in these areas, than the market model. Public service television also gives greater prominence to news, encourages higher levels of news consumption and contributes to a smaller within-nation knowledge gap between the advantaged and disadvantaged. But wider processes in society take precedence over the organization of the media in determining how much people know about public life