UW System Women and Science Program Advisory Board Meeting

Madison Concourse Hotel (Room 629)

11:45 am - 12:45 pm, April 14, 2011

MINUTES

Attending:

Women & Science: Jennifer Mihalick, Amy Hardy

UW-Colleges: Kevin Lee

UW-Eau Claire: Marc Goulet

UW Extension: Mary Grant

UW-La Crosse: Carla Burkhardt

UW Madison: Gail Coover

UW Oshkosh: Arlene Haffa (Co-chair)

UW-Parkside: Traci Lee

UW-Platteville: Liz Holden

UW-River Falls: Jamie Schneider

UW-Stevens Point: Chris Yahnke (Co-chair)

UW-Stout: Laura McCullough, Jo Hopp

UW System: Helen Klebesadel

I. Welcome, Introductions, and Lunch

Meeting Chaired by Chris Yahnke. All participating board members introduced.

II. Approval of Agenda

Motion to approve agenda () and seconded (). Agenda unanimously approved.

III. Approval of Minutes from September 21, 2010 meeting

Motion to approve minutes from September 21, 2010 board meeting (GC) and seconded (LM).

Minutes unanimously approved.

IV. Announcements

1.      W&S Budget Report

JM: Budget is doing well. Summit contributions were the same as typical spring conference costs. We will try to make a larger deposit on our fall meeting from this year's funds, in case of budget decreases next year. We do not know yet if we will get an NSF grant. We hope to hear soon.

2.      MentorNet activity

JM: Mentornet is a program that allows students to be matched with someone outside of school for career guidance. We do not have many students participating. It takes a professor asking students to sign up to successfully recruit students. I am also signed up as a mentor and am matched with someone on the Madison campus. You board members could sign up to be mentors. TL: Is there a way to communicate with them one on one? It would take less time to have a personal conversation than composing a formal e-mail. JM: The conversations can be more or less formal. (Some suggested Skype) GC: who should be Mentors? JM: industry, faculty. GC: What students are able to join? JM: System and tech colleges. Go to MentorNet site for detailed instructions and to see if specific schools are members. JS: It is not clear how to promote this or sign up. I also do not know how to verify students. JM We should develop strategies to promote it on campuses. CB: They have materials on the website you can download and post, with room to add specific contact details for your campus. JM: The personal request to students is more effective than group or class presentations on MentorNet. CY: Clubs might be a good way to promote.

            3.  W&S related presentations at this President's Summit

                 Women & Science presentations in this summit: Arlene’s presentation from her W&S                    curriculum reform grant, other STEM threads and WiscAMP.

V. Report on NSF ADVANCE meeting November 2010

JM: At the November meeting for people with ADVANCE grants there were a lot of social scientists who evaluate the programs.  That is where I learned about the WAGES game, which was played at this morning's workshop.  We submitted a grant to the PAID component in November and should hear soon if it will be funded.

VI. Plans for next year

1.      Opening Workshop for New STEM Faculty September 29-30, 2011

OW is scheduled, with a larger deposit. Please help publicize on your campus and help make it possible for junior faculty (first five years) to attend. Provosts will send lists of new faculty. Traci: also, you can talk to newer people, let them know that they should go. The earlier they know about the workshop the better they will be able to incorporate the dates into their syllabus. It will be held in Marshfield this fall, where we went last year.

2.      Spring Meeting in May or another Summit in April

We do not know if there will be another summit next year or our own meeting. HK: At this time, no one has been charged with directing/organizing this. JM: We are hoping to have our own Spring Conference every other year, alternating with a Summit. If we have our own we are hoping to host the Spring Conference in May, or close to the end of the semester. (Some discussion on timing.) We will poll board members for timing preferences. Laura: I am a strong proponent of our own Spring meeting, for the sense of community and networking.

VII. New Initiatives

1.      NSF ADVANCE PAID grant - waiting for reviews

2.      Password protected website for unpublished classroom materials

We have started to set up a file server to share materials like lab experiments, classroom activities. Amy will send out “share file invitation” to board members.

VIII. Campus Reports

CY: Stevens Point-Julie Hellweg does continuing education, W&S day, and 5^th grade student camps. We do not have a lot of people involved in MentorNet.

JS River Falls: We are starting a W&S learning community. We used to have a hall/floor for W&S students. We are trying to formalize that floor, move it out of that hall to a more popular hall, and working on pragmatics. In theory, we will have students signing up for that this summer/fall. JM and I are collecting the some of the same data on STEM graduates. At NCUR (National Conference on Undergraduate Research) we had the third largest contingency (next to the two host schools) with 90 students.

TL: Parkside is hosting UW System UW Systems Symposium for undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (last Friday in April).

AH: Oshkosh- Our Chancellor has started a "STEP" program (Student Titan Employment Program); funds are available to hire students in a capacity that is both educational and also for wages. The jobs used to go to students “in the know” but this year they are all advertised openly, so they do not go to favorite students only. This is considered to be more inclusive.  The program has been very popular on campus.

LM: Stout voted up on union, hopefully this will help with pay equality.

GC: WiscAMP is in the 2^nd year of  its second five year cycle. In order to be competitive we need to focus on underrepresented students. We are creating a very specific small grant to ask any faculty in the alliance institutions to pair up/identify underrepresented students and we’ll provide financial support to them (in research, or professional development support). I will provide the link to the W&S website for you (faculty) to share with students.

IX. Preliminary Planning for Fall Advisory Board Meeting

            Thank you to Arlene for two years as co-chair. We will elect a new co-chair at fall meeting. We will try to recruit before then. If you no longer want to be on the board, please contact us so we can fill your position.

            In fall we will probably have a videoconference board meeting. We will contact everyone with this information when we know the details.

Meeting Adjourned