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October 3 , 2005
PCSW
holds first 2005-06 meeting
BY Christi
Gray
The President’s Commission on the Status of
Women (PCSW) held its first 2005–06 meeting, Sept. 15, in the
Jones Room of Woodruff Library. After approval of minutes from the
last spring meeting and orientation of new members, chair Allison
Dykes called for votes on a variety of bylaw changes. They included:
•
increasing membership diversity by adding the following language
to the bylaws: “The appointed members of the Commission shall
be selected from the faculty, staff, students and administrative
officers of Emory University with as broad representation as possible
from the various divisions of Emory University and with respect to
gender and ethnicity;”
•
adding ex-officio appointments of representatives from Human Resources
(HR) and
development marketing and university relations;
•
alternating between faculty and staff for commission chair and adding
the option to select annual co-chairs to ensure faculty and staff
are both represented at the executive level; and
•
adding the chair of the women-in-leadership committee and the student
concerns adviser to the executive committee.
After all amendments were approved, Dykes announced
that HR Senior Director,
Del King, PCSW’s first male member, would be joining the commission ex-officio.
Next, secretary and treasurer Lisa Newbern discussed the 2005–06 budget,
whose allocations include events, publicity, faculty writing awards, student
concerns awareness and several sponsorships, including Women’s History
Month and two Center for Women events.
Julie Seaman, faculty concerns committee chair, suggested “Work-Life
Issues” as
this year’s PCSW theme. “Work-life is a more inclusive term than ‘family-friendly,’” she
said.
The theme was not approved and the issue was tabled
until next meeting, but member consensus said family-friendly policies
and work-life
balance are imperative
to Emory community, and Dykes said the commissions theme should address diversity
in families. Other phrases such as work-life integration or work-life balance
were suggested as alternatives, as was the option of not having a theme.
To conclude the meeting, committees reported the following
goals for the year:
Student concerns
•
working closely with the faculty concerns committee
•
gathering information from all schools
•
increasing awareness of sexual harassment and on-campus stalking
Staff concerns
•
supporting and working to improve the new lactation policy
•
gathering information on salary ranges and affirmative action results
•
researching accommodation for dependents of the Emory community, such as space
for children and time off to care for aging parents
•
reporting on effects of last year’s Fair Labor Standards Act changes
Faculty concerns
•
creating a task force to look into work-life balance, under the guidance of the
provost’s office
•
adding men to the work-life balance dialogue
•
planning a conference on work-life balance, sponsored by the provost’s
office
Women in leadership
•
updating leadership data from benchmark universities
•
creating a presidentially-approved letter to send to Emory-contracted executive
search firms asking them to consider women for leadership positions
•
working with Betty Willis and Carolyn Drews-Botsch, this year’s Higher
Education Re source Services (HERS) Management Institute for Women in Higher
Education awardees, upon their return from the institute
•
reviewing the University’s exit-interview policy
•
generating more Emory honorary degrees for women
•
adding PCSW alumni to the mailing list
The next PCSW meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 20, at 4 p.m. in Jones
Room.
If you have questions or concerns for PCSW, e-mail chair Allison Dykes at allison.dykes@emory.edu.
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