Less than a year after being named senior vice provost for Faculty Development and Diversity at Harvard University, Evelynn Hammonds spoke at HSPH on April 26 about ongoing progress in implementing the recommendations made last year by two task forces on women.
Dean Barry Bloom introduced Hammonds, commenting on her vision and collegiality. He added, "This is a forum that is a continuation of a dialogue that began at the School quite a long time before I became dean, and has really been picked up again in the last couple of years to focus on how we as a school and we as individual faculty members and colleagues can be as helpful as we possibly can in career development at every level of the School and take into account special needs and problems."
Last year, the Task Force on Women Faculty and the Task Force on Women in Science and Engineering issued a set of recommendations. One of the recommendations was to create the position of a senior vice provost whose focus would be addressing the need for a more systematic analysis and review of appointments to help ensure excellence and diversity in faculty ranks across the University. Hammonds, professor of the history of science and of African and African American Studies, was asked to take on that role.
Her talk at HSPH focused on five main programmatic areas.
Faculty Recruitment, Development, and Diversity
A faculty development and diversity program has been established to provide partial salary support for new appointments of outstanding scholars who contribute to increased faculty diversity, said Hammonds.
Also, the New England Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (NE-HERC) will launch this spring featuring a database of positions at 26 founding member institutions, including Harvard University, MIT, and Boston University. The consortium will assist the spouses and partners of potential and current faculty members at Harvard in their job searches.
A Diverse Pipeline of Scholars
The first residential summer program for students conducting research in the Boston area will be established at Harvard College this summer. The program will allow students to stay in dorms while continuing their research and will also offer talks on subjects such as research ethics and career development. Approximately 150 students are expected to participate.
Undergraduate study centers are being created to help students in large science classes stay connected to each other and to facilitate their learning. For graduate students, GSAS has planned a speaker series and training of teaching fellows in issues of gender bias and of working with diverse student populations.
For the first time at Harvard, there will be a University Office for Postdoctoral Affairs, to be launched in a few weeks. "We know that lots of women fall out of the pipeline at the postdoctoral level, and so this is one of our interventions to see if we can stop that [loss]," explained Hammonds.
Expanding Work/Life Policies, Benefits, and Services
Harvard is piloting a set of centrally funded programs for parental leaves from which faculty can draw to help complement maternal or paternal leave at individual Schools. In addition, policies are being pursued to accommodate pregnant students who are pursing their doctoral degrees.
Research-enabling grants are being made available to young scholars, particularly those in labs, who require help in keeping their research underway if family responsibilities temporarily take them from their work. In addition, an FAS policy is being extended that helps defray the cost of child care if researchers need to travel due to work obligations, such as professional meetings.
Child care facilities are being expanded at Harvard-owned residential building Peabody Terrace in Cambridge, and President Lawrence Summers has committed to including child care centers in the Allston campus development and retrofitting plans, said Hammonds.
"These sets of issues will be continually revisited so that we can make sure that we are meeting the needs of our women faculty and also all of our faculty who are parents," she said.
Improving Data Collection and Monitoring
Since October, a University Committee on Faculty Development and Diversity has met with representatives of all the Harvard schools. HSPH's representative is Deborah Prothrow-Stith, professor of public health practice and Associate Dean for Faculty Development, who moderated a question-and-answer session during Hammonds' visit.
Said Hammonds, "We are trying to create a system where we have greater transparency, but also a lot of information being shared."
In addition, visiting committees have accepted guidelines to take up the issue of diversity and development in their reports, as well as to submit their reports to the leaders of the affected schools, the Harvard Corporation, University Provost Office, and when applicable, to the School's community.
To take the pulse of junior faculty, a survey called "COACHE" was launched in the fall. The survey is now complete and under analysis. Preliminary results indicate concern among junior faculty about the tenure process, said Hammonds. This fall, her office hopes to unveil a similar climate survey across the University's faculties.
Improving Institutional Culture
Harvard is part of a larger group of universities whose leaders meet annually to discuss best practices regarding improving academe's environment for women and underrepresented groups. This year, the group will focus on the needs of graduate students.
Hammonds' office is organizing conferences and speaker series to also gain feedback on how to improve university culture.
For more information about Hammonds' role, see articles in the Harvard Gazette and Harvard Magazine.
Copyright, 2009, President and Fellows of Harvard College
