November 16, 2006
Support for family-friendly faculty policies through new Balance@UW initiative
When the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awarded the UW $250,000 as part of its Flexible Faculty Careers Program this fall, it simultaneously recognized the University for its family-friendly policies and called on it to do more. Now the University is responding with a new initiative, Balance@UW, designed to support UW faculty in balancing productive academic careers with satisfying personal lives.
“By supporting faculty through the various stages of life, Balance@UW will enhance the ability of the UW to recruit and retain the best and brightest faculty, and enhance the ability of faculty to perform their best teaching and research,” said Kate Quinn, project director for Balance@UW and co-principal investigator for the Sloan grant.
Quinn said the encouragement of Provost Phyllis Wise and Executive Vice Provost Ana Mari Cauce was key to the UW’s entering the Sloan competition, which in the first round involved completing a survey of existing University policies.
“We had to check whether we had particular policies and who is eligible to use them under what circumstances,” Quinn said.
Of the 52 universities competing, 27 who scored above the mean on the survey moved to the second round, when tenured and tenure-track faculty were asked to participate in a survey of their experiences with flexible policy options. Meanwhile, the University had a chance to see the results of the first-round survey and compare themselves with other universities. Using these results, the administration drafted a proposal for how they would improve the family-friendly climate and increase the use of flexible policies by 2008.
The UW received one of five awards given. “It’s called an accelerator award,” Quinn said, “meaning the leading universities in this field are called upon to accelerate improvement efforts and become national models.”
The goals of the Balance@UW project include:
- Piloting an option for new biological fathers and for adoptive parents of both genders for the purpose of bonding that will permit the coverage of classroom responsibilities.
- Expanding leadership development workshops for chairs and emerging leaders, which were developed as a result of a National Science Foundation ADVANCE grant, to all University departments to increase both awareness of policy merit and availability, and chair support of policy utilization by faculty.
- Increasing the number of faculty using these policies by making deans and department chairs accountable for the work-family climate of their respective colleges and departments.
- Creating a tracking mechanism for policy use and faculty career outcomes.
- Using flexible policy options as a faculty recruitment tool.
- Assessing the “fit” between faculty eligible to use a policy and those actually choosing to do so and, if needed, improving faculty perception of the family-friendliness of the University.
- Creating a peer support group for “new mom” faculty members.
- Increasing the number of infant and toddler child care slots available to faculty.
An advisory team has been formed to oversee the project. The group plans to:
- analyze the existing flexible policy options and work with the Faculty Senate to enact recommended changes,
- work with deans and chairs to transform departmental climate and culture,
- work with faculty to measure project effectiveness and to identify future directions for improvement.
The goals around leadership development and accountability, Quinn said, reflect the fact that having a policy doesn’t necessarily change the culture. “Policies are implemented at the departmental level,” she said, “so we need department chairs to buy into this or people won’t use the policies.”
Increasing the number of child care slots available won’t necessarily mean more child care centers on campus, at least not in the short run. Quinn said the University is exploring a range of options that will continue to support parental choice and address the issue of availability of child care.
And although there is a goal to create a peer support group for new moms, Quinn said the program isn’t just to benefit women. “Women are disproportionately affected by inflexibility in the workplace,” she said, “but we’d be quite willing to create a support group for new dads also, if there were a demand for it.”
Provost Phyllis Wise said she believes the UW will benefit tremendously from the new Sloan Foundation award. “It will give us the opportunity to accelerate the development and execution of family-friendly policies for our faculty and staff,” she said. “We look forward to being a national model of how to improve the climate and increase the flexibility policies to allow our faculty to both enjoy the joys of raising a family and continue to contribute maximally to the University.”
The new moms group is already open; anyone interested should contact Quinn, kquinn@u.washington.edu.
Members of the advisory team include:
- Cheryl Cameron, vice provost for academic personnel
- Ana Mari Cauce, executive vice provost
- Rhonda Forman, director of Academic Human Resources
- Daniel Friedman, dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning
- Marcia Killien, professor of Family and Child Nursing
- Mindy Kornberg, vice president of Human Resources
- Jovan McCoy, outreach and recruitment coordinator in the Office of Minority Affairs
- Steven Olswang, interim chancellor of UW Bothell
- Eve Riskin, associate dean of academic affairs in the College of Engineering
- Randi Shapiro, assistant director of UW Benefits and Work/Life
Project status reports will be posted to the initiative Web site: http://www.washington.edu/provost/initiatives/balance/
Questions and comments about this initiative should be directed to Quinn.
