OCWW | Vol 32, Issue 3-4

It Adds Up to Success: Warming the Climate for Women in Mathematics
By Karen S. Rowan, Editor On Campus With Women
When Jim Lewis was appointed the chair of University of Nebraska's Department of Mathematics in the spring of 1988, he looked around and saw few women. Indeed, there was only one female professor in the department, and the number of graduate students in mathematics was about 20 percent, the same as when he first joined the department in 1971. Since 1988, Lewis has led his department's efforts to change the climate for women. These days, the department advertises its supportive climate for women as one of its distinguishing features.

The UWS Women in Science Curriculum Reform Institute: Seven Reflections from Seven Summers
By Cathy Middlecamp, Chemistry Department
University of Wisconsin-Madison
At the Curriculum Reform Institute, we hoped to transform participants' questions and help them find their own answers. One question we frequently encountered was "How do we make science more appealing to women and people of color?" Truly, most people recognize this question and have struggled with over the years. In the spirit of transformation, we offered another one to put in its place: "How do existing science methods exclude the interests of marginalized groups?" By reframing our questions, new ways of problem solving may become possible.

Women's Studies, the Institution, and Interdisciplinarity: The Women's Studies Department at the University of Maryland
By Karen S. Rowan, Editor On Campus With Women
While women's studies' interdisciplinary nature often affords it institutional breadth and flexibility, its interdisciplinarity also poses both structural and intellectual challenges to the institution. Women's studies poses epistemological challenges in its attempts to make visible the markings of race, class, gender, sex, and sexuality on the supposedly objective processes and products of knowledge-making. Furthermore, women's studies has called into question the disciplinary divisions of the academy by insisting that research and scholarship about and for women cut across disciplinary lines.

Documenting and Rectifying Inequity on Campus: The Next Phase
By Karen S. Rowan, Editor On Campus With Women
Commissioned by University of Arizona President Peter Likins, The Millennium Project is a comprehensive study of the campus climate for women faculty and staff and faculty and staff of color. The project researchers uncovered key myths about progress for women faculty and faculty of color and gathered data to dispel those myths. For instance, despite perceptions that women faculty and faculty of color have grown in number in recent years, data show that these numbers have changed little. The goal of the Millennium Project is "not merely to assess the campus climate, but, more importantly, to identify ways to rectify inequities."