This issue of On Campus With Women explores multiple dimensions of the faculty pipeline for women, highlighting both the progress that's been made as well as challenges that remain. A whole range of topics—from campus climate to individual policies—inform the faculty pipeline, and the information coming from both formal and informal sources indicates that this pipeline is playing out very differently at institutions across the country. Fortunately, there are many national organizations and projects, such as the American Association of University Women, the American Association of University Professors, and multiple Sloan Foundation funded projects, which are keeping a strong focus on issues of equity and climate on campuses.

Individual institutions are also exploring these issues, conducting comprehensive scans of the status of women at all levels on their campuses. One example of an institution-wide review is the Duke Women's Initiative, conducted in 2002-2003. In her feature article, Donna Lisker, a member of the Steering Committee for this initiative, outlines their findings. While Lisker's article provides the results for all constituencies, from students through administrators, one of the key findings was that there was virtually no change in the percentage of women faculty hired over a ten-year period. Included in her article are some of the strategies and policies Duke is currently exploring to improve the campus climate for women faculty, staff, students, and administrators.

It feels impossible to plan an issue on the faculty pipeline without engaging the topic of childbirth, childcare, and other care-giving leave policies, issues of central importance not only to many women, but to an increasing number of men as well. The featured article by Gloria Thomas, the Associate Director of the ACE Sloan-funded project on work- life issues, addresses this topic in depth. Thomas not only identifies existing challenges and possible solutions, but also provides information on future directions for work in this area. Likewise, Eve Riskin, in her From Where I Sit piece, shares her positive experiences at the University of Washington, where ongoing efforts to create a family-friendly culture are meeting with success.

By highlighting some of the work that's being done around the faculty pipeline for women, this issue of OCWW aims to share promising practices and strategies for practitioners on campus, as well as be mindful of continuing challenges and obstacles. The forthcoming issue, due online this summer, will explore many of these same themes for the administrator pipeline for women.

To read more about campus pipelines for women in other AAC&U publications, we also encourage you to read, "Pipeline to Pathways: New Directions for Improving the Status of Women on Campus," written by Judith S. White in the Winter 2005 issue of Liberal Education.