Dear WFN,
Somehow, it’s the middle of November. Whether you’re experiencing time as moving way too fast or barely inching forward at all (or both), we hope you’re well and miss seeing your faces in person.
We’re writing with some updates about what we’ve been up to this semester, and one reminder about our next event. These updates pertain mostly to behind-the-scenes advocacy work we’ve been doing, often in partnership with the leaders of other campus affinity groups, but we believe they’re all good news worth sharing.
Lately, we’ve been working on …
… improving Family Support Plans and also official communication about options for parental leave.
We’ve heard from many of you with concerns about the current models for Family Support Plans related to parental leave and other things, and also learned that lots of people are uncertain about their options. Over the past couple of years, we’ve been relaying these concerns to the Provost’s office and also communicated our sense that faculty don’t get enough information about their rights and that department chairs don’t have enough information about their responsibilities. The Provost’s office has addressed many of these concerns with a series of policy updates and changes (that we hope they will announce soon and widely) and is also working on a brochure that clearly outlines how FSPs work. We’ve been actively involved in the creation of this document and hope it will allay confusion and serve as a resource for faculty exploring their work options in moments when their lives are changing. There is still more to be done on this front, but we are optimistic.
… clarifying the role of affinity groups in the campus interview process and addressing problems with the current model.
As you may know (thanks to those of you who volunteered to meet with postdoc candidates, BTW!), meeting with prospective hires during on-campus interviews is central to the work of the affinity groups, and it’s also a really big job. In addition to the amount of labor this process entails -- often for people who are already doing a lot of diversity work at the university and beyond -- the leaders of the affinity groups had concerns about communications with candidates. We were especially concerned about the possibility that the current arrangement would compel members of marginalized communities to effectively out themselves as such during the search process. We’re still finalizing the details of some new procedures to resolve these issues, but we're really pleased with the progress we’ve made on this front.
… securing administrative support for affinity groups and compensation for affinity group leaders.
The leaders of all the campus affinity groups have been working together with the Provost’s office to increase the support and resources available to these increasingly important (and busy!) networks. The Provost’s office has been very responsive to our requests, and is going to arrange dedicated administrative support for affinity groups to help with things like scheduling and managing finances, among other things. They’ve also agreed that the leaders of affinity groups should earn stipends as compensation for their work. We believe that both of these steps offer crucial recognition for the work that these groups do, and will make them more sustainable and vibrant in the future.
Finally: a reminder that we’ve got another Pandemic B*tchfest scheduled for Thursday, December 10, 4:00-5:00. We’ll post the Webex information closer to the date, and meanwhile are hoping you’ll join us. Nothing on the agenda for that event besides b*tching in good company.
Please feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or questions.
Take care,
Tamara and Rebecca
