history of resource depletion women’s studies at usf

8/14/2019 History of resource depletion Womens Studies at USF

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Womens Studies atUSF

Historic Factors Resulting in anAcademic Department in Perilof

Dissolution

August, 2008


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Origins of Womens Studiesat USF

In the early 1970s, an ad hoc status ofwomen committee at USF recommended

to then University President, Cecil Mackey,that the University initiate a series ofcourses about women that could

eventually lead to a program in the newly

emerging academic discipline of WomensStudies. President Cecil Mackey agreedand Womens Studies based in feminist

theory was born at USF.


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Degrees and Programs Offeredin Womens Studies at USF

Over time, the Womens Studies program experienced steady growthin both degree offerings and number of tenured and tenure-earning faculty.

---Currently Available---

&&

all are at threat of dissolution

Bachelors of Arts Masters of Artsand

Annual Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates in Womens Health

Annual Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates in the Research in Womens Literatureand Visual Culture

Undergraduate Certificate in Women of Color Studies

Undergraduate Certificate in Womens Spirituality

Graduate Certificate in Womens Studies

Graduate Certificate in Womens Health


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HIGHLIGHTS The program grew to become a free-standing department

administered within the universitys College of Arts andScience.

The Department awarded the baccalaureate and masters

degrees in Womens Studies.

By 2000, the Department had established a nationalreputation in the field of Womens Studies.

By Fall 2002, the Department had eight tenured andtenure-track faculty and at all ranks: full, associate, andassistant professors.


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Turning of the Tide

Reallocation of faculty resources away fromWomens Studies began in the Fall of 2003.

The trend continues until today. At thattime, USF Academic Affairs Administrators

(Provost Level and Administered by theDean of CAS), stopped approving placing

permanent faculty lines in WomensStudies. As faculty members in WST retired

or took other positions, they were notreplaced.

(to see Womens Studies Response to Provosts Budgetary Task ForceClick on the link and scroll to 3/19/08 for pdf report.)
http://www.acad.usf.edu/News/2007-07-03-Update-On-Issues/docs/Responses-to-Budget-Priorities-Advisory-Taskforce-Report.pdfhttp://www.acad.usf.edu/News/2007-07-03-Update-On-Issues/docs/Responses-to-Budget-Priorities-Advisory-Taskforce-Report.pdf


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USF is a Poor QualityDepartment

On behalf of my colleagues in Gender, Womens and Sexuality Studies at theUniversity of Minnesota, I would like to strenuously urge you to reconsider thedecision to end the autonomy of the Womens Studies department at the Universityof South Florida. Some years ago I was an external reviewer for that department,and consequently know it more closely than do my colleagues. But I have sharedmy impressions with them and they share my concern, especially since thedecisions about that department reflect larger issues. As a reviewer, I wasimpressed by USFs Womens Studies Departments breadth, the caliber of itsfaculty and students, and its attention to issues of diversity. The MA program wasespecially impressive: more and more of the applicants to our PhD program havemasters degrees, and the USF program was then providing exactly the sort ofpreparatory work we look for in PhD applicants. The students I met and spoke withwere superb and, whether they went on for PhDs or used their masters aspreparation for careers, it was clear to me that they were receiving a fist-rate

education.

Letter of Support 4/08 from Naomi Scheman, Ph.D Professor of Womens Studies,University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, for the core Faculty in Gender, Womens &Sexuality Studies: Susan Craddock, Jigna Desai; Amy Kaminsky; Regina Kunzel;Richa Nagar; Eden Torres; Jaquelyn Zita


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Womens Studies is notProfitable

Currently, WST ranks in the top 20% ofeconomic efficiency in terms of ROI in

CAS. For every faculty dollar spent onWST, WST returns .93 in comparison to

the CAS average of .71.

(All Data from University Sources. See Womens StudiesResponse to Provosts Budgetary Task Force.)


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y :Womens Studies at USF is not in

Demand.

The number of degrees awarded byfaculty FTE in Womens Studies is similar

to the profiles of the larger Departmentsof Philosophy and Religious Studies, both

Departments in CAS.

*WST faculty productivity per SCH is secondonly to Criminology in the Social Science

cohort.


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The Problem:

A Denial ofResources

The problem is not that theDepartment of Womens

Studies is small; the problem isthat the Department was

deliberately and systematically

made small over time using a


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Allocation Decline in WomensStudies 2004-2008

The deliberate and systematic withdrawing of faculty resourcesto the Department of Women's Studies through the following

institutional means:

refusal to hire new faculty or replace exiting faculty;

the refusal to allow qualified spousal hires into the Department of Women's

Studies;

unclear and contradictory communication from the administration with

Womens Studies during the Spring 2008 budget deficiencycreated a chillyclimate for women faculty in the Department of Women's Studies causingtwo faculty to flee the department in search of academic safety;

historic disparities in faculty resource allocation in departments headed byAfrican Americans in the College of Arts and Sciences

(See Womens Studies Response to Provosts Budgetary Task Force.)


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Refusal to hire new faculty or replace

exiting faculty

CAS Annual Hiring Plans 2004-2007

The Department of Womens Studies was granted no faculty searchesfor permanent lines over this period. (Note, hiring tenure track

professors represents investments in the future of a department.)

Spring 2007Faculty permanent line funding available from a College-wide initiativedenied to the Department of Womens Studies:

The Case of M.E., Ph.D.


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The Case of M.E., Ph.D.

In 2006 the Dean of the Graduate School instituted an initiative on Sustainability which included a

cluster hire of three tenure-earning positions into the College of Arts and Sciences. M.E., Ph.D.,

who was duly approved by a multidisciplinary search committee consisting of CAS chairs and

senior faculty to join the Deparment of Women's Studies on a tenure track line because she was

found to have the experience to lead the initiative, was subsequently denied the position. That line

was removed from consideration to Women's Studies and the line was given to Sociology on the

authority of the Dean of the Graduate School and the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.Dean of CAS blamed (someone else) i.e., Dean of Graduate School for removing the line from

consideration, but it was actually the CAS Dean who decided to withhold the line from Womens

Studies, after consultation with the Graduate School Dean. The CAS Dean decided that the current

preference is to hold on the making the third offer and use the remaining salary dollars (plus likely

more from the college) to go after a senior hire in sociology that can meet some of their disciplinary

needs and fit in with the thrust initiative and provide it with some senior leadership (Source: email

May 27, 2007 to Search Committee)*.

*Womens Studies faculty had competed and received a research grant from the Graduate School Sustainability Initiative, making the

Womens Studies Department project one of the five applications selectedfor funding.


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Resource Allocation: Issue #2The refusal to allow qualified spousal hires into the Department of Women's Studies

but placing such hires in other departments

Since 2005, CAS administrators have tried to place two spousalhires whose credentials fit the teaching, research and service

mission of the Womens Studies Department. In spite of the factthat those individuals expressed an interest in joining our

Department--their requests were not honored.

They, however, were placed in other Departments.

Dr. L. was placed in English and not allowed to have ajoint visiting appointment with Womens Studies.

Dr. N. was allowed to interview in the HumanitiesDepartment in CAS, while WST was not allowed to interviewher even though our Department has a minor in Women ofColor Studies, the exact area of her expertise. She was

ultimately placed on a branch campus.


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Budget Crisis and Chilly Climate for

Women Faculty

After the release of the Provosts Budgetary Task Force Womens Studies was

targeted budget cuts, the uncertainty about whether the department would

survive or be forced into quick merger became intolerable.

In a single semester, the administrative management of the budget crisis

resulted in such a chilly climate for women faculty in the Department of

Women's Studies, that faculty felt forced to flee the Department in search

of more security for their academic careers. All the faculty in Women's

Studies who left were from recognized "protected" minority groups: race,religion, sexual orientation, not to mention gender/sex.


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history is herstory

too.


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Implications for the types of knowledge(e.g., books, articles, courses taught, )

encouraged and produced at USF

Without a research-based faculty in a Department (not Program)of Womens Studies, where faculty members can earn tenure inWomens Studies, rather than another department where thefaculty members disciplinary commitment take precedence:

USF students will have limited access to knowledge of theintersectionality of gender, race, class and social institutions;

USF students will leave USF with the erroneous assumption thatknowledge of feminist analyses of social and academic subjects is

unimportant for their success in a globalized economy; and

USF will not produce a Womens Studies knowledge base in thisnationally recognized emerging field of study and risks beingperceived by the national and international academic community

as hostile to Womens Studies knowledge production.


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Resource Allocation: Issue #4Disparities in Faculty Resource Allocation in Departments

Headed by Chairs of African Descent

An analysis of faculty hiring data in the

College of Arts and Sciences (CAS)

demonstrates that departments headed byChairs of African descent gained the fewest

faculty resources in comparison to other CAS

Departments headed by non-BlackChairpersons between 2002-2007.


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Resource Allocation: Issue #4 (Cont.)

Disparities in Faculty Resource Allocation inDepartments Headed by Chairs of African Descent

Womens Studies is located within the Social Science Cohortof CAS. Faculty lines in the Social Science cohort in CAS

have grown by 15% between 2002-2007. Womens

Studies, along with Africana Studies, have declined by 15%during that timethe steepest decline in the cohort.

**********

Both of these Departments have been headed by

Chairs of African Descent since 2004. When weinclude in our analysis the faculty hiring patternsin non-science departments headed by Chairs ofColor for this same period, this resource disparity

holds true in those departments also.

Th S t f F i d


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The System of Fairness andEquitable Treatment for Womens

Studies is Broken

Rise Up!

USF Student M
http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d7a45334f5445304d773d3d0d0a&campaign=blog_playback_linkhttp://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d7a45334f5445304d773d3d0d0a&campaign=blog_playback_link


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Studies as an OperationallyAutonomous Department?

The reality of womens lives arenot reflected in the

conventional academicdisciplines and this is whyWomens Studies scholarship

has evolved into a discretediscipline.


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an Operationally AutonomousDepartment?

The field of Womens Studies advances differentparadigms and different theoretical approaches tothe analysis of and interpretation of social power.


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At a time when women outnumbermen in college enrollments all overthe country and enroll in higher and

higher numbers in post graduateprograms, the experiences of womenneed to be explained and understood

like no other historical moment.


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Over half of our students want anexplanation for their own

experience and Womens Studies

offers that explanation.


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in an AcademicallyResponsible Manner

Retention of administrative autonomy

Conversion to permanent positions ofthe visiting faculty to form a corefaculty

An equity audit of race and genderdisparities in CAS


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The conversion to permanent positions ofthe visiting faculty in Women's studies:

Gary Lemons, Nagwa Dajani, Linda Lucasand Orathai Northern to form a core

faculty for the Department beginning inFall 2008.


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The immediate reinstatement of Irina Ramirez-Fuentes, as office manager for the Department ofWomen's Studies, representing the continuation

of the operational autonomy of the Department ofWomen's Studies as an independent, peer

academic department within the College of Artsand Sciences. This woman of color was given nochoice in the reassignment to the consolidated

ethnic studies units; whereas the office managerof one of the consolidated units was given all dueconsideration in her preference to leave the unit

to assume duties in a non-threateneddepartment.

Th N d f E it


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The Need for an EquityAudit

An equity audit of raceand gender disparities

in the College of Arts &Sciences is needed.


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Want More Information?Go tousfwst.blogspot.com
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history of resource depletion women’s studies at usf

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