Gender Equity Plan for the College of Education
The University of Texas at Austin - September 2009

Premise of the Plan

The College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin has always had an adequate representation of women faculty due to the characteristics of the education discipline. The current gender distribution of the Tenured/Tenure Track (T/TT) faculty is 48% men and 52% women, with women constituting a higher percentage of the assistant and associate professors. A smaller proportion of women (42%) are in the full professor ranks but this proportion is still higher than our peer institutions. As a result, College policies related to salaries, mentoring, promotion and retention, leadership and governance are largely gender neutral.

The College of Education has also had stable leadership at the Dean level with no vacancy in the Deanship in almost 20 years. The current Dean, who is a male, was appointed in January 1990. He was also the first Hispanic Dean in the history of UT Austin. The Dean has created a College culture and value system promoting diversity. This culture has been embraced over the years by his leadership team at the college and department levels.

Responses to Data in the Task Force Report

1. The task force report cited the low percentage of women deans at UT Austin. The College of Education currently has a male dean. In the College of Education, there have been no vacancies in the Deanship for 20 years compared to other colleges at UT Austin which have had numerous vacancies in the Dean role.
2. For the majority of the current Dean’s tenure, he has appointed female Associate Deans. Until 2004, there were three Associate Deans in the College, two of whom were female. In 2004, one position was eliminated and the functions merged with another Associate Dean position. Today, there are two Associate Deans, both females.
3. Citing data from 2007, the task force report said that no department chairs in the College of Education were female. Currently, one of our five Department Chairs is a Hispanic woman. Further, throughout the 1990s, two of the five Department Chairs were women, both of whom had served for several terms. It should be noted that the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, currently chaired by a man, had female Department Chairs for over 24 years before his appointment.
4. The College of Education continues to have one of the highest hiring rates for women faculty at The University. For AY 2009-10, the College hired 17 new T/TT faculty, 12 of whom are women.
5. The College of Education has one of the highest percentages of women full professors at UT Austin.
6. According to the report, the College of Education had the highest rate (39.1%) of women faculty receiving salary supplements at The University for 2007. Two departments (Curriculum and Instruction, Special Education) were tied for the highest percentage (50%) of women professors receiving salary supplements.

Plans To Advance Gender Equity

Subsequent to the release of the Gender Equity Task Force Report, the College of Education leadership began analyzing data to better understand any gender equity issues and to propose necessary strategies to address these issues. When additional data are available as part of the “Gender Equity Report Card,” further analysis will be conducted. Interviews were also conducted with each Department Chair to assess local measures to promote gender equity. The strategies used at the department and college level to promote gender equity are detailed below:

1. Recruiting and Hiring

1. When a Department Chair requests approval from the College Management Team to initiate a faculty search, part of the justification provided must include a description of how the proposed position would address the department’s strategic plan, including the promotion of diversity.
2. Diversity is considered in constituting search committees at the department level, with a person of color and women serving on each search committee. If necessary, an out of department person is appointed to the committee to ensure diversity.
3. Search committees use national networking and careful screening to expand applicant pools and ensure a diverse pool, and the search is not closed until the pool has an acceptable amount of diversity. Networking is especially important in recruiting senior faculty.
4. In 2004, the Department of Educational Administration developed a Succession Plan with specific hiring strategies to diversify the largely older, white, male faculty. Consideration was given to increasing faculty diversity in terms of gender, age, ethnicity, and academic rank. This plan was very successful. In terms of gender, today half of the professors in the Department are women; 2 of the three associate professors are women; and 20% of the assistant professors are women.
5. The Department Chairs indicated they increasingly used the University’s spousal hire program as part of a recruiting package for new T/TT faculty.

2. Mentoring

1. All the departments have a formal mentoring program for new faculty. Some Department Chairs ensure that a new female faculty member has at least one female mentor.
2. The Chairs said the primary consideration in assigning a mentor is finding a suitable match of teaching, research, and service interests.

3. Retention and Promotion

1. All the Department Chairs said their promotion/tenure criteria and procedures were gender neutral and based on faculty productivity.
2. Some departments give priority in assigning Deans’ Fellows to assistant professors to allow them to accelerate their research agendas prior to the tenure decision.
3. All the Department Chairs said they increasingly used work-family policies and programs to assist faculty in balancing their family obligations and professional responsibilities.
4. The Department Chairs said counteroffers were made to faculty in gender neutral ways and depended on the situation. One Chair does “pre” exit interviews of faculty who are considering leaving UT to assess what it would take to retain them. Across the College, there do not appear to be disparities in counteroffers that have been made to male vs. female faculty in recent years.

4. Salaries

1. Starting salaries for new T/TT faculty are based on market conditions, regardless of gender. The Department Chairs expressed concern that often a starting salary required to recruit someone can create compression problems with other department faculty of the same rank who have been at UT Austin a long time.
2. There do not appear to be gaps in salaries for men and women faculty in the College, but salaries overall are an area of concern. Salaries in some departments are below the national averages of our peer institutions, especially for faculty at the associate and full professor ranks. The good news is that 33 women faculty and 36 men faculty (about 74% of the total T/TT faculty) in the College have a salary supplement. In the Department of Special Education, all the female associate and full professors have a supplement. In fact, women faculty out earn men at every rank in that department.
3. Across the departments, faculty merit raises are based on productivity, not gender. Each department sets aside 25% of the faculty merit pool annually, to address gender equity and compression problems for otherwise productive faculty.
4. In considering new appointments to endowed chairs, professorships, and fellowships, the Dean gives strong consideration to women faculty who have a history of productivity and contribution. Currently, three males and two females hold endowed chairs (includes one female who holds a President’s Chair); nine males and five females hold professorships; and 24 males and 26 females hold endowed fellowships. In addition, the Dean of the College holds two endowed chairs.

5. Leadership and Governance

1. As indicated earlier in the plan, the College’s culture is one of promoting women, particularly women in leadership. Across the departments, there is an equitable representation of women faculty on department and college governance committees; coordinating academic programs; and serving as undergraduate and graduate academic advisors. Three of the College’s major research centers are directed by women.
2. All the Department Chairs said they used gender neutral criteria in nominating faculty for Dean’s Fellows, university research awards, and teaching awards.
3. Some Chairs use course release time and other incentives as leverage to encourage women in national leadership roles, particularly in underrepresented (academic) areas.

This gender equity plan for the College of Education is in the formative stages and will be modified as new data become available from the Provost’s Office.