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Atlanta, GA | Posted: March 30, 2017
Annette Filliat
Communications Manager
Institute Diversity
annette.filliat@gatech.edu
Summary Sentence:
The implementation committee of faculty and staff from the Office of the President, Institute Diversity, Faculty Affairs, and Human Resources announced updates on its progress to implement the 11 Gender Equity Initiatives.
Full Summary:
No summary paragraph submitted.
Leading Women@Tech 
Implicit Bias WorkshopsThe implementation committee of faculty and staff from the Office of the President, Institute Diversity, Faculty Affairs, and Human Resources announced updates on its progress to implement the 11 Gender Equity Initiatives.
As part of a two-year process, implementation began in August 2016. The initiatives emerged from President Peterson’s listening sessions on inclusiveness and gender equity in 2015 following feedback from faculty and staff that some of the Institute’s collective actions, practices, and policies fell short of fully recognizing women’s contributions.
The Gender Equity Initiatives are grouped into four impact areas: hiring, promotion, and tenure; professional and leadership development; leadership appointments; and recognition and increased visibility of the Institute’s commitment to gender equity.
“I applaud the work of the implementation committee to promote gender equity policies and procedures and celebrate the contributions of women in the Georgia Tech community,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity. “We look forward to implementing the next phase of initiatives in the year ahead.”
These implementation updates (not ranked by priority) encompass:
1. Implicit Bias Workshops – Offered more than 20 Implicit Bias Workshops to nearly 300 faculty members, or nearly one-third of all tenured or tenure-track faculty at Georgia Tech, since fall 2015. Institute Diversity, in collaboration with the ADVANCE Program, will offer additional workshops this fall.
2. Search Guidelines – Developing a search guidance framework from the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Faculty Development (VPGEFD) with best practices and related policies for faculty and senior staff searches that are transparent and fair and yield the most qualified and diverse applicant pools. Hosted workshops on critical legal issues in graduate education for the campus community from VPGEFD and Legal Affairs, and Title IX for school chairs and associate chairs from VPGEFD in October 2016.
3. Processes and Pathways to Advancement and Promotion – Approved changes to the Faculty Handbook by the Faculty Senate in October 2016 that outlined and clarified new promotion guidelines for academic professionals and lecturers under the leadership of VPGEFD, and launched the following programs: Provost Emerging Leaders Program for tenured faculty from the Office of the Provost; Inclusive Leaders Academy for staff managers from Institute Diversity’s Staff Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement unit; and Leading Women@Tech for staff women leaders from Institute Diversity. Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Rafael L. Bras also disseminated a memo on October 11, 2016 regarding innate associations and the Implicit Bias Workshops and another memo on March 16, 2017 regarding search and appointment guidelines for internal administrative and named positions, such as deans, chairs, vice provosts, and named/endowed faculty positions, among others.
4. Salary Equity Studies – Conducted faculty and staff salary equity studies from the Office of Institutional Research and Planning and Human Resources, respectively, in the past year. Currently reviewing the studies and determining how often these studies should occur in the future.
5. Professional and Leadership Development Programs – Creating a competency-driven leadership development curriculum for faculty from the Office of the Provost. Also offered the Provost Emerging Leaders Program to 16 tenured faculty from the Office of the Provost; Inclusive Leaders Academy to nearly 200 staff managers from Institute Diversity’s Staff Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement unit; and Leading Women@Tech to 16 staff women leaders in 2016 and 27 staff women leaders in 2017 from Institute Diversity.
6. Family Friendly Programming and Policies – Compiled an information sheet on Family Friendly Benefits and Policies by the Faculty Benefits Committee in collaboration with VPGEFD and Human Resources, which was distributed to faculty through the schools and colleges from VPGEFD in fall 2016, and VPGEFD worked with Georgia Tech’s ADVANCE Program and the colleges on a revised proposal for the Active Service Modified Duties program to be finalized in spring 2017. Faculty Governance’s Family Benefits Committee is also evaluating summer camp and on-campus day care center issues.
7. Inclusive and Open Processes for Appointments – Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Rafael L. Bras disseminated a memo on October 11, 2016 regarding innate associations and the Implicit Bias Workshops and another memo on March 16, 2017 regarding search and appointment guidelines for internal administrative and named positions, such as deans, chairs, vice provosts, and named/endowed faculty positions, among others.
8. Reporting System Awareness – Completed intake language of the reporting system and provided language to EthicsPoint to build the reporting system portal for the Institute. System will allow campus community members to submit information detailing any discrimination experienced on campus, including gender bias, and submissions will remain anonymous.
9. Success Story Promotion – Published more than 10 news stories over the past six months to promote women’s successes and achievements, including the Gender Equity Champion Awards, Leadership Excellence Awards, Leading Women@Tech, and Stempower. Also published more than 20 success stories of women faculty, staff, and students over the past six months, including the Leading Women@Tech participant success stories from Institute Diversity and faculty recognition success stories from the Office of the Provost.
10. Event Promotion – Promoted recent events on campus that celebrated women, including the Eighth Annual Diversity Symposium, which focused on gender equity and featured keynote speaker Marcia McNutt; Black History Month Lecturer Janet Mock; Leading Women@Tech Closing Ceremony Keynote Speaker Cheryl Dozier; and WST Distinguished Lecturer Alice M. Agogino.
11. Gender Equity Data – Developing diversity and equity dashboards from Institute Diversity to compile reports on employee data and trends.
“I’ve been in many meetings where I was the only woman. We’ve come a long way in regard to gender equity, but Georgia Tech still has a way to go,” said Nazia Zakir, assistant vice president for Environmental Health and Safety and participant of the Leading Women@Tech program.
Quarterly updates will be released until the end of the 2017-18 academic year. To inquire about the Gender Equity Initiatives, email institutediversity@gatech.edu. For more information, visit diversity.gatech.edu/genderequityinitiatives.
