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Making Changes: Application of an NSF-ADVANCE PAID Grant at a Predominantly Undergraduate Institution (PUI)

Gannon University received a five-year NSF ADVANCE-PAID award in 2011 to fund TRANSFORM, Teaching-Research-Advancement Network to Secure Female Faculty for Organizational Retention and Management. TRANSFORM initiatives aimed to increase the recruitment, retention, advancement, and leadership development of female faculty in STEM disciplines at a Master’s L institution by adapting strategies proven successful at research universities. The grant has been operationalized through three strategies: (1) Dual Career Services aiming to provide employment opportunities to accompanying partners via the creation of a consortium and a website; (2) Research Initiation Awards supporting advancement and tenure needs by providing release time and funds to early-career female STEM faculty; and (3) Leadership Developments increasing education opportunities in the areas of leadership for faculty and administrators. Strategy 1, Dual Career Services, focused on the recruitment and retention of STEM female faculty through the creation of a Dual Career Services program. Due to the regional profile of the area, a website, careersfor2.com, was established to serve not only the university but also local industry and other institutions as a regional professional job database, helping accompanying partners find suitable employment. To date, 287 jobs from 415 employers were advertised on this site. In 2015, Gannon University joined a regional Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC) to sustain offering dual-career couples regional employment opportunities after the end of the grant period. Strategy 2, the Research Initiation Award, provided six credits of release time from teaching and a stipend for research activities every year for two years for each awardee. The strategy sought to support junior female faculty at a teaching institution which also has a strong scholarship requirement for tenure and promotion. Through the support of the grant, the retention rate and promotion of female faculty in STEM disciplines was increased. By the end of the grant, six awardees will have benefitted from the grant. Metrics to measure the impact of this strategy are in place. The efforts will be continued through a university-wide, competitive release time program. Strategy 3, Leadership Development, was to formalize professional development opportunities for faculty on the topic of leadership, previously not available at Gannon University. Using both internal experts and external consultants, workshops were planned for delivery in half-day segments throughout each academic year, culminating in a regional one-day-long seminar at the end of the academic year. Additionally, leadership development for department chairs and programs directors was planned to occur once each semester. Reactions to the workshops were generally positive, attendance has increased over the past four years, and sustained support of the workshops has been allocated by the administration through a collaboration between Academic Affairs and Human Resources. Each strategy had its own challenges and successes, providing unique insight into the feasibility of converting a successful technique from a research institution into the structure of a predominantly undergraduate institution. For each strategy, the paper highlights the rationale for selecting the strategy, the objectives defined for realizing the strategy, the lessons learned from its implementation, and the culmination of the strategy in terms of sustainability and longterm influence upon the culture and climate of the university. Perspective driving the NSF effort Gannon University (Erie, PA) is a private, co-educational Catholic, Diocesan, comprehensive university offering over 70 undergraduate programs, 22 master’s programs and 4 doctoral programs including online modalities. To teach approximately 4,416 undergraduate and graduate students, the university employs roughly 227 full-time faculty and over 165 adjunct faculty. Since the academic year 2010-2011, the University has added 15 new undergraduate and graduate majors or programs and 12 new full-time faculty positions while growing total enrollment by over 8%. The academic structure is organized into three colleges: the College of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (CHESS); the Morosky College of Health Professions and Sciences (MCHPS); and the College of Engineering and Business (CEB). Tenure-track/tenured faculty teach 24 credits per academic year and carry significant advising loads as expected in this student-centered environment. Before 2003, tenure and promotions decisions were based on excellence in teaching and on service to the University, community, and professional organizations. With feedback from the University community and findings from the 2003 Middle States Evaluation, the Institutional Policy Manual (IPM) was revised to clarify tenure and promotion criteria. Included in this culture change was the establishment of a tenure clock for all tenure track faculty members and a stronger focus on scholarship. The Boyer Model of Scholarship was adopted and became an additional guideline for the tenure decision. While research or scholarship had been a component of some faculty members’ portfolios, it occupied a small role compared to teaching and advising. However, now, promotion and tenure decisions have a tri-fold focus: teaching and advising, service, and scholarship. The data profile in 2009 When the grant proposal was being conceptualized, data regarding faculty employment revealed the state of female faculty in STEM (biology, chemistry, computer and information science, mathematics, physics, electrical and computer engineering, environmental science and engineering, mechanical engineering, and psychology) and identified barriers at Gannon University for advancement, providing the basis for the request to the NSF ADVANCE program. Namely,  Female faculty constituted a low percentage of the STEM faculty: 28.13% in 2009-2010; see Appendix, Table 6.  Female faculty were not advancing through the academic ranks as well as their male counterparts: 0% of STEM professors were female in 2009-2010; see Appendix, Table 7.  Institutional infrastructure and support needed to achieved the scholarship requirements was insufficient: o Internal faculty research grants: 74% of requests were met in 2001-2002 while 21% of requests were met in 2009-2010 o Internal faculty development grants: 64% met in 2001-2002 versus 61% of request met in 2009-2010 o No tenure-clock stop policy for any circumstance o Lack of institutional leadership development opportunities