Provost’s Advisory Committee on Women’s Concerns Receives ’09 Chancellor’s Affirmative Action Award

By Jane-Ellen Robinet

Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg has selected the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Women’s Concerns (PACWC) to receive the 2009 Chancellor’s Affirmative Action Award. The honor is presented annually to an “outstanding University program area or individual that has made a significant contribution in affirmative action.”

The Chancellor will present the $2,500 award to members of PACWC at the University Senate Council meeting on Wednesday, June 10.

The award selection committee recognized PACWC “for the role the organization played in promoting a campus climate in which sexual harassment and discrimination are not tolerated and for steadfastly supporting the recruitment, promotion, and retention of female faculty, administrators, and staff,” Nordenberg wrote in a June 3 letter to Patricia Beeson, PACWC chair and Pitt vice provost for graduate and undergraduate studies, informing her of the award.

Nordenberg added that the award selection committee also noted that “PACWC has made the University a better place for all faculty, staff, and students. Among the important advances resulting from PACWC’s collaboration with the administration are the high-quality, on-campus child care, the creation of the family medical leave policy, and other benefits that have enhanced the quality of work and family life balance for all members of the University community.”

Beeson, who has chaired PACWC since 2004, said the award “is a wonderful recognition of the important work done by the faculty, staff, and students from across the University who have served on the committee.

“PACWC has done a lot of important work over the years: The committee has played an important role in promoting a campus climate that is open and supportive of all members of our community, in providing institutional support for work-life balance, and in improving the representation of women on our faculty,” added Beeson, who is also a professor of economics in the School of Arts and Sciences with a joint appointment in public policy in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

PACWC was formed in 1983 by then-Provost Rhoten Smith to advance the situation of all women of the University. A diverse range of almost 250 faculty, staff, and students has served as PACWC members during the past 26 years.

Pitt Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor James V. Maher nominated PACWC for the Affirmative Action Award. In his nomination, Maher said that the organization “has taken an innovative approach to its unique role as advisor to the University administration.”

When it was created, PACWC was charged with assessing the qualitative aspects of the University’s responsiveness to and inclusiveness of women and “women’s issues.” Maher said in his nomination that the organization “assumed a research-based approach to help the University ensure a productive educational and work environment.”

In 2004, for example, a PACWC faculty retention subcommittee completed a survey of former Pitt faculty members to gather information on why faculty members leave the University and to help identify ways to further improve the recruitment and retention of women and members of underrepresented populations. Maher said “the collected information was instructive, and PACWC has agreed to conduct these surveys now every five years, with the second survey scheduled to be distributed during early summer 2009.”

Blossom Henry, Pitt’s first woman faculty member, was hired in January 1918. When a reporter asked Professor Henry about her first impression of the University, she replied, “The University was full of men.” She didn’t know until she arrived that she would be the only woman on the college faculty. Henry would remain at Pitt until 1955. Source: The History of Women at Pitt Exhibition

The 19 members of PACWC are: Maureen Beal, associate vice chancellor for financial operations; Beeson; Jean Ferguson Carr, a professor of English and director of the Pitt Women’s Studies Program; Jan Dorman, a professor and associate dean in the School of Nursing; Catherine Greeno, a professor in the School of Social Work; Julie Hoggarth, a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology; Joan Lakoski, associate vice chancellor for academic career development and professor of pharmacology in the School of Medicine; Irina Livezeanu, professor of history; Kathy O’Connor, administrative assistant in the Department of Computer Science; Deirdre O’Rourke, a Department of Theatre Arts graduate student; Kelly Otter, associate dean of the College of General Studies; Maureen Porter, a professor in the School of Education’s Department of Administrative and Policy Studies; Kathleen Pratt, manager of employee relations; Anne Robertson, a professor in the Swanson School’s Department of
 Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science; Mary Beth Koch Ruiz, coordinator of sexual assault services; Joanne Russell, director of Pitt’s Center for Global Health; Erin Schaefer, a student in Pitt’s School of Law; Frances Zauhar, a professor of English at Pitt-Johnstown; and Stephanie Hoogendoorn, assistant to the provost and a graduate student in the Department of Mathematics.