Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, has established a new associate of arts degree program that will be offered exclusively to inmates at the Tennessee Prison for Women in Nashville. Instruction at the prison will not be done through a distance education program. Rather faculty and traditional students will travel from the university campus for classes inside prison walls.
“One of the things that tends to happen in our criminal justice system is that the inmates become dehumanized,” says Richard Goode, a history professor at Lipscomb. “We never see the inmates, so we develop certain perceptions about them, most of which are false. When we all get in a room together, it humanizes the situation.”
Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, received a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Violence Against Women for programs to prevent and respond to sexual violence on campus.
Sheryl Gabram, a professor of surgery at the Emory University School of Medicine, was named surgeon-in-chief at Grady Memorial Hospital, a teaching hospital in Atlanta staffed by the faculty of the medical schools at Emory University and the Morehouse School of Medicine.
Susan McKay, professor in the women’s and gender studies program at the University of Wyoming, has announced her retirement. She first joined the faculty at the university in 1966 as an assistant professor of nursing. After 12 years as a practicing psychologist, she returned to the nursing school in 1987. She moved to the women’s studies program in 2001.
Diane Bozarth, a certified public accountant, was named chief financial officer at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri. She began her career at the college as a bookkeeper in 1973. Since 2004, she has been controller and senior administrator for financial aid.
A. Sprightly Ryan, inspector general at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., was named an associate professor of law and director of public service at the University of Virginia School of Law. She will join the university in January.
Christine Thorpe was appointed chair of the department of human services at New York City College of Technology of the City University of New York. She is an assistant professor in the department.
Autumn K. Tooms, professor and director of the Center for Educational Leadership at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, has been chosen to serve as a juror for the Brock International Prize. The $40,000 prize is awarded to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the field of education.
Lalia Rashid was appointed vice president for development and associate dean in the biological sciences division of the University of Chicago Medical Center. She has served in these roles on an interim basis since the beginning of the year. From July 2010 to January 2011, she was associate vice president for development. She has been with the university since 2004. Previously, she was a development officer at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Carolyn Nobles was named associate administrator for the College of Agriculture and Human Sciences at Prairie View A&M University in Texas. She was interim associate administrator for the university’s Cooperative Extension program.
Myra N. Lowe was appointed interim dean of libraries at West Virginia University in Morgantown. She was associate dean of libraries.
Willie Christine King Farris, associate professor of education and director of the Learning Resources Center at Spelman College in Atlanta, will receive the James Weldon Johnson Medal on November from the James Weldon Johnson Institute at Emory University. The award recognizes “individuals whose achievements and service reflect a deep and unwavering commitment to civil and human rights.”
Frances Smith Foster, who recently retired as the Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Women’s Studies at Emory University, was named winner of the Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize from Brandeis University. She will share the $25,000 prize with Professor Clayborne Carson of Stanford University. The prize recognizes “outstanding and lasting contributions to racial, ethnic, and religious relations.” She will be awarded the prize later this month.
The University of Florida, in conjunction with Florida International University, the University of Miami, and Rush University in Chicago, received a $2.7 million grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism for research on whether a prescription medication can help women with HIV restrict their use of alcohol.
Ruby Cohen, a theater scholar and expert on the work of Samuel Beckett, died recently as a result of complications of Parkinson’s disease. She was 89 years old.
Deborah DiCroce, president of Tidewater Community College in Norfolk, Virginia, for the past 13 years, has announced that she will step down. On March 1, 2012, Dr. DiCroce will become president and CEO of the nonprofit Hampton Roads Community Foundation. Before taking over as president of Tidewater Community College in 1998, Dr. DiCroce was president of Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville. She began her academic career teaching English at the Virginia Beach campus of Tidewater Community College.
Sandra Patterson-Randles, chancellor of Indiana University Southeast in New Albany, is one of three finalists for the presidency of East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. She is the only woman among the three finalists.
The Linguistic Society of America recently announced the selection of 10 new fellows who are being recognized for their “distinguished contributions to the discipline.” The honorees will be inducted as fellows of the society at the organization’s business meeting in Portland, Oregon, in January.
From time to time, Women in Academia Report will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. The links presented point to articles from many different points of view that deal with issues of women in higher education. The articles selected in no way reflect the views of the editorial board of WIAReport.
undergo breast cancer treatment develop lymphedema.
At the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, there are 22,345 women enrolled this fall compared to 20,371 men. Thus, women make up 52.3 percent of all students. Women are 51 percent of undergraduate students and 54.6 percent of graduate students.
At the flagship campus of Pennsylvania State University at University Park, there are 20,681 women enrolled compared to 24,513 men. At Penn State, women are 45.8 percent of the undergraduate student body and 45.2 percent of all graduate students. Women make up 51.2 percent of the Penn State World Campus, which is made up of distance learning students.
”¢ Over the past 18 months, the number of women enrolled in computer science majors at Indiana University has nearly doubled. Maureen Biggers, assistant dean for diversity and education at the university, reports, “We have 148 women majoring in either informatics or computer science. In addition, last year the number of women in our introductory courses doubled, with women majors increasing at a rate of 41 percent, while males increased 16 percent over the same time.”
Data from the Universities and College Admissions Service in Britain has found that overall applications for university admissions in the United Kingdom are down nearly 9 percent this year. The decline is thought to have come about due to a sharp increase in tuition and fees at British universities.
A sexual assault awareness program, developed in 2009 as a student orientation effort at Bowdoin College, has appeared at many colleges and universities throughout the northeastern United States this fall.
Clemson University’s Institute for Biological Interfaces of Engineering received a $150,000 grant from the Avon Foundation for Women for research on breast reconstructive surgery. The research will include efforts to use a patient’s cells in conjunction with drugs to reduce tumor recurrence.
The latest honoree at the plaza is Mary “Mamie” Bernard Aguirre, a native of St. Louis who came to Tucson in 1876 and was named principal of all all-girls public school.
The Student Assembly at Cornell University passed a resolution asking the administration to “formally reevaluate” its appointment of Grant Farred, as chair of the faculty search committee for Africana studies at the university. The resolution was introduced by Dara Brown, a junior who is chair of the Student Assembly’s Women’s Issues Committee. Her objections to the Farred appointment are due to the professor’s remarks to two African-American graduate students, who he allegedly called “black bitches.”
A unique breast cancer awareness event took place on the campus of the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona in Phoenix. Construction workers on the new Health Sciences Education Building joined with the staff of the College of Medicine and donned pink hard hats to form a huge human pink ribbon at the construction site.
Christine Moorman, the T. Austin Finch Sr. Professor of Business Administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, received the 2011 Berry-AMA Book Prize from the American Marketing Association Foundation. Professor Moorman was honored for her work, 
Recording artist Aretha Franklin will receive an honorary degree from Case Western Reserve University on November 5. Franklin will receive an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters commending her 40 years of work in the music industry as well as for her advocacy of civil rights.
Betty White, the 89-year-old award-winning actress and comedian, was named an honorary graduate of the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine. She was given the traditional practitioner’s white coat at the centennial celebration of the Washington State Veterinary Medical Association in Yakima.
“The idea that a younger son should become monarch instead of an elder daughter simply because he is a man — this way of thinking is at odds with the modern countries we have become.”
Sharon Oster, the Frederic D. Wolfe Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship and director of the Program on Social Enterprise at the Yale University School of Management, won the 2011 Carolyn Shaw Bell Award from the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession of the American Economics Association. The award will be presented in Chicago in January.
Ohio State University has renamed its breast cancer research center in honor of Stephanie Spielman. An 1989 graduate of Ohio State, Spielman died in 2009 at the age of 42 after a 12-year battle with breast cancer. Her husband Chris Spielman was an All-American linebacker at Ohio State and played for 10 years with the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. Over the years, the Spielmans raised more than $9 million for breast cancer research at Ohio State. The research and treatment facility at Ohio State was renamed the Stephanie Spielman Comprehensive Breast Center.
Robin C. Newton, associate senior vice president for clinical affairs and quality at Howard University Health Sciences, was named as the recipient of Parker J. Palmer Courage to Lead Award from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. The award will be presented in Orlando, Florida, in March.
Chilean author Isabel Allende was chosen to receive the Lawrence Sanders Award from the creative writing program at Florida International University. Among her novels are 
Jessica Schiffman, assistant professor and associate chair of the women’s studies department at the University of Delaware, received the Vision of Peace Award from the Delaware Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She was honored for “leadership contributions and sustained commitment to ending violence against women.”
Demetria Martinez, a poet, journalist, and novelist, who teaches at the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, received the 2011 Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
M. Shawn Copeland, associate professor of systematic theology at Boston College, was awarded the St. Elizabeth Seton Medal from the College of Mount Saint Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio. The award, established in 1966, is given to honor distinguished women in theology.
Joni Young, professor of accounting at the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico received the Notable Contributions to Accounting Literature Award from the American Accounting Association. She was recognized for an article entitled “Making Up Users.”
The College of Medicine at Howard University recently announced the appointment of eight new faculty members. Three of the new appointees are women.
Bonnie Bassler, Squibb Professor in Molecular Biology at Princeton University, was nominated by President Obama to serve as a member of the National Science Board. The 24-member board oversees the National Science Foundation, the major source of government research funds.
Shelly Haley, professor of classics at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, was elected president of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States. She will serve a one-year term as president.
Jo Rae Wright is stepping down as dean of the graduate school at Duke University. She has been dean since 2006. Dr. Wright is suffering from breast cancer. She will continue to teach as a professor of cell biology, medicine, and pediatrics.
Jennifer Cervantes was named assistant dean for advancement and alumni relations at the College of Health and Social Services at New Mexico State University. She has been on the English department faculty at the university for the past six years.
Elaine Watson was appointed dean of the Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in St. Kitts in the West Indies. Her appointment is effective on February 1. Since 2003, Dr. Watson has been dean of the School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh.