Jennifer Scanlon, professor of gender and women’s studies at Bowdoin College, is teaching a course this semester entitled, “Forty Years: The History of Women at Bowdoin.” Students enrolled in the course will search the college’s archives for information on the establishment of coeducation at Bowdoin and interview women alumnae about their experiences as the first women on campus.
The project will also delve into the role of women on the Bowdoin campus prior to coeducation. The class will develop a Web site to present their research on the history of women at Bowdoin. The site will include documents, photographs, and streaming oral histories. One document that will be included is a copy of a page from the student newspaper in 1890, shown below, that included the following poem:
We’re men here in college, my dear,
You can’t comprehend us, I fear,
Ha, Ha! little girl, you’re in sweet little churl,
But you can’t come to Bowdoin, oh, no!
You’re a wise little girl, so they say,
You’re pert and pedantic and gay,
You may look o’er the wall at the old college hall,
But you can’t come to Bowdoin, oh, no!
Your pride is half feigned, learned miss,
I suspect you’d respond to a kiss,
There, there little minx, don’t pose like a sphinx,
But you can’t come to Bowdoin, oh, no!
This life here at College, kind maid,
Has a charm so unique, I’m afraid,
It hardly would blend with a bustle and a bend,
So you can’t come to Bowdoin, oh, no!
Working Mother magazine recently published its list of the “100 Best Companies” in the nation for working mothers. The employers were recognized for providing family-friendly benefits and programs. There are three universities on this year’s list of best employers.
Waded Cruzado, president of Montana State University in Bozeman, has formed a 24-member commission to study diversity and gender equity issues at the university. The President’s Commission of the Status of University Women will identify strategies to improve the campus climate for women and alleviate the isolation of women in various academic and work units at the university.
Three colleges in central Pennsylvania are sharing a four-year, $749,506 grant from the National Science Foundation to increase the number of women working in STEM fields. Shippensburg University, Elizabethtown College, and the Harrisburg University for Science and Technology will team up with the Innovation Transfer Network, an organization that forms alliances between business and higher education. The PA STEM University Partnership for the Advancement of Academic Women program will assess the work climate for women in scientific fields at higher educational institutions in the area. They will then use that assessment to develop programs to recruit more women in these fields.
The annual Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event was held this week on the campus of the University of Missouri at Kansas City. The event seeks to raise awareness of sexual abuse and violence among men on campus.
Diane Davey, professor of pathology and assistant dean at the College of Medicine of the University of Central Florida, was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the College of American Pathologists. Dr. Davey was recognized for “tireless service and dedication to patients.”
Lecia Jane Barker, research associate professor in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin, received a $422,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to identify new teaching methods in which colleges and universities can better retain women in computing and technology degree fields. Only 18 percent of all computer science bachelor’s degrees in 2009 were awarded to women.
This fall Lafayette College, the highly rated liberal arts institution in Easton, Pennsylvania, has welcomed 11 new faculty members to campus. Three of the new faculty members are women.
Rachel Goshgarian is a new assistant professor of history. She was on the faculty at Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey, where she was a senior fellow at the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations. She holds a Ph.D. in history and Middle Eastern studies from Harvard University.
Lauren J. Myers is an assistant professor of psychology at Lafayette. She was a visiting assistant professor at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. In 2008, she earned a Ph.D. in psychology from Pennsylvania State University.
Angelika Von Wahl is an associate professor of international affairs. She was an associate professor at San Francisco State University. A native of Germany, she holds a Ph.D. in political science from Free University Berlin
Carolyn J. Heinrich was named the Sid Richardson Professor of Public Affairs, affiliated professor of economics, and the director of the Center for Health and Social Policy at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs of the University of Texas at Austin. She was director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She is also the president of the Public Management Research Association.
The School of Social Work at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles has hired four new faculty members. Two of the four are women.
Alice Cepeda is a new assistant professor. Previously she taught at the University of Houston. She is currently conducting research on crack cocaine use in Mexico City.
Emily Putnam-Hornstein is also a new assistant professor. She was working at the Center for Social Services Research at the University of California at Berkeley.
Stephanie Power-Carter is the new director of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center at Indiana University in Bloomington. She is an associate professor at the university School of Education. She joined the Indiana University faculty in 2002 after teaching at the University of Illinois Chicago.
There are two new women faculty members in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Duke University has announced a new leadership team for its effort to establish a campus in Kunshan, China. Duke Kunshan University (DKU) is a collaborative effort between Duke, the city of Kunshan, and Wuhan University.
Beth Rietveld, director of the Women’s Center at Oregon State University, is retiring after 18 years on the job. She will devote her time to writing a book on the history of the Women’s Center and collaborate with her husband on research on adult education programs in Japan and France.
Mirabelle Fernandes-Paul has been named as the new director of the Women’s Center. She was a program associate and assistant to the director of the Women’s Advancement and Gender Equity Office. She joined OSU in May 2008 after receiving her doctorate in leadership, policy, and administration from the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
From time to time, Women in Academia Report will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. We invite subscribers to e-mail us at editor@WIAReport.com with suggestions of articles for inclusion in this feature.
Mary Yoho was named president of the Houston campus of the Chamberlain College of Nursing. She was interim director of nursing and national director of faculty development for Education Affiliates in Baltimore. She was also a volunteer associate professor at Texas Woman’s University’s Institute of Health Services and a visiting professor at Capella University’s School of Education.
Webster University in St. Louis has announced the appointment of three women to enhance its graduate program in counseling.
Paula Dohoney was named interim dean of the College of Education at Augusta State University in Georgia. She was named associate dean in 2009 and has been on the faculty at the school since 2001. Previously, she was an assistant professor at Mississippi State University.
Carla Dieter was appointed chair of the department of nursing at the University of South Dakota. She was an associate professor of nursing and family nurse practitioner at student health services at South Dakota State University.
Sofia Gruskin was named professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. She will hold a joint appointment at USC’s Gould School of Law. For the past 17 years she was an associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Sue Ann Bidstrup-Allen was appointed associate dean for faculty development and scholarship in the College of Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is a professor and associate chair in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
Geraldine Jacobson was named as the founding chair of the department of radiation oncology at the West Virginia University School of Medicine. She has been serving as the medial director of the department of radiation oncology at the University of Iowa.
Elma Roane, a strong advocate for equal opportunity for women in college sports, has died at her home in Cordova, Tennessee, at the age of 93.
The University of Oklahoma has announced that its School of Drama was being renamed to honor Peggy Dow Helmerich. After acting in such films as Harvey, Undertow, and Bright Victory, she left Hollywood to settle in Tulsa where she raised a family and became a community activist. Over the years, she and her husband have been solid supporters of the School of Drama. Recently the couple donated $2.5 million to the school. Of this sum, $2 million endowed a scholarship fund that will benefit up to 50 students in the School of Drama each year. The remaining $500,000 will be used for academic enrichment programs at the school.
Ilaria Capua, director of the department of comparative biomedical sciences at the Instituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie in Legnaro, Italy, received the 2011 Penn Vet World Leadership in Animal Health Award from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. The award comes with a $100,000 grant for continued research in veterinary medicine.
Beth Maloch, associate professor in the College of Education at the University of Texas, received the 2011 Elizabeth Shatto Massey Award for Excellence in Teacher Education. The award is named after a University of Texas alumna who had a long career in public education. University officials and alumni chose the winner of the Massey Award.
Kathleen A. Dracup, dean and Endowed Professor in Nursing Education at the University of California at San Francisco, received the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Heart Failure Society of America.
Lynn Oberbillig, director of athletics and recreation at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, was named as the recipient of the 2011 Katherine Ley Award from the Eastern College Athletic Conference. She will receive the honor at the ECAC convention and trade show in Hyannis, Massachusetts, on October 2.
Barbara Allen-Diaz was name vice president for agriculture and natural resources for the University of California system. Her three-year appointment is effective on October 1. She is the first woman to hold the position. Dr. Allen-Diaz holds the Russell Rustici Chair in Rangeland Management in the College of Natural Resources at the University of California at Berkeley.
Chrystal Houston was appointed director of alumni and communication at York College in Nebraska. She was digital marketing coordinator for BryanLGH Health System in Lincoln, Nebraska. She previously worked as a writer and editor for Texas A&M University.
Joanne Altman was named director of undergraduate research and creative works at High Point University in North Carolina. She previously was on the faculty at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas.
Lorraine Davis was named to a one-year term as acting provost at the University of Oregon. She will fill in for provost James Bean, who is taking a sabbatical after suffering a pulmonary embolism. Davis previously was vice president of academic affairs and has been serving part-time as a special assistant to the president. She first joined the university’s faculty in 1972.
Rebecca Sender was appointed deputy director for finance and administration at the Yale Center for British Art. She was the associate director of the Princeton University Art Museum.
Karen E. Kerr was named senior director of new ventures and alliances at the Stevens Institute for Innovation at the University of Southern California. She was director of business development and targeted acquisitions for Intellectual Ventures Invention Development Fund.
Jessica Adkins was named grants and contracts officer at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech. She was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Mississippi.
Frances Draper was promoted to vice chancellor for strategic relations at the University of Colorado at Boulder, effective October 1. She has been serving as associate vice chancellor for strategic relations. Previously, she was executive director of the Boulder Economic Council.
Francene L. Botts-Butler was named director of the Office of Equity/Diversity at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. She was the director of multicultural student services at Morehead State University in Kentucky.
Valerie Miller is the new director of student financial aid and scholarships at Ohio University in Athens. She has been with the university’s financial aid office since 1996.
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Maravene Loeschke was named president of Towson University in Maryland. The appointment is effective on January 1. For the past five years she has been president of Mansfield University in Pennsylvania. Previously, she was provost at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Before that, she had served on the faculty at Towson for 30 years as a professor of drama.
Toni Miles is the new director of the Institute of Gerontology at the College of Public Health at the University of Georgia. She was a tenured professor at the University of Louisville with joint appointments in the School of Medicine and the Kent School of Social Work. Previously she was a professor of family medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.
Union College in Schenectady, New York, has 19 new faculty members on campus this fall. Only five of the 19 new scholars are women.
Adrian College in Michigan has settled a 2007 complaint filed with the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education. The complaint alleged that women athletes were not afforded the same opportunities as male athletes. One instance involved the construction of a new baseball facility while no effort was made to improve the college’s softball facilities. After an investigation, the Education Department concluded that “women made up 49.7 percent of the student body, but were provided only 28.9 percent of the athletic opportunities.”
The Indiana University system reports total enrollments of 11o,436 students this fall. Of the total enrollments, there are 61,765 women and 48,671 men.
Satoshi Kanazawa, the evolutionary psychology at the London School of Economics, who earlier this year created a huge controversy by claiming to have scientific evidence that black women were not as physically attractive as women of other races, has issued an apology. In May, Kanazawa published a blog entry entitled, “Why are black women less physically attractive than other women?” In this post he claimed that black women had higher levels of testosterone and therefore had more masculine features which made them unattractive.
Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, has begun a one-year celebration marking the 40th anniversary of coeducation on campus. A series of special programs, exhibits, seminars, and events organized by the Women’s 40th Anniversary Committee will take place throughout the current academic year.