The conventional separation of “work” and “life” in academia encourages faculty to ignore or even actively undermine their well-being. This week, we feature several publications that extol the need to prioritize self-care in higher education. Although work-life balance is important for all academics, certain groups face more emotional fatigue from microaggressions, relentless inequities and the . . .
Items related to systems within higher education and the academy. Ivory tower.
This year, women had to work until March 14th in order to earn the same compensation as men did during the previous year. That pay gap has changed very little, decreasing by only 2 percent in the last 20 years. In 2022 in the general workforce, women earned about 82 cents for every dollar men . . .
College is often touted as a gateway to a better life, but if incoming students aren’t able to persist through college, they can be saddled with debt and no meaningful improvement in their career prospects. Many students from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups are less likely to continue beyond their first year of college, . . .
The trap of service tasks that take time and energy but are not considered to be significant in promotion decisions was addressed in a recent article in Nature [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03677-6]. The authors describe themselves as the “No Club” because they have both experienced and researched the ineffectual advice to women academics of “just say no” to . . .
In the corporate world, employers are finding ways to support employees who are caregivers because they realize it provides a competitive advantage to attract and retain employees. The need for robust resources, benefits, and policies is apparent: a Harvard Business School study found that “73% of all employees have some type of current caregiving responsibility.” . . .
Several recent reports warn that despite promising announcements about increasing faculty diversity, the actual increase has been sluggish. As summarized by Inside Higher Ed writer Colleen Flaherty, realizing racial parity between the professoriate and the general U.S. population within the next thirty years requires a rate of change that is 3.5 times the current pace. . . .
Research is showing that data-driven insights are critical to recognizing and rectifying inequities in faculty workloads, particularly service tasks that are expected but don’t count for promotion, such as standing committee membership or mentoring a colleague. Too often, such tasks are expected or requested of women and BIPOC faculty. Rather than “fixing the women/underrepresented” with . . .
November is Native American Heritage Month, and this week’s Roundup is focused on Indigenous researchers in academia, who remain poorly represented, particularly in STEM fields. In the Second Nature article, “Respect and Representation,” four Indigenous scientists speak about the challenges early-career researchers face, and how scientists can respectfully and effectively bring together traditional knowledge and . . .
Students, especially STEMM students, prefer male professors, according to research. Two recent studies highlighted in Inside Higher Ed show that this bias increases both during a course and as the professor ages. In one study, student evaluations of men and women instructors were similar at the beginning of the course. Still, when students received their . . .
Research on bias in academia has focused more on tenure and less on promotion to Full Professor. This week’s feature article from the Chronicle of Higher Education is an exception, describing a study of 2000 promotion to full cases across 10 universities. The study found several potential sources of bias that tend to affect women . . .