Welcome back!

Our WSU-GEARS team encourages you to participate in our on-campus and online events this Winter 2023 semester. NSF WSU GEARS initiatives develop evidence-based strategies and resources to eliminate work/family/life, toxic work environment, and workload barriers in Hiring, Retaining, and Advancing women and underrepresented minority faculty.

Sign up for a workshop, share your experiences in our survey or workload project, or get involved in one of our ongoing projects. Learn about ways that you can get involved!

1. Workshops

Faculty Workload: Challenges and Solutions (March 2)

Hidden and uneven workload is a barrier to the retention and advancement of women faculty members. We will identify the types of workload inequity, challenges to addressing workload issues, and solutions that other Wayne State University departments have undertaken, including Department Workload Policies and a rotation of time-intensive service roles. Join us for snacks, coffee, and lively conversation! RSVP by Feb. 27.

What: In-person workshop

When: 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 2, 2023.

Where: Hilberry AB, Student Center building

RSVP for the Faculty Workload Workshop

Bystander Leadership (April 28)

Faculty and chairs are invited to participate in an interactive, all-day Bystander Leadership Workshop on Friday, April 28. The workshop is an opportunity to learn active bystander intervention techniques that interrupt instances of bullying, bias, and microaggressions. The dynamic workshop includes skits performed by Theatre and other faculty, breakout groups, and simulated conflict scenarios. Lunch will be served. RSVP required by April 7.

What: In-person workshop

When: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Friday, April 28, 2023

Where: Student Center Room 10.

RSVP for the Bystander Leadership Workshop

2. Data Collection

Faculty survey

Faculty will receive a link in their WSU email in late March to our annual survey. The purpose of the survey is to gather climate and perception data on faculty experiences at WSU to get an understanding of the current context and also make comparisons between baseline and Years 2 and 3 survey data. You can read about the findings from the Year 2 survey in the Virtual Data Town Hall report.

Workload: Data analysis

Are you interested in developing strategies to tackle workload in your department or academic unit? The NSF WSU-GEARS Workload Team can support your efforts in two ways:

1. Conduct a workshop tailored to your unit's needs,

2. Support data analysis.

Collecting workload data can promote transparency, create clarity of benchmarks, recognize faculty contributions and hidden work, and establish mechanisms of accountability, among other benefits. The GEARS team is available to meet with interested units to discuss the Workload data collection options. Please email Dr. Krista Brumley if you are interested: kbrumley@wayne.edu.

3. Ongoing Projects

Family Advocacy Network (FANs) Job Candidate Pilot program, Select departments that are hiring tenure-track faculty this academic year have been contacted to participate in this program. FANs faculty advisors will meet with job candidate finalists to discuss work/family/life resources at Wayne State University. Faculty and chairs are encouraged to check out the 2022-23 FANs manual which offers a comprehensive guide to work/family/life resources at Wayne State University.

Data analysis – stay tuned for the release of a series of mini-briefs that discuss the issues important to you.

Share your Women in STEM (and Beyond) Story!" We are looking for contributors from STEM and non-STEM disciplines for our blog, Wayne Women in STEM and Beyond, to encourage networking among women faculty. Please email Dr. Nicole Gerring to learn more and sign up: dz7748@wayne.edu.