No More Duct Tape! Institutionalization of Advance Initiatives

NSF Advance-funded institutional transformation (IT) projects come with prestige and funding to launch initiatives aimed at transforming the organization and ultimately increasing the representation of women STEM faculty while improving their career journeys. Activities such as professional development workshops, networking opportunities, data collection and analysis can be welcomed by faculty and administrators for the value they add at little cost to the institution. However, external funding serves as “duct tape” adhering these activities to the university structure. Activities are best placed to continue beyond external funding when they are embedded in the university structure during the IT project. A large private university, in its fifth year of an IT grant (NSF ADVANCE #1209115), has several Advance initiatives in the process of institutionalization. These include Support for New Parents, Faculty Climate Data, Faculty Exit Survey Process, Dual Career Assistance Program, Faculty Objective Data (NSF Indicators), and Faculty Salary Equity Analysis. This paper describes a subset of the IT activities underway at RIT, highlighting progress toward sustainability based on the practice of initiating, partnering, and policy making. Institutional Context Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a privately endowed, coeducational university with nine colleges emphasizing career education and experiential learning. The student body consists of approximately 15,400 undergraduate and 3200 graduate students. Enrolled students represent all fifty states and more than 100 countries. Nearly 3200 students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds are enrolled on the main campus along with approximately 2700 international students. RIT is an internationally recognized leader in preparing deaf and hard-of-hearing students for successful careers in professional and technical fields. The university provides unparalleled access and support services for the more than 1200 deaf and hard-of-hearing students who live, study, and work with hearing students on the RIT campus. Over the past twenty years, RIT has committed substantial resources to diversifying the university population and to developing educational, structural, and policy measures to ensure its ongoing health and prosperity. In 1998, a University Diversity Action Plan was written; the position of assistant provost for diversity was created to oversee the implementation of the action plan; and a unique and highly successful African American, Latino American, and Native American (AALANA) faculty recruitment program was developed. As a result, the percentage of AALANA tenured and tenure-track (T/TT) faculty grew to 9.8% [1] . In 2007, the university’s new president introduced two gender-related performance commitments to support strategic goals focused on increasing both the percentage of entering undergraduate women and the percentage of women T/TT faculty [2] . Several initiatives are aligned in support of these goals, including formalization of the President’s Commission on Women and the creation of part-time Faculty Associate positions within the Provost’s Office to support women and AALANA faculty. In 2015, the university included a ‘difference maker’ focusing on women as part of the 2015 2025 Strategic Plan with the position that “RIT will be the largest producer of female, underrepresented male, and deaf or hard-of-hearing STEM graduates among all private colleges in the