Meetings: 2007 (3.28) | President’s Commission on Women’s Issues

Attending: Donna Wiseman, Laura Nichols, Patty Bernales, Barbara Goldberg, Beverly Greenfeig, Linda LeNoir, Cindi Hale, Jennifer Finch

The meeting convened at 2:30 p.m. in 1204 Cole Student Activities Building.

Women of Color Award Ceremony

It was concluded that the ceremony was very well received by the campus community. The distinguished service award given to Andrea Levy was deemed a special award and can only be repeated for special occasions.

Woman of the Year Award

Donna asked that PCWI members help promote the award by word-of-mouth. Call for nomination letters have been sent to over 350 faculty and staff members on campus. It was suggested that the ceremony include a history of PCWI and was noted that Nancy Struna was the chair of PCWI when the history was developed. Patty Bernales will nominate a woman from Journalism.

Celebration of Women Proposal

This is a continuing discussion from the meeting held February 22, 2007. Donna presented the idea to Rob Waters and was assured Dr. Mote would agree with the idea. There are many pros and cons to the event.

Pros:

• One time event making it easier for many to attend all of the award ceremonies
• The event could be more elaborate because the money from two events would be combined
• One event would allow PCWI to focus on women’s issues and not concentrate solely on awards ceremonies
• Higher visibility to draw new PCWI members

Cons:

• There seems to be a community of Women of Color and PCWI members are not certain combining the ceremonies would be a good idea
• It may be difficult to combine the ceremonies in a political sense

It was suggested to forego the PCEC this year in order to have money for this event. A question was also raised as to whether or not the event would have come to fruition had Debbie Yow not offered sponsorship? Members agreed the Women of Color and Woman of the Year criteria needed to be fine tuned for next year.

Celebration of Women Proposal (continued)

Ultimately it was decided to give the event a go in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of PCWI in March 2008. However, the committee agreed to hold on to the spiritual and emotional tradition of the two ceremonies. It can be viewed as a signature piece that will shed prominence on PCWI. The committee strongly agreed the event should not be a banquet, but possibly a lunch. PCWI must decide to do it their way and to take control of the event. This would provide an excellent opportunity to work with Public Relations in bringing together a broad community.

Appointment of PCWI Chair

Donna spoke with Rob Waters about selecting and appointing the new PCWI Chair in fall ’08 to shadow her for the last year of her tour. It seems the current method of selecting a new chair at the end of each tour is not efficient as it takes a great deal of time to learn the ropes. The process would be such that the PCWI members will send nominations to Rob Waters for review. Rob and the past commission chairs will meet and discuss the candidates. Rob will then send the nominations to Dr. Mote who will select the new commission chair.

New Member Nominations

Several members feel the commission needs new members. The commission should include a diverse group of students, grad-students, non-exempt, exempt, service people, and faculty as well as a variety of gender and age. In the past there had been a regular rotation of members, each serving a three year term. The commission wishes to make membership a more formal process having members commit to sub-committees. The committee discussed possible ways to drum up membership. Some solutions are self-nominations and invitation from current PCWI members. Donna and Rob will work on drafting and sending a letter to current members regarding the end of their term and possible “re-uping”.

Calendar 2007-2008

The committee agreed it is important to set the dates for the commission meetings and the awards ceremonies. Once the dates are set they will be posted on the website.

Issues from Middle States Report

During the Middle States Report several issues relevant to PCWI were addressed. Donna will invite Andrea Hill Levy to the next meeting to discuss the issues. The commission can then concentrate on these issues and add them to the agendas of future meetings.

Additional Items

• PCWI Logo –Donna and Jennifer have decided the commission desperately needs a logo. Jennifer has researched several women’s commissions of various universities and compiled examples of logos for the Design Services department. The cost of creating the logo is $32 per hour, estimating only four or five hours total. The intent is to have three or four examples created by Design Services, have the PCWI members vote, and to reveal the logo at the Woman of the Year award ceremony. Ultimately the logo will accompany all PCWI literature and headline the website. The commission will also look into the cost of creating a lapel pin using the logo as a gift for all members of the commission. The idea was well received and would be a great “tag-a-long” with the 30 year celebration of PCWI.

Additional Items (continued)

• Campus Guest - Cindi Hale shared information from the Equity Council meeting held the same day. Dr. Mote has invited Professor Alice M. Agogino from the University of California, Berkeley, to speak about gender issues. PCWI has been asked to co-sponsor the event. A date and location has not been set.
• PCEC Update – Cindi Hale and Laura Nichols offered an update to the Professional Concepts Exchange Conference. Both are eager to make this happen however, there is a lack of leadership from the group of non-exempt employees they have met with. They seem to not want to take the event and run with it. Cindi and Laura will not abandon the event and will ensure the group is aware there is an interest in hosting the event, but that they need to step-up. Cindi and Laura will encourage the group to join the commission when they meet with the group on March 29, 2007. There will be a PCEC event in June, pending the availability of a room in Stamp Student Union. A breakfast/brunch was proposed. The total cost for the event is estimated at $7500; $5000 from the Provost and $2500 from PCWI.

The meeting convened at 3:30 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 19, 10:00 a.m. and the location is to be determined.