ESE-faculty-list FW: [WFEC-list] Re Daniels response - update

[Lee, Linda S]

Some of the women colleagues in engineering and beyond have worked this weekend to write a response from women faculty in engineering to President Daniels’s letter of last week, and specifically his section titled “Where are all the men?”. We have sent it to President Daniels and the Exponent as is, but are now soliciting additional signatures from allies.  If you would like to read our letter and sign, the link is below. Although initiated by women in engineering, this applies generally to all of campus.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQKMWZp7moeuz5n-mVCC5PMb-4vSuV6BnKj_rRylqLe7u7_kkBr8r2cV9hJEc1oevQB_haddikjIP56/pub

Also for twitter posting, tiny URL of the same link:  https://tinyurl.com/yckmwskc

[cid:4A6FBF05-CA38-488C-A4B4-03CA3CECE9BE]


On Jan 12, 2022, at 1:50 PM, Reid Smith, Tahira <reid20 at purdue.edu<mailto:reid20 at purdue.edu>> wrote:

I created this tiny URL of the same link:  https://tinyurl.com/yckmwskc

It is short enough to fit on Twitter.

Best,

Tahira
________________________________
From: wfec-list <wfec-list-bounces at ecn.purdue.edu<mailto:wfec-list-bounces at ecn.purdue.edu>> on behalf of Pawley, Alice L <apawley at purdue.edu<mailto:apawley at purdue.edu>>
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2022 10:45 AM
To: Women Faculty in Engr listserv <Wfec-list at ecn.purdue.edu<mailto:Wfec-list at ecn.purdue.edu>>
Subject: Re: [WFEC-list] Re Daniels response - need your signatures by NOON W

HI all,
Just raising this up in your inbox.  I’m still waiting to hear from the Exponent to see if they will post (they have a draft, without names).  I’ve also set up a form that we can link to in the published letter by which we can collect more allies’ signatures, or folks here who didn’t get a chance to sign on this short deadline.

Here’s the link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nWQOgJcKVnIk_8y3e7Vh-yRQde_xR4HMYJFSjt-7oOw/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks
Alice.



On Jan 11, 2022, at 10:22 PM, Pawley, Alice L <apawley at purdue.edu<mailto:apawley at purdue.edu>> wrote:

Folks - a correction - press time is NOON on Wednesday.  So we need your sig as soon as possible.  Sorry for the rush, there has been a lot going on behind the scenes here.

Thanks
Alice.



On Jan 11, 2022, at 10:07 PM, Pawley, Alice L <apawley at purdue.edu<mailto:apawley at purdue.edu>> wrote:

Dear colleagues,
You may be wondering where we are at with this response to Pres Daniels’s letter<https://www.purdue.edu/president/messages/annual-open-letters/2201-med-openletter-full.php> of last week.  You may have seen these responses already (Phi Sigma Rho<https://business.facebook.com/PurduePhiSigmaRho/photos/a.1681963878519609/4715332945182672/?type=3>, Sarah Reaves<https://twitter.com/sarah_reaves/status/1479862481350795274>, Exponent<https://www.purdueexponent.org/campus/article_b70a5333-93d4-5605-9eb1-ee079063a8ca.html>)

A group of WFEC colleagues wrote a draft letter.  We the idea to our stalwart cochairs of you voting on to sign from the committee to give people cover. They weren’t comfortable with that, understandably because they’re the face of the committee, and I invite them to share their other reasons with you if you’re interested.

So then we talked with Patricia Davies for strategy, and she revised the tone quite significantly away from what was admittedly quite strident.  (Because, of course it was, right?  Needs must.)

We now offer it to you to consider appending your names to. I hope this won’t feel too scary to do for the more junior folks, and for the tenured folks, I want to encourage you to exercise that tenure.  What is tenure for, if not to speak truth to power?  However, if you’d like to be anonymous, mark your name and list “anonymous” and I will make it so.

The link to the draft is below.  If you would like to co-sign, please add your name, title, and affiliation, in alphabetical order if you can, so I don’t have to redo all that.  Or list yourself as anonymous.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nWQOgJcKVnIk_8y3e7Vh-yRQde_xR4HMYJFSjt-7oOw/edit?usp=sharing

The print deadline for the Exponent is tomorrow at 6 pm.  I’m going to let them know it is coming, and ask for your signatures by 3 pm Wednesday.

Thanks so much to the folks who researched and wrote the original letter, and to Patricia for revising, and for Abby and Neera for cochairing this diverse committee that is still seeking its identity.

Hope some of you will join in and sign.
Alice.



On Jan 5, 2022, at 10:51 AM, Pawley, Alice L <apawley at purdue.edu<mailto:apawley at purdue.edu>> wrote:

Dear WFEC colleagues,
While many of us are working hard after a record-short winter break to prepare to teach in person during an Omicron surge, possibly with our kids at home, President Daniels published his annual “letter to the people of Purdue” today.

Here is the link: https://www.purdue.edu/president/messages/annual-open-letters/2201-med-openletter-full.php

I will copy a section I find concerning, to say the least, below:
Where Are All the Men?
If 2020 was the year when a search for value asserted itself, 2021 was the year when the nation finally discovered an issue long in plain view. Sparked by a major article in The Wall Street Journal<https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-university-fall-higher-education-men-women-enrollment-admissions-back-to-school-11630948233>, a host of journals began examining the 3:2 disparity in women to men on college campuses. The New York Times reported, “The latest enrollment numbers for Spring 2021 show a record gap between the sexes.”
There is nothing new about the phenomenon; it dates back at least three decades. What was new was the dawning realization that, in a knowledge economy where educational credentials and the skills that (theoretically) they confer are more and more essential, leaving half the population behind would be a problem for society. Again, The New York Times reported, “The simple mathematics of more women than men earning college degrees means that many highly educated women will either have to partner with less-educated men, or forgo partnership,” resulting in a lower birthrate. How ironic if, after a half-century of historic, overdue progress integrating women fully into the nation’s economic, social and political life, we gave back the immense societal gains of that climb because men stopped holding up their end.
Assuming one agrees that this is a problem, Purdue is playing a part in addressing it. Our historic average of about 57% men in the undergraduate population has held remarkably steady, even as many other schools saw that share drop to the low 40’s or even lower. There is no intention behind this against the trend position, and no mystery about the reasons. Young men and women select into various disciplines at very different rates, and the STEM subjects which are relatively predominant at Purdue tend to attract men.
We have, and will extend, a host of programs to recruit more women into these disciplines. As one example, our 26% female share of engineering students is one of the nation’s highest. (I have sometimes observed that no one ever writes to express concern that we need more men in our 87% female veterinary medicine college, or our 89% female nursing department, or our 64% female college of pharmacy.) Purdue cannot solve this looming national problem, but sending out thousands of exceptional young engineers, computer scientists, and other technology experts who happen to be men is a contribution few other institutions are making.

Well, it’s good to know that Purdue is holding up the side of disproportionate numbers of men in engineering in order to gender-balance the undergraduate population to provide educated women with acceptably educated men to marry.

Our President is listing our disproportionate number of men in engineering as an asset. I can’t even.  But if you want to rage-write an open letter to the President with me and send it to the Exponent, let me know.  It will be a nice break from my course prep (one of them, fortuitiously,  on gender, race and class theory in engineering education).

Alice.


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