COLUMNS

Council seeks to connect women

By Jacqueline Royster Chair, President's Council on Women's Issues

The President's Council on Women's Issues began its first full year of activities with its autumn quarter meeting on Oct. 10. The meeting coincided with two other very special events: the second speaker in the President and Provost's Diversity Lecture Series, which featured Professor Joyce K. Fletcher, who spoke on the topic "Disappearing Acts: Gender, Power and Relational Practice at Work," and the Annual Reception for Women. To be noted is that the inaugural meeting during spring quarter 2001 also occurred in conjunction with a campus event, the Annual Luncheon of Critical Difference for Women.

The connecting of the council's meetings to other campus events related to women is deliberate. The goals of this approach are: to underscore the council's commitment to collaborating with other campus initiatives that focus on diversity goals; to create an opportunity for networking across various campus constituencies, especially since the council includes members who are external to the campus; and to keep the lines of communication open between the council and campus groups across the University. The energy and enthusiasm so much in evidence throughout the day on Oct. 10 suggests that council activities generally are well under way and so is this year's agenda.

With the help of The Women's Place, the council has reviewed existing data from several reports, including the most recent SRI report, and completed an initial assessment of the status of women on the campus. Based on the collection of data available, we know historically what issues related to the climate for women at OSU have been over the last few decades, where problems have been systematically located, and what the patterns of ongoing concerns are. To address the challenges that have emerged as particul¼arly salient, we have designed, in collaboration with several allied groups, a forward-looking intervention strategy focused on two specific groups of women. One project, focused on the cohort of faculty women who were most recently hired, will get under way this academic year. Another, focused on staff, is still in the planning stages and scheduled to be well under way in 2002-03.

The basic goal of the faculty cohort project is two-fold: (1) to welcome, connect and share meaningful information with individual women as they enter the OSU community and as they develop professionally during the most critical years of their employment, and (2) to develop a model for collecting both quantitative and qualitative data on women's experiences so that the University can make better use of information in actually addressing in a timely way the issues, problems and concerns that may arise.

As an advisory group to the executive vice president and provost and to the president, the council expects that the information that we learn from implementing this year's agenda will constitute a springboard for positive action.

We have had a good beginning. We expect a good year, and we look forward to being actively engaged in the concerted effort throughout the University to make a meaningful difference in the quality of life and work at Ohio State for women, for everyone.

LETTERS

All people and cultures must be valued; justice will bring peace

Editor:

onCampus must be cautious and even in its manner of reporting the events of the past few weeks.

For some time there has been a civil war of globalization. The "haves" of the world have been assaulting its "have nots" and marauding the very planet itself.

The goods of the earth have not been democratized. Its violence now is. Heightening violence, however, will hasten not justice in the world but destruction of it. Unless all people and cultures of the world are valued over any nation or parts of it, the end of this war cannot be peace but only the end.

Unless there is justice on the globe, there will be neither peace on earth nor earth itself. The greatest gift in the world is the world. Gifts are shared goods.

Edward A. Riedinger, Latin American Library Collection

Graduation story strikes chord with staff pursuing education

Editor:

Ever since the publication of the article in onCampus you wrote about me (Sept. 13), I have received phone calls from employees whom I have never met letting me know they too are keeping at task with their graduation goal. I received a note from the director of The Women's Place congratulating me. I have also received e-mails as well as being stopped in the hall by current and past co-workers who relay to me what a great article it was ... a few have been brought to tears.

One e-mail I received contained the following message: "I do not know you and you do not know me; but I would like to congratulate you. I read your story in onCampus. I am also pursuing my bachelor's degree in history. I have been a student for 10 years, and a full time employee for 11 years. I hope to have my degree within the next two years, but part time takes a long time. Thanks for being an inspiration."

A thousand thank yous for listening to my story.

Michelle R. Vermillion, Division of Transplantation