UCGE September 2020 Meeting Agenda and Notes

Tuesday, October 6, 2020 at 10:30 a.m.

Attendees

  • Tori Carillo – she/her 
  • Nikki Fargas – she/her  
  • Shinhee Jeong – she/her 
  • Kimberly LeCompte – she/her
  • John Lewis – he/him 
  • Kyla Martin – she/her 
  • Erin McKinley – she/her 
  • John Miles –he/him
  • Tammy Millican – she/her 
  • Dereck Rovaris – he/him 
  • Damien Rubin – he/his 
  • Summer Steib –she/her 

Update on the LSU Diversity and Inclusion Roadmap and UCGE’s role in implementing initiatives – Vice Provost for Diversity and Chief Diversity Officer, Dr. Dereck J. Rovaris (he/him/his) 

Nine groups comprised of faculty, staff, and administrators from across campus came together to form the Roadmap. Each group create 12-15 goals and at this time I would estimate that 25% of the goals have been realized or started.  For UCGE there are goals outlined around pay scale equity, rank and tenure for faculty, recruitment, what gender across fields and across campuses.  

History of UCGE – Director of the Women’s Center, Summer Steib (she/her/hers) 

UCGE has existed for 10 years as a standing body under various names such as the Commission on the Status of Women and the University Council on Women. Seven years ago, the former Interim Vice Provost for Diversity, Kenneth Miles, worked to expand the focus to look more broadly at issues that intersect with gender in some way at LSU which is why the name became the University Council on Gender Equity (UCGE). The committee has administrators, faculty, staff, and students (graduate and undergraduate) and addresses issues on campus through research, programming, assessments, and provides recommendations for practice and policies on campus. UCGE has worked on projects such as a study on dependent care in which a white paper was produced, stop the tenure clock, the Closing the Gap lecture series, reviewing policies and practices related to pregnancy and parenting, and mental health support for University employees.  

Update on MindWise, mental health platform for faculty and staff – Kim LeCompte (she/her/hers) 

The Mental Health subcommittee was originally going to propose to campus leadership and ask for resources to buy mind wise for University employees. Then the pandemic happened and everything was put on pause, but the University remained committed to supporting mental health and wellbeing of LSU employees. I was given the opportunity to present this to Human Resources and Leadership and was given approval to move forward with the purchase. 

As of October 1, the platform officially launched and is available to University employees to use. It provides privacy for staff and faculty to anonymously take assessments and find the support they may need for mental health challenges.

Discussion of UCGE Subcommittees – UCGE Chair, Tammy Millican (she/her/hers) 

  • Closing the gap panels 
    • Engaging Men as Allies Panel 
    • Work-Life-Family Balance in the pandemic  
    • Experience of Faculty and Staff who work at LSU but are not from the United States, not their birthplace (I.e. international, permanent residents, naturalized citizens) 
  • Salary disparity for staff 
  • Experiences of Women of Color – faculty, staff, and graduate students 
  • Changes in Title IX – what is the impact? 
  • The impact of the pandemic on women working at LSU – what recommendations to make? 
  • Essential staff on campus, mostly women, mostly women of color – what can be done? Why is this the situation? What are the challenges they are facing? 

Announcements and Closing – Everyone 

  • Membership Directory form
  • Breakfast Break for October in the Women’s Center
  • Pregnancy & Parenting Program
  • Hispanic Heritage Month is September 15 through October 15 as well as LGBTQ* History Month which is October 1 - October 31. There are several activities happening so please look at the OMA, the Women's Center and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion websites where you can find calendars of events.