Interim Report to the AS&E Faculty

AS&E Faculty Work/Life Balance Task Force

April 27, 2011

Name Dept. Title RoleDunn, Kevin English Assoc. Professor Co-Chair

Remick, Elizabeth Political Science Assoc. Professor Co-Chair

Baise, Laurie Civil Engineering Assoc. Professor

Cowen, Lenore Computer Science Professor Spring ’11 only

Gallagher, Hugh Physics/Astronomy Assoc. Professor

Penvenne, Jeanne History Assoc. Professor

Wu, Jean American Studies Senior Lecturer

Davies, Margery Diversity, AS&E Director Ex-Officio, non-voting

Abriola, Linda

Berger-Sweeney, Joanne

Engineering

Arts and Sciences

Dean

Dean

Ex-Officio, non-voting

Task Force roster: 2010-2011

• Gather information about Tufts’ current work/life policies and practices for full-time faculty

• Identify best practices in the academy

• Make recommendations appropriate for our community

Charge of the Task Force

Recommend policies that will:

• Aid in recruitment and retention of excellent faculty

• Increase productivity throughout the faculty life course

• Improve faculty quality of life

Goals

AS&E faculty needs• Chairs’ survey• COACHE survey (2008-9)• HERI survey• Consultation with relevant faculty groups on campus

Tufts’ current policies and practices• Consultation with administrators• Faculty Handbook

Best practices• Benchmarking of peer institutions• Review of scholarly literature

Methodology of the Task Force: Data-driven

Benchmarking: Comparison institutions

Group 1: Tufts’ peers

Boston College Georgetown

Brown Johns Hopkins

Columbia Northwestern

Cornell University of Pennsylvania

Dartmouth Washington University in St. Duke Louis

Benchmarking: Comparison institutions

Group 2: National leaders in work/life practices

Emory UCLA

Harvard University of Michigan

MIT University of Virginia

University of Arizona University of Southern California

UC Berkeley University of Washington

Benchmarking: Policy areas

• Elder care• Child care• Care of ill spouse/partner or other adult dependent• Leave for childbirth or adoption• Tenure clock stoppage• Housing• Administrative support around work/life issues• Dual career issues• Tuition benefits for dependents

Preliminary observations from HERI data

• 187 respondents from AS&E

• 26% rate of return

• Full-time (88%) and part-time (12%) faculty

Dependent care has a profound impact on faculty throughout the life course.

Preliminary observations from HERI data

Faculty reported that they were “somewhat” or “extensive[ly]” stressed over the following forms of dependent care over the past two years:

• Child care: 42% (tenure-track 58%)

• Care of spouse or partner: 41% (tenured faculty 45%)

• Elder care: 27% (tenured faculty 28%; tenure-track 6%)

• 50% of all respondents reported missing work days in the last two years in order to do dependent care, including 14% who missed 6-10 days, 6% who missed 11-20 days and 7% who missed more than 20 days.

• 31% of women respondents (and 21% of all respondents) said that the cost of dependent care had prevented them from attending conferences or taking part in research or other professional activities that take them away from home.

Preliminary Observations from HERI dataDependent care problems have led to lower faculty productivity: missed days of work and missed professional opportunities.

Conclusions/Next Steps

• Task Force is still analyzing the HERI data and formulating recommendations

• President Bacow has extended our charge to Fall 2011, and we will report with recommendations then

• Contact Kevin Dunn (kevin.dunn@tufts.edu) or Elizabeth Remick (elizabeth.remick@tufts.edu)

E-lists for dependent care support

• Drawing on knowledge of Tufts community members: local resources, information

• E-list for elder/adult care

• E-list for child care

• Faculty and staff welcome

• To join, please contact Tina Schiavone at Tina.Schiavone@tufts.edu