ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Award: RAMP-UP: Reforming Advancement Processes through Institutional Transformation

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY

Investigators

Abstract

The goal of RAMP-UP, Rensselaer's Program for Institutional Transformation, is to reform university advancement processes to increase the participation of women in the senior ranks, particularly in science and engineering. Using a model of professional self-regulation, RAMP-UP puts the work of reforming academic advancement squarely in the hands of the self-regulating mechanisms found at all levels of the university at the department, at the school, at the university, and on the professions as a whole. RAMP-UP builds on a deep understanding of the systemic issues to reform advancement processes starting at the department level. Pipeline departments ( departments that have succeeded in bringing in women into the junior ranks, but still lack a senior presence ) will focus on enhancing the departmental environment to support the full participation of women faculty with the goal of identifying and recruiting senior researchers from industry. Cluster departments ( departments that have already developed significant clusters of women ranging from junior through senior ranks) will work to reform advancement processes by developing departmental Guides to Advancement and investing in community building. Transformation Departments (departments that have barriers to post-tenure advancement) will pursue an in-depth understanding of the departmental dynamics that contribute to the barriers for post-tenure women, and will implement faculty development plans to alleviate the institutional barriers to advancement. RPI also plans to further develop a program of School-level Faculty Advocates to serve as advocates and advisors for individual faculty members, and to lead an effort to produce School Guidelines that will make annual review more transparent, fair, and consistent. To make advancement processes more equitable at the university level, Ramp-Up is directing three activities. First, under the auspices of the Faculty Senate, a Faculty Senate Task Force for the Revision of the Faculty Handbook is codifying advancement processes. Second, an Open BioSketch database is being created to provide decision makers and candidates with concrete information about prior successful cases of advancement. Third, an Institute Advocate, in a new three-year faculty position within the Office of Institute Diversity, has begun to serve as a liaison between individual faculty and the university hierarchy at all levels including promotion and tenure deliberations. At the national level, Ramp-Up will partner with senior ADVANCE faculty on projects targeted to reforming professional associations, including Publications Guidelines for Bias-Free Review to assist academic publications to implement double blind peer review. This project's intellectual merit is reflected in the application of the conceptual framework of professional self-regulation to systematically address reform through a series of projects integrated across all levels of the profession. The broader impact of this work will be in providing another model for advancement reform, in the context of a private polytechnic research university.