The Daily Bruin carries a piece about an outside
Academic Senate review of the Anderson School and the problems faced by women
faculty. An interesting question
emerges: Change the students or the faculty?
Women faculty at the
UCLA Anderson School of Management consistently experience an inhospitable work
environment and fewer career advancement opportunities than their male peers,
several university reports reveal. In a
University of California Academic Senate report obtained by the Daily Bruin
that was conducted during the 2013 fall quarter, reviewers identified the
school’s current climate for women faculty as one of the primary challenges
facing the business school. Another
internal report reviewing gender inequity at the school back in 2006 likewise
identified several problems for women faculty, such as negative student
behavior and gendered differences in promotional decisions, and outlined steps
to address it. Eight years later,
however, the same issues remain, and many female professors at the school say
the reports continue to reflect reality...
One issue is some male students
challenging the authority of female professors in disruptive ways. The school’s reliance on student evaluations
in the performance review process amplifies this particular issue. When the
students who challenge the professors’ authority in the classroom then become
responsible for evaluating them, it can sometimes hinder career advancement for
female professors...
Full article at http://dailybruin.com/2014/06/02/report-reveals-gender-inequity-in-ucla-anderson-faculty/
Blog readers will recall our posting links to a series of
articles on the Harvard Business School which also pointed to an unproductive
student-led atmosphere. Here are links
to those earlier postings:
In short, there seems to be a selection bias in student
admissions that leads to misbehavior which is then tolerated or at least not
discouraged. Keep in mind that we are
not talking about undergraduates or even just-out-of-college grad
students. We are talking about grad
students generally in their late 20s or older.
If there is a problem of basic civility and normal adult behavior in the
classroom, just tinkering with the student evaluation system or giving it less
weight relative to peer review (as the Senate report apparently suggests) won’t
solve the underlying problem.
Changing the student atmosphere isn’t the whole story
here. But it seems to be an important
part of the story. And it would require a change in admissions practices. More women students in the classroom might help.
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