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| David Chow |
Just by counting heads on the Quarter Mile, it’s easy to see the gender breakdown at RIT. It has become a fact of life: Men outnumber women on campus by about seven to three. Change, however, is on the horizon.
In accordance with a goal set by RIT President William Destler, a commission was formed to increase the ratio of undergraduate women. The Commission on Women, cochaired by Mary-Beth Cooper, Vice President for Student Affairs, and Margaret Bailey, Associate Professor in the Kate Gleason College of Engineering, is charged with developing a plan for creating a “cultural and academic transformation.”
According to Bailey, “[Destler] set a five-year goal to increase the percentage of women from around 30% to 40%... for RIT that’s a significant increase.”
The Commission on Women (made up of “men and women from across the university”) drafted a list of proposals to meet this new goal, according to Bailey. “Together, we crafted a document that includes a number of different strategies… ranging from investigating new program development... [to] supporting college and admission recruitment programs for women.”
The document called for an “Institutional Transformation,” involving an assessment of the “marketability of RIT to women.” Remarked Bailey, “One of the recommendations was to look at the way RIT addresses... undecided type students.” “It may help us attract more women.” While women are not more likely to be undecided, she said, undecided applicants represent a large demographic to which RIT doesn’t currently cater.
The main difficulty lies in overcoming the status quo. “We have held steady at 30%... for at least two decades. So in order to achieve that goal... [it] would take a significant effort,” said Bailey.
In some cases, those efforts have already begun. According to Marian Nicoletti, a Senior Associate Director of Admissions and member of the Commission on Women, recruitment is starting at a much earlier age. Different women’s groups around campus are actively reaching out “to encourage women as far back as middle school.” Their goal is to make female students more aware of their options in math and science.
“A lot of schools will allow engineering students to come in and do workshops with the young students,” said Nicoletti. “Years before you were really limited to, ‘Do you want to be a math teacher or do you want to be a nurse?’”
“We’ve been doing separate recruitment for females,” stated Nicoletti. “We invite them to campus, we do special mailings to them... if they do decide to come... we try to let them know that there are support services... that there are women faculty in these programs.”
Beginning this year, noted Bailey, Destler has retooled the Commission on Women towards increasing the number of female faculty at RIT. The aim is to provide a more comfortable environment for female students.
That environment is important, Nicoletti said. The women groups aim “to provide a community once women get here.”
Small changes have already begun in admissions rates. “Overall, we brought in over 115 more women this fall than the fall before,” said Nicoletti. This represents about a 10% increase from last year. By 2012, if all goes according to Destler’s five-year plan, the numbers should be even higher.
