On Friday, April 3, contacts from campuses across the state gathered at the UNC Chapel Hill Friday Center to hear about options for connecting AAUW to their campuses. This event was hosted by Elmira Mangum, UNC Chapel Hill Senior Associate Provost, AAUW College/University Representative for UNC-CH, and AAUW NC College/University Chair. About 35 attendees representing about a dozen campuses heard more about AAUW and its college/university program and how AAUW membership can benefit faculty, staff and students on campus.

Presentations

1. AAUW Overview - Sheila Bassoppo-Moyo, AAUW NC Membership VP

2. AAUW College/University Partnerships — Elmira Mangum, AAUW NC College/University Chair

3. AAUW Individual Membership Options - Nancy Shoemaker, AAUW NC Past President

4. AAUW Branch Connections — Mary Fran Schickedantz, AAUW NC Past President

5. AAUW Chapel Hill Branch - an example — Kay White, AAUW Chapel Hill President

Links for more information

• AAUW information on College/University partnerships
  • Benefits of Membership
  • Current C/U partners in NC
  • Brochure
• More links for campus info
  • National Conference for College Women Student Leaders
  • Fellowships and grants (4/7/09 presentation at Duke)
  • Campus Action Projects
  • Research reports (handout)
  • Even more links and connections
• Links for individuals
  • Member benefits
  • Join the national organization
  • Join the AAUW Tar Heel Branch -serving all of North Carolina
  • Map of community branches in NC
  • More about AAUW North Carolina: www.aauwnc.org

First, she gave highlights of a booklet produced by AAUW Fremont (CA): From Near Disbandment to Success: The Fremont AAUW Story.

Learn how Fremont, California AAUW devised and implemented a business model to reverse the trend of declining membership. Within two years of applying their model, branch membership increased from 77 to 162.

AAUW NC purchased a copy that you can borrow from Sheila (see contacts) or you can send for your own copy. $20 includes cost of shipping and handling. Make check payable to Fremont AAUW and mail to PO Box 8254, Fremont, CA 94537-8254. Please include your name, branch, address, phone number & e-mail.

Then she covered the highlights of the AAUW Membership VP Toolkit. That was sent in late summer to all branch Membeship VPs and includes the 2008 Leadership DVD and accompanying CD of resources. It also includes a special membership vp CD of resources. The documents and information are, of course, almost all on www.aauw.org, but if you’d like to see their arrangement as presented to the memership vps, they’ve been uploaded to the AAUW NC member center. Start at this table of contents page (login as you would to view the AAUW NC branch state rosters).

Here are the slides:

Again, if you have questions, please contact Sheila (contacts)

RSS for AAUW Webmanagers

Wednesday, October 15
8 p.m - 9:30 p.m

This site reposts AAUW headlines (see the right sidebar), and some of the branch sites (including Raleigh and Winston-Salem) repost both AAUW and AAUW NC headlines. If you’d like to learn more about RSS and how to use it to share information with other sites, please register for this event: http://www.tinyurl.com/webinar-rss.

For more information, see http://wiki.bbvx.org/index.php?title=Webinar:_RSS.

• Presentation as a flash movie (should work for everyone)
• Presentation as a PowerPoint file (you’ll need PowerPoint or the free PPT viewer)
• Presentation as a PDF (six slides per page)

At the AAUW NC 2008 Summer Meeting, Carolyn Garfein, member of the AAUW Educational Foundation board, spoke to us about recent changes in AAUW and the proposed changes for the organization once AAUW (the membership organization) and the Educational Foundation (the charitable arm) combine their assets and activities as of July 1, 2009 (as voted at the 2007 national convention).

The proposed bylaws were distributed by e-mail to AAUW leaders earlier in the month, and AAUW NC President, Millie Hoffler-Foushee printed copies for the attendees at the meeting. See AAUW Indiana for the text of the proposed bylaws and an explanatory memo

Handouts for Carolyn’s presentation

If you’d like to show the info to a group (rather than just distribute the handouts and/or the proposed bylaws or other information) here are Carolyn’s slides -

• Presentation as a flash movie (should work for everyone)
• Presentation as a PowerPoint file (you’ll need PowerPoint or the free PPT viewer)
• Presentation as a PDF (six slides per page)

For more information on the changes, see AAUW Briefing Series (in the www.aauw.org Member Center).

Equity is still an issue!

In AAUW, we advance equity for women and girls through:

1. Research on equity issues that impact the lives of women and girls and which resonate with members of the community.
2. Education for ourselves on those issues so we can discover the opportunities for us to fight those inequities, while we also encourage education on all fronts as the best strategy to decrease inequity overall
3. Advocacy to carry out what we learn and “shape the future” with work in our schools, our legislatures, courts and our communities.

Our current theme is Education as the Gateway to Women’s Economic Security which shapes our work and informs our projects. Many of those are based on pay equity.

Pay Equity

In the spring of 2007, we published Behind the Pay Gap which reports that just one year out of college, women working full time already earn less than their male colleagues, even when they work in the same field. Ten years after graduation, the pay gap widens. At the conference we had some copies of the executive summary, and review copies of the full report. You can download those here:

• 12-page Executive Summary of Behind the Pay Gap
• Download Behind the Pay Gap

To learn more about pay equity and how you can combat it, check these resources

• Request download link for Pay Equity Resource Kit.
• Additional Pay Equity information from aauw.org

Other Reports and Resource Kits

The following additional kits were also on display at the conference

• Download Where the Girls Are, the Spring 2008 report on girls’ educational achievement
  Policy recommendations
• Request download link for Woman-to-Woman Voter Turnout Guide
  Updated for 2008, this is a key reference for your GOTV efforts
• Request download link for Affirmative Action Resource Kit
  Additional Affirmative Action information from aauw.org
• Request download link for Title IX Resource Kit
  Additional Title IX information from aauw.org
• Download Young Advocates Toolkit from ncchild.org
  Additional information on using the toolkit from aauwnc.org

Please contact info@aauwnc.org if you’d like to partner with AAUW members in NC to make use of those kits, but feel free to use the information with your stakeholders.

Additional Resources

• All AAUW Research Reports, including series on sexual harassment, women in the workplace, equity issues on campuses, and gender equity in the schools. The Educational Foundation reports began in 1991-1992 with the publication of Shortchanging Girls: Shortchanging America, the groundbreaking research that changed the conversation about girls in the schools.
• More on AAUW Public Policy positions
• and the AAUW
• The AAUW Educational Foundation is the largest source of funding for graduate student women. See www.aauw.org for information on fellowships and grants and our work to end sex discrimination in higher education.

Do you want to learn more?

• Follow AAUW and AAUW NC updates through RSS feeds. [Note that you can “subscribe” to RSS feeds through e-mail using sites like rssfwd.com, but also consider upgrading your web browsing practices to use an RSS reader. See www.aauw.org for an overview. Note that both of these sites allow you to subscribe to just a subset of the news. AAUW NC’s public policy feed and AAUW’s equity issues and legislative alerts feeds may be of particular interest.
• Join us! Members have access to members-only resources like a series of e-mail lists and
  • the weekly Washington Update
  • downloads available only to members - for example, the branch public policy chair resource guide
  By joining AAUW,
  you belong to a community that
  breaks through educational and economic barriers
  so that all women have a fair chance.

  For information on joining AAUW NC or a branch in North Carolina, please contact info@aauwnc.org.

AAUW Overview

If you have time, please watch this 6.5 minute video for more about AAUW. Everyone speaking is an AAUW member:

Here are the handouts for that meeting:

• Overview
  • The branch as a bookshelf
  • Picture of the mission
• Samples of mission in action — see more at www.aauw.org
  • Advocacy: Pay Equity ideas (more at www.aauw.org)
  • Education: National Girls Collaborative Project - see ngcproject.org and and the Science House
  • National Conference for College Women Student Leaders (more at nccwsl.org)
  • Research: History of Eleanor Roosevelt Fund publications
• Other handouts
  • Executive Summary of “Title IX at 35″ (full report)
  • NC Women United report card on 2007 legislative session (more at ncwu.org)
• Staying in the loop
  • Comparing AAUW NC and AAUW Asheville web sites (www.aauwnc.org, asheville.aauwnc.org)
  • Sample AAUW NC e-newsletters: state, national (current editions)

We invite you to join us at our annual meeting in Greensboro, April 19 (more information) or to contact one of our state officers or branch leaders to discuss how our members can work with you in the future.

Here is the “virtual packet” we’ll make available to the attendees at the meeting.

• AAUW Overview
  • AAUW promotes equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. We hope this summary of its efforts gives a mosaic of how its work can benefit you and your institutions.
  • Young Advocates ToolKit - from Action for Children NC
    • This can be an important resource for students getting started in issue advocacy. Please contact us if you’d like additional copies of the toolkit.
    • For more on how this is being used around the state, check other articles on this website
  • Tell your students about the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders - June 5-7 at Georgetown University in DC. Scholarships are available from AAUW, and watch this site for an announcement of NC sponsored scholarships. Encourage a young woman to unleash her potential with this outstanding program!
  • The National Girls Collaborative Project has been created to improve the collaboration across the spectrum of organizations that encourage girls’ interests in science, technology, engineering, and math. If this is one of your concerns, register with the project to get connected to their resources and help build the collaborative. AAUW is a national partner, and The Science House at NC State University is the local lead organization.
  • Given the conference theme of Global Resources, please do check out the AAUW International Corner.
• AAUW research reports
  • Drawing the Line:Sexual Harassment on Campus. Executive Summary (or download the full report).
    • Describes the findings from a nationally representative survey of undergraduate college students conducted in spring 2005. More …
  • Behind the Pay Gap. Executive Summary (or download the full report)
    • Research released in April 2007 by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation shows that just one year out of college, women working full time already earn less than their male colleagues, even when they work in the same field. Ten years after graduation, the pay gap widens. More …
  • Copy of Tenure Denied: Cases of Sex Discrimination in Academia. Overview
    • A qualitative research report based on the Legal Advocacy Fund’s archive of sex discrimination cases. More …
  • List of all AAUW Research Reports
• AAUW Brochures
  • Information on AAUW Educational Foundation Fellowships
    • The Educational Foundation is one of the world’s largest sources of funding for graduate women.
    • The 2008-2009 deadlines have passed, but expect new forms to be similar. Watch for them in late summer.
  • Information on the AAUW Legal Advocacy Fund
    • Provides funding and a support system for individuals seeking judicial redress for sex discrimination, including support for the plaintiff in the recently settled Jennings v. UNC-Chapel Hill, the first LAF supported case against an institution in North Carolina.
    • LAF also presents an annual Progress in Equity Award that recognizes a college or university program that has resulted in significant progress for women on campus. The deadline for the 2008 award is March 14.
    • Copy of most recent LAF Update (including info on Jennings v. UNC-CH)
  • Information on joining AAUW
    • Individuals with an associates or higher degree may join as individuals or through one of the branches
    • Students may become affiliates of the Association at a significantly lower fee
    • Two- and four-year degree granting institutions may become partners of the Association for a fee that depends on enrollment
    • Summary of information on joining
• Public policy and AAUW
  • As we said, advocacy is a core focus of AAUW. At the federal and state level we are concerned about legislation affecting women and girls and education at all levels.
  • We work in coalition with other groups, including NC Women United and Action for Children NC.
  • Public policy principles and priorities: AAUW 2007-2009, North Carolina 2007-2009.
  • For more information see the national resources and state news.
• AAUW NC publications
  • Summer 2007 issue of the state newsletter with a summary of our 2007 convention
  • Page 1 of the Fall 2007 issue of the newsletter with a summary of the Young Advocates Toolkit project
  • Please see the Spring 2008 issue (not yet printed) for information on the April 19 AAUW NC annual meeting in Greensboro.
• Other resources
  • Title IX at 35 - Executive Summary (or download the full report)
    • a report of the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education, ncwge.org.
    • AAUW is a member of the Coalition, and its Director of Public Policy serves as chair
  • Young Advocates ToolKit - from Action for Children NC

  If you have time, please watch this 6.5 minute video for more about AAUW. Everyone speaking is an AAUW member:
  

Dean Raymond C. Peirce opened the event and recalled his experiences as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Civil Rights in the US Department of Education during the Clinton administration, when he and his staff collaborated with AAUW, the Women’s Law Center and other organizations on Title IX issues. He also welcomed visitors to the NC Central School of Law, the oldest law school at a public historically black college or university. It is the 7th most diverse law school in the country and is one that does an exceptional job in preparing women and minorities for legal careers.

Samantha Younker, co-chair of the NCCU Women’s Law Caucus introduced Ms. Galles.

Galles, chair of the American Bar Association Committee on the Rights of Women, started her talk with an acknowledgment of the week’s events: Martin Luther King Day and the 35th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade. She mentioned that Sarah Weddington would be speaking at a February 21 ABA-sponsored teleconference.

She included stories of her own legal education at Washington University, with very few women students and fewer women on the faculty. She shared her passion for participation in sports — from softball in college, to basketball on law firms’ teams — that formed a foundation for her concentration on Title IX cases, a civil rights area that does require specific expertise to ensure the plaintiff’s cases are heard appropriately.

Much of her talk was a history of Title IX from its inception in the 1960’s, through the legal challenges of the 70’s, to the gutting of the law in the 80’s by a Supreme Court ruling that limited coverage to the program directly receiving federal funds rather than the entire institution. Congress passed corrective legislative over a presidential veto in the late 1980s, which allowed for meaningful enforcement of Title IX for the first time. In 2003, AAUW was a key part of the Coalition for Title IX, which worked successfully to combat changes to Title IX policies and regulations. Throughout she shared her personal experiences, some of which overlapped with those of Dean Pierce.

She reviewed several cases related to Title IX that have been supported by the AAUW Legal Advocacy Fund including Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education. She shared current statistics on gender equity in athletics at NCCU, Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill and NCSU. [See http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/main.asp for the statistics.]

Her talk was sprinkled with suggestions for and challenges to the women law students in the audience. The speaker was thanked by Jenny Brobst of the NCCU Law School faculty and Nancy Shoemaker of AAUW NC, and the session adjourned to lively discussions at a reception sponsored by the Student Bar Association. Participants from outside the law school included representatives of the AAUW branches in Raleigh and Chapel Hill, Chimi Boyd, Director of the NCCU Women’s Center, and Susan Dotson-Smith, president of the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys.

Join AAUW at NC Central University

To continue this discussion and support the work of AAUW, an AAUW @ NCCU is forming. Please contact Chimi Boyd in the NCCU Women’s Center at womenscenter@nccu.edu.

Handouts from the event included:

• Drawing the Line:Sexual Harassment on Campus. Executive Summary (or download the full report).
  • Describes the findings from a nationally representative survey of undergraduate college students conducted in spring 2005. More …
• Behind the Pay Gap. Executive Summary (or download the full report)
  • Research released in April 2007 by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation shows that just one year out of college, women working full time already earn less than their male colleagues, even when they work in the same field. Ten years after graduation, the pay gap widens. More …
• Copy of Tenure Denied: Cases of Sex Discrimination in Academia. Overview
  • A qualitative research report based on the Legal Advocacy Fund’s archive of sex discrimination cases. More …
• Copy of most recent LAF Update (including info on Jennings v. UNC-CH)
• Information on AAUW Educational Foundation Fellowships
  • The Educational Foundation is one of the world’s largest sources of funding for graduate women.
  • See, in particular, selected professions fellowships — support women of color working towards a J.D.
• Information on the AAUW Legal Advocacy Fund
  • Provides funding and a support system for individuals seeking judicial redress for sex discrimination
  • In addition to the cases Ms. Galles described, LAF also presents an annual Progress in Equity Award that recognizes a college or university program that has resulted in significant progress for women on campus. The deadline for the 2008 award is March 14.
• Information on AAUW Membership

We also had

• copies of a flyer on the National Girls Collaborative Project, working to encourage girls’ interest in science, technology, engineering and math, and
• samples of AAUW Resource Kits on Title IX, Affirmative Action, Pay Equity
  • More on AAUW policy work
• samples of the NC Action for Children’s Young Advocates Tool Kit