November 10, 2005 UC Families Newsletter -- A new online newsletter and resource for faculty, staff and students who have parenting or other family responsibilities while pursuing academic goals or careers at University of California campuses. Circulation: 475 Moderator: Karie Frasch email: moderator_ucfam@parents.berkeley.edu Website: http://parents.berkeley.edu/ucfamilies Post a Message: http://parents.berkeley.edu/post_ucfam.html Posting messages to the UC Families newsletter: If you tried to post a message to the newsletter recently, you may have incorrectly received the error message that your name was not found on the list. We've corrected this problem, and everyone receiving this newsletter should now be able to post a message using the posting form on the web: http://parents.berkeley.edu/post_ucfam.html ---------------------------------------------- Contents ---------------------------------------------- *Welcome/Update *New postings Comment on Rigid Tenure System Attending Academic Conferences Pondering an Academic Career? Amenities Health Care Reimbursement Account Postdocs and Motherhood Looking for international student spouses to interview *Recent news Bias Against Caregiving: Faculty Members Rarely Take Advantage of Family-Friendly Workplace Policies. What Are We So Afraid Of? The Laws of Physics: A Postdoc’s Pregnancy Derails Her Career 3 New Studies Assess Effects of Child Care *Events At Berkeley: “Are babies and a career compatible?” Roundtable discussion with six female faculty ----------------------------------------------- *Welcome/Update ----------------------------------------------- Dear UC Families Subscribers, If this is the first newsletter you are receiving, the newsletter works by subscribers posting comments, questions, discussion topics, or current events to the list (these can be anonymous if desired). The moderator then compiles them, along with responses to past postings, and sends out regular newsletters. This is a great opportunity for faculty, staff, and students to post comments about addressing their academic work and family experiences, both positive and negative, and to get advice when they need it. It is our hope that it will also lead to more awareness of policies and programs, and ultimately further change the culture of the UC system to become more family friendly. Since sending the first newsletter on October 27th we have subscribed 140 new members to the list. We won’t list affiliations of everyone here because the list would be too long, but want to let you know that we are beginning to get subscribers from each of the UC campuses as word about the newsletter spreads - we subscribed 23 members from UCLA medicine affiliated departments and 20 members from UCSF. ---------------------------------------------- *New postings ---------------------------------------------- If you have advice, comments, or feedback please send a response message for us to post: http://parents.berkeley.edu/post_ucfam.html Comment on Rigid Tenure System ------------------------------------------- Regarding the question of motherhood and academia, I feel compelled to respond to the following line from a recent article: ''We were shocked to find that we have all of these great policies, but nobody knew about them,'' said Ms. Switkes. ''They were buried way down deep in some policy documents.'' The ''great policies'' to which Ms. Switkes refers, are things like taking maternity leave, and stopping the tenure clock for a single year (or maybe a couple of years). Or perhaps a semester or twos break from teaching. Unfortunately, these policies do not address my ultimate problem with academia. I have a Ph.D., enjoy research, and have always dreamt of being a professor. However, I’ve never actually applied for a position. Why not? The answer is simple. I have never actually met a female professor who didn’t have either a husband with a flexible schedule, or a nanny (even when their children were in school), or both. I have also never met one who didn’t say that she had to work 60 hours or more a week, at least some weeks, or grade papers at 3:00 in the morning, or something to that effect. My husband has an extremely rigid schedule. He has to work 60 hours or more a week, if he wants to keep his job which he does. I don’t have a nanny. And I am at my limit with the 35-40 hours per week I now work. No way can I work 60 hour weeks, even sometimes. As I see it, taking maternity leave, or stopping the tenure clock for a year or two, doesn’t fix the problem that when the maternity leave is over, and the clock is running again, I will be expected to work those 60 hour weeks. So, there’s no professorship for me. The only thing that would work would be a part-time position. Logically, half of a 60 to 80 hour week would be 30 or 40 hours, which would be just fine. I’d be getting paid a lot less, but at least I’d have a life outside my lab. Karen Conferences ------------------------------------------- How do others manage conferences with kids? I'm the one who does most of the drop off/pick up of the kids from childcare since my spouse's hours don't allow him to do this. I've consequently said no to a lot of conferences because the logistics of childcare are so complicated, plus he can only handle being a single parent so long(i.e., one or two days). But saying no cuts off networking opportunities and access to knowing ''the cutting edge'' in my field. I took my baby to two conferences and hired babysitters, but this isn't ideal - it exhausts me, doesn't deal with the oldest child, plus hurts with the networking. (And, to be honest, I need the occasional break from motherhood to recharge my mothering batteries.) Conferences are an integral part of academic life. Any suggestions on how to make the work/family balance work here? -pulled in two directions Pondering an academic career? ------------------------------------------- For any of you pondering pursuing an academic career and wanting to balance that with a family life: I'd like to add my story as a potential ray of hope so that some of you may not be discouraged by what you are reading everywhere about the entrenched difficulties in combining academia and children. On one hand, the open dialogue and introspection by university officials and individuals about these problems and biases that is finally occurring is essential to correcting them. I am encouraged that these difficulties are being discussed in a variety of settings, both here at this website and at the national level with high-level university officials (e.g., Oct 27 2005 UC Families Newsletter). On the other hand, the relentless stories about how un-family-friendly so many institutions are make me also worry that they will frighten away qualified people from even applying for academic positions; but that will ultimately have the effect that it will take even longer for universities to become truly family friendly. So here's my story. I was hired at UC Berkeley into an assistant professor position (50% chemistry, 50% earth science) at 35 years old. My biological clock meant it would be risky to wait until after tenure to start a family. In my 3rd year, I had my first baby. Very fortunately, the chairs and vice chairs of the departments knew about UC's family policies and stongly encouraged me to take advantage of them (although even they did not stress that my husband could take advantage of some of them, too, which would have helped me out even more!). I postponed my tenure decision a year and I had teaching relief for a semester. These policies were essential in helping me adjust to new parenthood and to continue my research. For some inexplicable reason, I wanted another child and became pregnant in my fifth year. Although I could have officially postponed my tenure decision another year, I turned in my tenure package 3 days before my second child was born as I felt that if I didn't get tenure then, based on my work to date, then I wasn't going to get it period. I did get tenure and I feel, in my individual case, that the faculty and administration did not judge my case any differently than someone who had not taken a year off their tenure clock. I know there may be many cases in which discrimination has occurred, but I want to get the word out there that it is possible to be judged fairly and that I have managed to enjoy both being a parent and being a professor and have felt accepted by my colleagues. I feel that I have not had to fight in my particular career to see that I be treated fairly -- fortunately for me, that fighting was done by women who came before me in my departments (and who continue to do so in the higher level of the administration) so that I have been more free to teach, do research, and enjoy my family. So, if you are truly interested in and inspired by an academic job, I hope you will give it a go and see where your individual trajectory takes you. The good news about all this dialogue about how many things can go wrong in academe is that you will go forth ''armed'' with the power of information -- information on your rights and on past and potential problems with the university system, as highlighted in this newsletter, and this information will provide you with better protection should you need it and knowing who to see early if you perceive potential problems. Kristie Amenities ------------------------------------------- Does anyone have great insights on how to attain support while in student housing? (support for us = daily maid, dishwashing, laundry, etc.) When hunting for a good university, we came across one that had a top-tier student support system that included (if I remember correctly): * Maid service attached to your rent: You sign up online & since it is run through the university housing dept, you don't have to worry about copying your house key, being home, giving instructions, etc. You just check off the type & level of service you need. * Other amenities such as dry-cleaning pick-up (from your home), grocery delivery (again, no worry about keys—they put it straight into your fridge), and other support services along those lines. My husband is entering grad school next year and I'm hoping to start the year after. He's going for the MBA evening program since he wants to keep his day job (which he loves). I'd like to go for my PhD, but I don't want to give up my writing career. I'm fully aware that something has got to give. We have four kids & we've worked out some tricky scheduling to allow for ample family time. We've done several trial runs & it works great as long as we don't have to worry about any grunt work in the background. Does anybody know if this type of support service is available at UC Berkeley? Has anyone else experienced the type of need we are about to experience? -future grad student Health Care Reimbursement Account ------------------------------------------- I signed up for the first two years that HCRA's were available to UC employees, and I've sat out this third year. The Reason: it takes too much time to deal with the paperwork if you have let say less than $1000 per year in reimburseable expenses. The tax advantage doesn't outweigh the effort needed to get it. Are there others out there with a similar/differing opinioins? Liz Postdocs and motherhood ----------------------------------------------------- From the forum moderator at the Chronicle of Higher Education: Postdoctoral researchers in the sciences – more than half of whom are between the ages of 30 and 35 – work long hours to meet deadlines imposed by federal grants, are often ineligible for family leave, and are dependent on the good will of a single faculty supervisor. As a result, many female postdocs say having children would end their careers. Should federal grantmakers allow temporary replacements to fill in for postdoctoral researchers on maternity leave? What else might be done to allow postdocs to pursue research and motherhood? Or must female scientists simply make a difficult choice? (see November 11th article below) Looking for International Student Spouses ------------------------------------------- Dear all, I'm Jun, a second-year student from the graduate school of journalism at Berkeley. I'm working on a story of the international students' spouses’ life. I'm interested in this story because the spouses, especially the husbands, are experiencing or experienced a huge change and face many challenges after moving here. Besides the spouses, I'll interview other sources to find out the support offered to them. So, if you are a student spouse at any UC campus and can talk with me a little bit about your experience living here, would you please shoot me an email? I'd like to explain more of my story. Thanks so much! Have a great day! -Jun Jun ----------------------------------------------------------------- *Recent articles from various media outlets addressing work/life issues ----------------------------------------------------------------- -- feel free to post comments or discussion points about any of these http://parents.berkeley.edu/post_ucfam.html 1. “Bias Against Caregiving: Faculty Members Rarely Take Advantage of Family-Friendly Workplace Policies. What are We So Afraid Of?” By Robert Drago, Carol Colbeck, Kai Dawn Stauffer, Amy Pirretti, Kurt Burkum, Jennifer Fazioli, Gabriela Lazarro, and Tara Habasevich Academe, Sept/October: http://www.aaup.org/publications/Academe/2005/05so/05sodrag.htm 2. “The Laws of Physics: A Postdoc’s Pregnancy Derails Her Career” By Robin Wilson. November 11, 2005 The Chronicle of Higher Education http://chronicle.com/free/v52/i12/12a01001.htm 3. 3 New Studies Assess Effects of Child Care By Tamar Lewin, November 1, 2005 New York Times --------------------------------------------- Current events ---------------------------------------------- Are babies and a career compatible? GRADUATE WOMENS PROJECT INVITES YOU TO A Round Table With Six Female Berkeley Faculty and Dean Mason Do Babies Matter? (Part II) Monday November 14th, from 11-1 Tilden Room, 5th Floor, MLK Student Union (across from Sproul Hall) ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND! Light Lunch Following * Research conducted by Dean Mason and Marc Goulden suggests that having a family may slow the career progress of women faculty. But does achieving academic success first leave time for children later? Six female Berkeley Professors and Dean Mary Ann Mason will address these issues by discussing their experiences both as parents and as university professors seeking tenure. Please see: http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/deans/mason/index.shtml/ RSVP to the GWP coordinator appreciated! Chrissy1@berkeley.edu --------------------------------------------------------------------- - Post a message * http://parents.berkeley.edu/post.html - Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Address Changes, Help * http://parents.berkeley.edu/subscribers.html