March 27, 2006 UC Families Newsletter Circulation: 719 Moderator: Karie Frasch email: ucfam@lists.berkeley.edu Website: http://parents.berkeley.edu/ucfamilies Post a Message: http://parents.berkeley.edu/post_ucfam.html MODERATOR NOTE: Our subscriber base for UC Families is continuing to grow, but more slowly outside of the bay area. If you are a subscriber at a non-Berkeley campus and know of others who may be interested in this newsletter please consider sending them the link to the website – http://parents.berkeley.edu/ucfamilies - or forwarding them the newsletter. Thank you. ---------------------------------------------- Contents ---------------------------------------------- *Responses Original post: Babies matter – academia and family Original post: Changes to family accommodation policies for all UC ladder-rank faculty, effective immediately Original post: Dealing with neighbor kids parents Original post: Berkeley High for Village residents? Original post: Is your department family friendly? *New postings Strategies for Spousal Hire Journalism school with wee ones? Looking for middle school with Math Counts Repost: Going back to school with children? PI's opinion Repost: Relocating to UCSD-Need Info *News/media A Dual Search Falters As Parents Age, Baby Boomers and Business Struggle to Cope *New members Since 3/15/06 ---------------------------------------------- *Responses ---------------------------------------------- You can post additional responses at: http://parents.berkeley.edu/post_ucfam.html Original post: Babies matter – academia and family ----------------------------------------------------- I have very much enjoyed reading the variety of thoughtful responses that have been posted regarding my ‘Babies Matter’ questions. It reminds me how important it is to have a venue for discussions that highlight the complexity of these issues for women and men who want to combine childrearing and academia. Now that additional family accommodations have recently become available to faculty with caregiving responsibilities, it will be important to publicize them, and to ensure that faculty feel comfortable using them. I was surprised that few graduate students weighed in on the dialogue, particularly in light of the fact that they are the next generation of women and men who will continue into faculty positions or opt for other choices. Age timelines for the receipt of the PhD continue to extend, so that the median age at PhD is now 33, and the median age at tenure is now 39 years of age. As many of you pointed out, it is becoming less and less an option for women faculty to postpone childbearing until after tenure. We must then do more to make childbearing feel like, and be a viable choice at the graduate level, as we are working to do at the assistant professor level. I hope that we can continue to engage in discussion on these valuable topics. Mary Ann Mason Response: Babies Matter - What about Fathers? ------------------------------------------- I had two children while in grad school (humanities) and filed at UCB last year. I would like to add my voice to those praising the Early Childhood Education centers and teachers. The excellent and subsidized (!) care given to my boys was probably the single greatest contributing factor to the completion of my PhD in a timely fashion, and to my sanity throughout. If families are important to the UC system, expanding the childcare system and solving its administrative problems is of primary importance. Also, I would like to point out the absence of fathers from this conversation, both in the way the question was raised and in the lack of responses from fathers. I know that grad student fathers are out there - did having children not affect any of your work? Doesn't this issue matter to men? More importantly, are we going to allow the thorny questions regarding families and academia to be only a woman's question (or burden)? Ayelet Response: Babies matter - academia and family ------------------------------------------- I am grateful for Mary Ann Mason's important scholarly work and have found the responses about ''when is the best time to have a baby'' thoughtful and interesting. But there is a way in which they make me feel invisible. Part of the difficulty (mostly for women) in combining academia with a full rich life (including family) is the difficulty in finding a partner. In my department, 40% of the female faculty are single/unpartnered as compared to 6% of the men. These statistics are not unusual. They suggest something systemic. Family- friendly policies are exceedingly important and I support them fully. But maybe there is something more deeply wrong with an academic culture that results in disparities like these. Although I love my work and feel that I'm making important contributions (and by all external markers am a ''success story''), if I could have looked this far into the future when starting graduate school, I think I would have made other choices. tenured and lonely Original post: Changes to family accommodation policies for all UC ladder-rank faculty, effective immediately -------------------------------------------------- On February 8, 2006, the President of the University of California announced major changes to family accommodation policies for ladder-rank faculty throughout the system. These changes, effective retroactively to January 1, 2006, provide for the first time, a comprehensive package of family friendly policies for women and men with caregiving responsibilities. One of the most significant changes to the family friendly package is the unambiguous message that faculty men and women, with substantial caregiving responsibilities, are entitled to the use of family accommodation policies, and may not be disadvantaged or prejudiced in promotions or advancement. The new family accommodations package is designed to support faculty over their life course. Birth mothers receive fully-paid childbearing leave. New parent caregivers, birth or adoptive, are entitled to a full term of ASMD; biological mothers receive a second term. The cost of replacement teachers is centralized to eliminate hardship for individual departments. Assistant professors who are new parents can automatically stop the tenure clock for one year (up to two years during the probationary period). All parents may at any time request up to a year of unpaid parental leave. And all faculty, pre- and post-tenure, may negotiate with their department to work part-time, temporarily or permanently, to accommodate their family needs. UC is now the leader among institutions of higher education in the United States on family friendly policies. While many other universities offer some of these policies, or additional ones we don’t have (such as a formal dual career program), none provide as comprehensive a package. What do you think about these changes? Do they go far enough? Will faculty feel safe using them when tenure and promotion are at stake? What must UC do to encourage faculty with caregiving responsibilities to take advantage of these policies? Will this persuade more women and men graduate students to pursue academic jobs at UC? Here is the link to the letter from President Dynes announcing the policies, and to the policy changes (the UC Families Newsletter is highlighted in his letter): http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/coordrev/policy/PP020806APMs.pdf -UC Families Moderator Response: New Policies ------------------------------------------- I think it is wonderful there are new policies for families- including paid leave for birth mothers. However, as a staff person at Cal, I would love to see them include more of these family-friendly policies to us. I have a 5 month old, and have been able to take time off using FMLA. It is unpaid however, because as staff members at UC, we do not pay into the state system that pays all other California employees for the FMLA (a portion of salary, but hey, that would be great!). Also, the cost of the ECEP is prohibitively expensive for Staff- they should be aware the salaries of most staff are well below market average. So more childcare on campus and childcare that is more reasonable would be great. Both my partner and I work at Cal and we were not able to get in. Finally, I don't know how other departments are, but it was very hard to try to come back on a part time basis to a job I love, so I ended up finding other work. I love working at Cal but would love to see the ENTIRE campus become more family friendly- if word can get out to those in charge, that would be great! Original post: Dealing with neighbor kids parents ------------------------------------------- My (soon to be 8 yr. old) son sometimes plays with this 5 year old boy next door. The boy usually comes over my house to play. I've never encouraged the relationship because of the boys mom. I should mention my son is the baby of the family, I also have a 12 year daughter and a 9 year old daughter (and a German Shepherd dog). And I work parttime. I've come to realize whenever my son plays with this boy he's held to some high standard. The mom is not shy about telling me all the things my boy (Nicholas) does wrong. One time my son gave Josh a piece of gum (he was sharing right?), well Josh took it out of his mouth and somehow got it stuck in his hair. The mom blamed Nicholas for giving him the piece of gum! My son also tends to snack too much during the day, well when Josh is over, naturally we offer the snack to him, only later to hear that Josh can't have too many snacks because it spoils his dinner. For these reasons and others, I feel the boy is too young to play with Nicholas. I should mention Josh is the oldest in his family and has a younger 3 yr. old sister. My son is having a birthday party and doesn't want Josh to come. I've tried to convince him we should invite him because they invite us, but he still doesn't want him there. I guess my question is, if I don't invite him I feel she will approach me and ask why her son isn't invited. If so, how do I handle this? Response to: dealing with neighbor kids parents ------------------------------------------- Hi, My daughter is now 15 years old and there were two seperate instances where she didn't want a particular kid at her party. I went along with her and said okay, fine, in order to honor her wishes. But in hindsight I wish I had told her that those people needed to be invited just to feel included, not that she needed to be best friends with them. Both the leftout kids were people she played with at school and there really wasn't much reason NOT to invite them. Sometimes we miss things that go on on their level, I think my daughter was feeling upset at them at that moment. There was fallout later from the mothers of those kids and I ended up feeling bad about not insisting that they come. I don't think it would've been the end of the world had they come. There were other kids there and they would've been part of the crowd. Also, I think it teaches kids that sometime you have to think of others for a moment and not just do things for yourself. I don't know if my daughter will remember either of these parties, and not wanting certain kids to come or not. I do have to say that she is a very consciencous person, but might be caught in this cunundrum now. It's tricky. As far as this other mother telling you a bunch of bad things about your son. You might try calling her on it. And say that it takes two in a relationship, both are responsible. Also, it's polite to offer a visitor a snack, especially if your child is wanting one!! Good Luck. anon Original post: Berkeley High for Village residents? ------------------------------------------- Has anyone in the Village successfully sent their teen to Berkeley High? Any advice other than ''submit a transfer request''? We have an 8th grader who is looking at either Berkeley High or Albany High. He's most interested in their Computer Science depts. BHS has bigger dept; AHS has newer equipment and possibly better support? Also, has anyone ever seen a teen taking CS courses at UC- Berkeley? Our two teens (13 & 14 yo) have been learning programming since they were tots & are now programming their own games & have professional resumes (worked for MS & several small companies). What they really need is access to UC CS classes, but they're still too young and I haven't found a way around the age requirements. ?? trying to find the right spot for my techy-kids Response: CS classes for teens ------------------------------------------- Hi, Have you looked into UC Extension classes? You can find their web site at www.unex.berkeley.edu. I have taken computer programming classes there as an IT proffessional. I don't know how a teen (especially a young one) would handle it, but you can always talk to the academic staff to see if the courses would be a good fit for your teens. They also have online classes. My daughter took two classes there (astronomy and acting) when she was 15 and did well in both. And lastly, have you looked into computer camps for youth? I had a co-worker whose son was very serious about programming and she signed him up for an away summer computer camp for youth that was very challenging. Vic Original post: Is your department family friendly? ------------------------------------------- I have a young child, and with all of the recent talk of family friendliness I’m wondering what makes a department or workplace family friendly anyway? Do you think your department is family friendly? I think the administrators in my department generally follow the policies of my university but I wouldn’t say we are particularly family friendly. Staff at UC wondering if I’m missing out Response: Is your department family friendly? -------------------------------------------- I wrote the original post, ‘Is your department family friendly?’ and have found the responses written to be so interesting. What struck me the most is the enormous variety of experiences on campuses – some departments seem antagonistic toward staff or faculty with families, while others are incredibly helpful and welcoming. Some of the “unfriendly” scheduling etc. seems so unnecessary, and actually counterproductive to work. Compared to the stories others shared, my department seems sort of middle-of-the-road – we certainly aren’t told that our family photos are unprofessional, for example. I’m wondering what can be done to make family friendly accommodations more uniform, and less dependent on the personal decisions of administrators. For example, scheduling of meetings around childcare hours, flexible work arrangements for staff with family needs, welcoming of babies/children, helpful advising for grad students with babies/children, the ability to work part-time for periods of time depending on circumstances. It’s great to hear from others, and hear about some of the things that are “missing” from my department in terms of family friendliness, but I’m not sure what to then DO about it. How do we take issues/topics voiced in this newsletter and advocate for changes on our campus? Or our department? Has anyone else had positive experiences with advocating for change that is beyond your own personal situation? It seems very unfair to think that people get totally different experiences depending on what discipline/type of job they happen to be in or do. anon ---------------------------------------------- *New postings ---------------------------------------------- You can post a response message: http://parents.berkeley.edu/post_ucfam.html Strategies for Spousal Hire ------------------------------------------- I would be interested in hearing how UC faculty members with academic spouses have tried to obtain long-term employment for their spouse. I have spoken with the chair of my department about my situation (my spouse is interested in a permanent lecture position, not a tenure-track one in my department) and he has told me that he has communicated with my dean. But nothing concrete has happened. Have faculty in similar situations approached their deans directly or their offices of faculty equity? Or is the only strategy to go back on the academic job market for leverage? I have observed that the UC system policy regarding spousal employment is uneven. Although UC-conducted studies have acknowledged that this is a problem, I observe that some spousal hires are made, and some are not. My spouse has also been looking at UC resources such as HERC (which advertises academic positions in CA regions) to obtain employment elsewhere, but has been unsuccessful. Anon Journalism school with wee ones? ------------------------------------------- It was interesting to read about combining kids with grad school in the recent posts, but I'm wondering about attending Berkeley's journalism school with kids -- anybody out there done that? Or one of the other professional schools? I've just received word that I've been accepted to the program and I'm very excited about the prospect of attending, but my daughter will be 2 in August and I'm due with baby #2 in June -- perhaps going right now is a crazy notion? My spouse is completely supportive and I'm hoping to tap into the family student housing and childcare, though frankly it all seems a bit daunting what with waiting lists and documentation galore. Let me know what you think. And thanks. Sierra Looking for middle school with Math Counts ------------------------------------------- My son who is a Cal freshman just got a grant from Raytheon to help coach a Math Counts team next fall. He tried contacting 2 private schools but didn't hear back. Does anyone know a school near the Cal campus that would like some math coaching for 7th and 8th grade? Jondi Repost: Going back to school with children? PI's opinion ------------------------------------------- I am a lab tech at Plant & Microbial Biology Dept, UCB. I started this job without no science backgrounds and have been in the same lab for 5 years. I really like this job as my career and am very interested in biology. Although it was not easy, I have achieved so many technical skills, but I have been realizing that I need more academic aspects. Now I am very unclear what to do. I have 2 children (8 and almost 6), and I am in mid-30's. I really want to go back to school, preferably for ph.D but I am not sure how realistic this idea can be. So I would like to hear opinions especially from PIs. I would like to know what kind of options I could have. I also will appreciate the experiences from people who went back to school with young children. Rie Repost: Relocating to UCSD - Need Info ------------------------------------------- Hi, My husband has accepted a job at UC San Diego. I was hoping people who work and or live around UCSD could give me some information regarding the communities they live in, how long and manageable is their commute, etc. Pediatrician, pediatric dentist, home daycare, playgroup suggestions etc. would also be helpful. We have three little ones ages 6, 2, and 1. My husband and I have lived in the same area for over 14 yrs so this a big move for us. Thanks, Bridget ------------------------------------------ *Articles and media ------------------------------------------ You can post comments or discussion points about any of these, or offer new ones - http://parents.berkeley.edu/post_ucfam.html A Dual Search Falters By T.J. Boxem, Chronicle of Higher Ed Article, March 16, 2006 http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=GHT8v8rqbVFdbcnT4ccJrwjyqvTvyFrw As Parents Age, Baby Boomers and Business Struggle to Cope By JANE GROSS, New York Times, Published: March 25, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/25/national/25care.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5094&en=d09a0680b560ea6c&hp&ex=1143349200&partner=homepage --------------------------------------------------------------------- - Post a message * http://parents.berkeley.edu/post.html - Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Address Changes, Help * http://parents.berkeley.edu/subscribers.html