GPSA: R. 10- GPSA Resolution to Support Women's Professional Development

WHEREAS, The Graduate and Professional Student Assembly (GPSA) recognizes the unique challenges faced by graduate and professional women as they navigate academia, the job market, and professional world; and

WHEREAS, Female students often feel uncomfortable or unsure of how to raise these issues with advisors in male-dominated academic and professional fields; and

WHEREAS, Cornell University has substantially increased support for professional development but very little attends to specific gender issues of female students; and

WHEREAS, Existing support and resources for graduate and professional students with families in particular is limited and unable to encourage full professional development; and

WHEREAS, A number of graduate field-specific student organizations and programs exist to help women confront gender bias in professional and academic settings such as Graduate Women in Science (GWIS), Women in Public Policy (WIPP), and Women’s Planning Forum (WPF) but no such overarching system exists to facilitate cross-department interaction between these groups; and

WHEREAS, Female students not engaged in fields that provide services and support for professional gender issues do not have clear access to these groups; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the GPSA calls upon the University to increase support and communication about gender bias in professional and academic settings, by

• a) Increasing the number of programming and events attending to women’s specific needs on the job market and in work settings through the Graduate School Office of Inclusion & Professional Development and the Cornell Career Services,
• b) Creating cross-field programming and coordination between existing women’s groups to encourage discussion and support across the graduate and professional schools as a whole,
  • i) This could include creating a webpage dedicated to informing female graduate and professional students of available women’s resources, groups and across campus,
• c) Facilitate outreach between female faculty, staff and graduate and professional students on campus to help female students access women mentors in an open environment, by
  • i) Establishing a stronger connection between the President’s Council on Cornell Women (PCCW) and various graduate and professional student groups on campus, to further the mentoring efforts of PCCW and ensure better access and information about these programs.

RESOLVED, That the Ad Hoc Committee to Assess the Progress On and Update the Recommendations of the Graduate Community Initiative (GCI) acknowledge that several topic areas such as career resources and family services may have unique impacts for female graduate and professional students and that it take these specific gender needs into account as it goes forward.

RESOLVED, That this resolution be sent to David Skorton, President; Susan Murphy, Vice President for Student and Academic Services; Barbara Knuth, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School; Jan Allen, Associate Dean for Student and Academic Affairs; Sheri Notaro, Associate Dean for Inclusion and Professional Development; Tilman Baumstark, Assistant Dean for Professional Development; Janna Lamey, Assistant Dean for Graduate Student Life; Anne Poduska, Graduate and International Career Advisor; and Laura Weiss, Director of the Women’s Resource Center.

Respectfully submitted,

Triveni Gandhi,
Humanities Voting Member

Christine Yao
English Field Representative

Stephanie Masiello
Food Science and Technology Field Representative

Jennifer Marotto
Committee on Women’s Issues Graduate Committee Member′

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