From the Chronicle this week: “What Factors Hold Back the Careers of Women and Faculty of Color? Columbia U. Went Looking for Answers”  Columbia has just published a 145-page report on how tenure-track faculty “feel about or experience key parts of academic life, like salary, workload, work-life balance, and the climate in their departments.”

“We feel like equity is a cornerstone of integrity. It’s really essential for the best scholarship to thrive,” said Maya Tolstoy, a professor in the department of earth and environmental sciences and chair of the Arts and Sciences faculty-governance committee that spearheaded the study. “We wanted to do a deep dive in the data and shine a spotlight on these issues. Now we can present it to the faculty in a transparent way and commit to action.”

. . . Tolstoy, who is also interim executive vice president of Arts and Sciences, said she was struck by how much “the smaller things” contribute to faculty feeling disenfranchised from their departments. “The added burden of committee service, the invisible labor, the belief that people don’t value their work — those kinds of things add up,” she said.

Luckily, we have a chance to talk about this sort of thing together next week, Oct 25, 5:30pm, Mudd Atrium.

Photo: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/columbia-university-2707/photos