Volume 3, Issue 1

This study carefully examines the perceptions and experiences of several women who are part of an overlooked group—college students who work in the sex industry. Interviews were conducted with students working in strip clubs or pornography. The reasons why they choose such work and how this choice impacts them are explored. Findings reveal that the women clearly recognize the time and monetary benefits as a main motivating factor for their employment in the sex industry, and they downplay the threat of violence as the main cost. The women perceive the primary cost to be the stigma they faced and the cognitive dissonance it produces as they negotiate their student and sex worker identities. They employ a variety of coping strategies to manage the negative effects of stigma, including cognitively separating themselves from the norms of the industry, justifying why they do such work, focusing on other more positive roles, avoidance through substance use, and leaving the industry. These strategies help resolve the cognitive dissonance created by their participation in sex work. This paper will highlight the ways in which faculty and staff can assist student sex workers in developing healthy coping strategies, accessing help, and persisting in their college enrollment.

This qualitative study examines women's experiences using infor- Q1 mation and communication technologies (ICTs) such as computers, cell phones, text messaging, and social networks as leaders in campus activist organizations. Institutional ethnography (IE), a framework and research approach drawn from feminist sociology, was applied to consider aspects of the campus environment that influence women's work. Interviews and text investigation informed a collective map of how campus activist work is accomplished. The results indicate that women leaders struggled to balance the efficiency promised by technology to facilitate work and the necessity for face-to-face connections to build engagement. The IE perspective revealed campus practices, including an overinvolvement emphasis and policies restricting the use of space, which can hinder initial student involvement. However, women's relational leadership behaviors and use of ICT, emphasizing personal connection and inclusivity (Komives et al., 2006), may best position them for future citizen-leadership roles.

Over the last decade or so, various legal schemes such as the statutes and court or agency enforcement of Title IX and the Clery Act have increasingly recognized that certain institutional responses perpetuate a cycle of nonreporting and violence. This paper draws upon comprehensive legal research conducted on how the law now regulates school responses to campus peer sexual violence to show that schools face much greater liability from failing to protect the rights of campus peer sexual violence survivors than of any other group of students, including alleged assailants. By encouraging their institutions to develop more victim-centered responses to campus peer sexual violence, advocates for women in higher education can respond to the current legal environment, properly confront this problem, and help their schools avoid liability.

This article investigates the influence of faculty and staff on women student's constructions of their personal and professional identities. Situated in two Catholic women's colleges, this qualitative study analyzes the ways in which in-class and out-of-class interactions among students, faculty, and staff helped students envision their future intentions. Students described ways in which college personnel served as career role models, modeled a work/family balance, and advised them as they planned for their futures. This study's implications for the empowerment of women at both Catholic women's colleges and nonreligiously affiliated coeducational institutions relate to the benefits of college personnel who model a personal and professional life balance, the need to consider both service and leadership in learning experiences, and the ways in which Catholic women's institutions articulate their missions to students.

During the Jim Crow period of racial segregation, higher education provided one of the few avenues for black women to participate in citizenship. Societal understandings of race, gender, and class fundamentally distinguished the higher educational experiences of black and white women. The founding of Bennett College for Women, one of two historically black colleges for women, provided a rare space for black women to exercise citizenship. Moreover, examination of Bennett College for Women's educational model reveals how the College provided a progressive liberal arts education to black working-class women by manipulating conservative understandings of race, gender, and education. In doing so, Bennett College for Women expanded the scope of who was responsible for racial progress and the scope of black women's role as citizen.

In 1993 the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Q1 Academic Medicine (ELAM) program was developed in response to concerns regarding the organizational climate and leadership opportunities available to faculty women within academic health centers. Since that time the ELAM program has garnered a reputation as the premier leadership program for women in academic medicine, dentistry, and public health in the United States and Canada. This article details the design of the program and its curricular components as well as the conceptual framework and strategies that underlie it. The success of the program is demonstrated by demographic data on participants and their institutions; pre and postsurvey research on participants' and comparison groups' knowledge and skills; surveys of medical and dental school deans regarding their perceptions of program impact; the leadership career trajectory of ELAM fellows; and the development of leadership programs and numerous consultations based on the ELAM model.

Historically, leadership at the top levels of higher education has been exercised by males. Consequently, for 16 years, the BRIDGES: Academic Leadership for Women program in North Carolina has attempted to break down barriers for women and bridge this gap by providing leadership development for women in the academy. This article presents a best-practices model for a women’s academic leadership program, including program description, historical review, and program impact. To date, BRIDGES has addressed various themes from the leadership literature, including leadership styles, overcoming the glass ceiling, personal development, empowerment, essential knowledge and skills, transformational leadership, and the intersection of race and gender. The authors encourage replication of the BRIDGES program in other states and abroad.

This study examined differences in utilization of tenure clock extensions, one of the most common forms of faculty career flexibility, by faculty gender, race, and academic field, as well as differences in career outcomes, namely retention and tenure attainment, by whether an extension was received. Data were obtained from the personnel files of the 465 tenure-line faculty hired across a 7-year period at a large, public, doctoral/research extensive university. Statistical analyses included chi-square tests of independence and logistic regression. The study found differences by gender and academic field in who receives tenure clock extensions, as well as differences by gender and academic field in reasons for policy utilization. Receiving a tenure clock extension has no statistically significant relationship with attainment of tenure, but faculty who receive extensions have a higher rate of attrition.

Flourishing as a tenure-track faculty member in academia is no small feat. Best practices in writing are often neglected as faculty struggle to balance competing demands on their time. For women who try to balance both home and work responsibilities, this task can be overwhelming. This study documents the outcomes of a writers’ group formed to increase the scholarly output of its members. Findings suggest that this writers' group model not only has potential to increase writing productivity but also offers the possibility of producing unanticipated outcomes including support and encouragement leading to greater professional and personal balance.

A survey instrument was used to explore the opportunities and challenges of women post-50 in tenure earning positions in the academy. Findings suggest that significant personal life events were the primary impetus that propelled the post-50 women in this study to pursue tenure in middle to late adulthood. Interestingly, the majority of the women in the study did not consider age as a factor in their quest to earn tenure, but did cite the importance of mentoring relationships in pursuit of their tenure earning goal. Implications for addressing some of the needs of older women in tenure earning positions are discussed and recommendations for further research are offered.

This program description will report to the reader a better understanding of an effective university program that improves the graduation rates of single parent women who have custody of their children while attending college full time. Since 1989 the ACCESS Collaborative Program at The Ohio State University has served well over 350 women who are traditional students in every sense: they attend college the fall directly after high school; they attend full time; they are enrolled in a degree seeking program with one exception: they have a child. The ACCESS Collaborative Program is an institutional academic, advocacy, and social support program. The major purpose is to increase the retention and graduation rates of single parent students at The Ohio State University by minimizing the barriers that may prevent full participation by these students, which are childcare, housing, resources for books, and vital items for their children's safety and development. This program is a replicable model. Details of the history, design, research agenda, associated national organization, and annual symposium are available on the web at oma.osu.edu/current-students/academic-advancement-servicesaccess.php.