U.Council holds Jan. meeting

University Council held its first meeting of the spring semester yesterday in Houston Hall's Bodek lounge.

Items on the agenda included a comprehensive analysis of the recently completed Gender Equity Study and discussions of two electronic privacy initiatives.

Associate Provost Barbara Lowery and Biochemistry Professor Phoebe Leboy presented an in-depth summary of the findings of the gender study, which was released last month.

Among the study's findings was that women made up 23.8 percent of the faculty in 1999, illustrating an upward trend in the hiring of women over the past decade.

But Lowery said that the census data also showed that the proportion of men in the faculty increases with rank while the proportion of women does not. Women make up 35 percent of all assistant professors, 23 percent of all associate professors and 15 percent of full professors.

"It was a mixed report -- there were some good things happening, but there are areas that need work," Lowery said.

Provost Robert Barchi listed a number of recommendations for the improvement of gender equity at Penn, including developing incentives to increase the level of women on the faculty, working with individual schools and administrators to increase the number of high-ranking female faculty members and being aggressive in retaining female faculty who rise to administrative positions.

Students and faculty in attendance agreed that some departments have been more consistent in hiring and retaining female faculty members than others.

"Some departments in which there haven't been specific recruitment in women faculty deserve attention from their deans," Barchi said. "Some of these departments may be restricted in hiring if they aren't recruiting in ways that we think are appropriate."

Still, University President Judith Rodin was quick to point out that the number of women in higher administrative positions has been consistently high.

"We have a significant number of women leaders in the administration," Rodin said. "To my mind, I think that is notable and progressive."

Following a brief report on the Electronic Privacy Policy, a task force presented a detailed analysis of the measures it has taken to ensure the privacy of the personal information the University holds about its students, faculty and staff.

The presenters focused largely on the progress made in increasing electronic security measures on campus.

Among the points were the continued need to limit the accessibility of Social Security numbers in both electronic and manual realms of communication at Penn. The threat of identity theft was also cited as a key concern.

"One of the key issues is Social Security numbers," Deputy Provost Peter Conn said. "What we've also tried to do is to engage in some consciousness raising among students, faculty and staff and to discuss what they can do to protect themselves."

In a lengthy discussion following the presentation, the Council discussed the possibility of revamping the student directory and Penn InTouch in order to increase the accessibility of student information to outside sources.

"The issue of how to keep this on the forefront for the public's security is on people's minds," Rodin said.

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