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...focus on mentoring among women in academia. (1)
In this essay will describe mentoring and leadership opportunities in the State of Wisconsin, focusing on the collective experience of four women who participated in the Women's Administrative Internship Program in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls (UWRF)--a semester-long program in which interns learned the roles and responsibilities of administrators.
Mentoring and leadership opportunities are evident at three different "levels" in the State of Wisconsin. WWHEL, Wisconsin Women in Higher Education Leadership, is a recently formed state-wide organization that brings together women from both public (UW) and private colleges and universities. WWHEL is committed, in the words of its mission statement, to "increasing the number and effectiveness of women in Wisconsin higher education leadership positions by: 1) creating a network of women in higher education leadership; 2) providing professional development opportunities for the preparation and support of women administrators; 3) increasing the visibility and recognition of women qualified by education, experience, and personal characteristics for leadership positions; and 4) eliminating barriers to women's achievement in higher education leadership."
Annually, WWHEL holds a conference that brings together senior administrators, junior administrators, and women aspiring to leadership positions. The conference includes workshops, networking opportunities, key addresses, and discussion/paper sessions.
At another level are the mentoring and administrative internship opportunities in the University of Wisconsin (UW) System. While, in all likelihood, mentoring and internship opportunities exist at the private institutions in Wisconsin, this report focuses on the public institutions that comprise the University of Wisconsin. The UW System oversees the public colleges and universities within the state. At the System level, both mentoring programs and administrative internship programs are available. For example, administrative internship opportunities in the Office of Academic Affairs are open to all UW faculty. The UW Women's Studies Consortium is made up of the Women's Studies program directors/coordinators at all of the universities and colleges, the Women and Science coordinator, the Outreach coordinator, the System librarian, and the System administrator. The Consortium has an active, though informal, mentoring program. When a new Women's Studies director is appointed, she is assigned a mentor, an experienced director from one of the other institutions.
At the university and college levels, nine of the thirteen universities report having formal mentoring programs in which mentors are assigned to incoming faculty. At two of the universities, mentors are also assigned to academic staff. Three of...
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