Perceived Levels of Faculty Value, Influence, and Satisfaction by Gender, Rank, Ethnicity, College, and Department at a Large Private University

Abstract

The ADVANCE IT-Catalyst project, “Establishing the Foundation for Future Organizational Reform and Transformation at Rochester Institute of Technology” (EFFORT@RIT) was a multiyear study conducted from 2008-2010 across six colleges which include Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The overarching project mission is to increase the representation and advancement of women STEM faculty. In order to achieve this mission, the project goal was to develop an evidence-based approach to address factors resulting in the under-representation of women in STEM faculty positions. The research objective was to identify barriers for current female RIT STEM faculty in regards to rank, tenure, leadership role progression, and resource allocation in order to establish how well the university addresses issues that have been found to be important in the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women faculty. In year two of the study, a university-wide faculty work-life survey was administered with response rates exceeding 70% of the tenured and tenure track faculty in each of the primary STEM colleges. During year three of the study, the survey results were analyzed to examine how gender, ethnicity, and faculty perception of value and influence are associated with reported overall satisfaction with one’s position at the university. This paper is the second in a series that examines data from this study. Paper 1 [1] reported on the distribution of RIT STEM faculty, outcomes of institutional processes of recruitment and advancement, distribution of STEM faculty in leadership positions, allocation of resources for STEM faculty, barriers to the recruitment and advancement of women, success of existing structures at addressing these barriers, accomplishments over the grant period, and plans for institutionalizing various initiatives. This paper focuses on distillation of climate survey data to obtain useful and meaningful measures related to work/life balance, climate, value and influence. The paper also explores answers to the following research questions in the context of RIT: Which factors best explain reported overall faculty satisfaction with one’s position at the university? How is satisfaction related to faculty perception of value and influence? Are there differences in perceived value and influence by variables such as gender or ethnicity? Dissemination strategy is discussed as well as how answers to these and other related research questions support and inform the creation of a large institutional transformation strategy for RIT.