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Department of Information Technology

This page is a copy of internt/jamstalldhet/meeting-2014-02-26 (Fri, 16 Oct 2015 17:10:06)

Minutes from the Equity Group meeting 26 of February 2014, 12:00-13:00

Present:
Tobias Wrigstad
Andreina Francisco
Virginia Grande
Michael Thuné
Ida-Maria Sintorn
Daniel McCain
Deha Nemutlu Cambazoglu
Karolina Malm Holmgren
Magnus Grandin
Secretary: Anna-Lena Forsberg

1. Spring call for funding equality projects

Tobias informed the group that spring call must be out soon, around mid-March, and published in LäsIT. Earlier years there were not so many applications. An example of funded projects from last year: Networking meeting for potential female students.
We should develop the idea-bank, where good ideas can be picked up by eager persons who wants to create projects. A suggestion came up that there could be a workshop to work out ideas for the bank.
A question was raised that the amount of money we can grant is too low, and people have to use their own time in creating the projects, the loss of income/time while working with this should be compensated, either by funding their research time, prolongations of PhD-time etc.? If the time is covered more PhD-students would choose to get involved. Suggestion that master students also can get involved, if they get some paid time.
Tobias proposes a working meeting to brainstorm about the idea-bank (will send a Doodle) within 14 days, before the spring call. The brain storm meeting can be either an open one or each division has its own. A group of volunteers from the equity group (Ida-Maria, Virginia, Michael, Tobias) will work out the details.

2. Guide lines

Tobias also informed the group that the group have been asked by the board to discuss the term: "actively and broadly search for underrepresented gender" in the report form for underrepresented gender used by the department when a position is opened. The exact meaning of this phrase is unclear. If the group can produce a proposal with a clarification it must be sent to the board and a final decision must be made by the board. A suggestion: there should be a working meeting also for this. Discussion was postponed to a later meeting.

3. How can we connect female scholars to our department?

3a. Contact female candidates on the 2nd and 3rd place on short lists, after recruitment to an open position, and ask them if they want to be in our database on female academics in our field. In the application form when an open position is published there should be the option: "would be interested in being a part of a database on female computer engineers: Yes or No".
There are lists of female academics already in use in other universities such as Lund etc., Tobias will find more information about the lists from these universities and inform the group about it so that we can learn from previous experiences.
3b. After the interviews for open positions, when the 1st candidate is decided, we should ask the other top female candidates to give 1-2 talks, at least one for undergrad-students, and offer a stay at a good hotel and a tour of the town, as a 3 days package. One talk should be on another topic than they have given when applying for the position.

4. A proposition for funding from VI2

Ida-Maria informed the group about a request that has come from Vi2 (Ingela Nyström) to finance 40% of the salary of Natasa Sladoje for 2 years, 2x400 000 SEK, from the Prestationsresurs B. She has applied for VINNOVA grants for 50% of her salary.
The group discussed the proposition, but did not come to a decision at the meeting. A question from Tobias was if it is better to spend on bigger projects instead of funding one individual? The group said no to a previous similar application, and we should be consequent and careful before saying yes to a similar project. We must decide the purpose of the equality means, should it go to individuals or to bigger things involving more people?
Michaels thoughts on this was that on the one hand, equality is good for the work environment, so the money can sponsor leadership courses. On the other hand we must recruit women, so money could go to finding women. But it would be best if there is a structure for using equality money. The group will have a mail discussion about it and make a thorough financial check before a decision is made.

5. A mentorship program

Andreina Francisco and Daniel McCain presented the mentorship program which will support female students during their studies. The first phase will be to start with master students, and will later expand to undergraduate and possibly to high school students. If there are enough mentors, male students could also be included in the program.
Andreina and Daniel also informed about the Systers network which is an all-women community of computer scientists with 4000 members in 54 countries created in 1987 by Anita Borg. More information can be found here: http://anitaborg.org/get-involved/systers/

Updated  2015-10-16 17:10:06 by Anneli Folkesson.