Task force chair takes us to task
Dear Editor,
Thank you for the article on Sept. 25 regarding the work of the ad hoc committee on the status of women at Concordia. Because I want your readers to have an accurate sense of what was found in our extensive study, I write to correct several points made in the article. First, the only two groups who consistently reported lower satisfaction with their work experiences at Concordia were female faculty and male staff. Second, female faculty reported different experiences working at Concordia College than other groups. The survey did not ask employees to self-report how they believe they are being perceived. Third, the gender differences in compensation that we found for faculty were not explained by years of experience, terminal degree, rank, or tenure status. Additionally, administrators are not classified into tiers by the college. Rather, these categories were created by the committee for purposes of analysis. Finally, among staff whose job categories have a relatively even gender distribution, no differences in salary were found.
The spirit of the study and the follow up by the college has been one of collaboration and shared commitment. To learn more about the work, I invite all interested members of the Concordia community to attend the open sessions Friday, Oct. 3, 2–2:45, and repeated again at 3–3:45, Jones A/B.
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa Sethre-Hofstad, Task Force Chair
