Women’s Studies at

USF
Historic Factors Resulting in an
Academic Department in Peril of
Dissolution

August, 2008
Origins of Women’s Studies
at USF

In the early 1970s, an ad hoc status of

women committee at USF recommended
to then University President, Cecil Mackey,
that the University initiate a series of
courses about women that could
eventually lead to a program in the newly
emerging academic discipline of Women’s
Studies. President Cecil Mackey agreed
and Women’s Studies based in feminist
theory was born at USF.
 Degrees and Programs Offered
in Women’s Studies at USF
Over time, the Women’s Studies program experienced steady growth
in both degree offerings and number of tenured and tenure-earning faculty.
---Currently Available---
&

all are at threat of dissolution

Bachelors of Arts Masters of Arts

and

 Annual Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates in “Women’s Health”

 Annual Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates in the Research in Women’s Literature
and Visual Culture
 Undergraduate Certificate in Women of Color Studies
 Undergraduate Certificate in Women’s Spirituality
 Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies
 Graduate Certificate in Women’s Health
 HIGHLIGHTS
 The program grew to become a free-standing department
administered within the university’s College of Arts and
Science.

 The Department awarded the baccalaureate and master’s

degrees in Women’s Studies.

 By 2000, the Department had established a national

reputation in the field of Women’s Studies.

 By Fall 2002, the Department had eight tenured and

tenure-track faculty and at all ranks: full, associate, and
assistant professors.
 Turning of the Tide
Reallocation of faculty resources away from
Women’s Studies began in the Fall of 2003.
The trend continues until today. At that
time, USF Academic Affairs Administrators
(Provost Level and Administered by the
Dean of CAS), stopped approving placing
permanent faculty lines in Women’s
Studies. As faculty members in WST retired
or took other positions, they were not
replaced.
(to see Women’s Studies Response to Provost’s Budgetary Task Force
Click on the link and scroll to 3/19/08 for pdf report.)
Myth #1: Women’s Studies at
USF is a Poor Quality
Department
“ On behalf of my colleagues in Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies at the
University of Minnesota, I would like to strenuously urge you to reconsider the
decision to end the autonomy of the Women’s Studies department at the University
of South Florida. Some years ago I was an external reviewer for that department,
and consequently know it more closely than do my colleagues. But I have shared
my impressions with them and they share my concern, especially since the
decisions about that department reflect larger issues. As a reviewer, I was
impressed by USF’s Women’s Studies Department’s breadth, the caliber of its
faculty and students, and its attention to issues of diversity. The MA program was
especially impressive: more and more of the applicants to our PhD program have
masters degrees, and the USF program was then providing exactly the sort of
preparatory work we look for in PhD applicants. The students I met and spoke with
were superb and, whether they went on for PhD’s or used their masters as
preparation for careers, it was clear to me that they were receiving a fist-rate
education.”
Letter of Support 4/08 from Naomi Scheman, Ph.D Professor of Women’s Studies,
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, for the core Faculty in Gender, Women’s &
Sexuality Studies: Susan Craddock, Jigna Desai; Amy Kaminsky; Regina Kunzel;
Richa Nagar; Eden Torres; Jaquelyn Zita
 Myth #2:
Women’s Studies is not
Profitable

Currently, WST ranks in the top 20% of

economic efficiency in terms of ROI in
CAS. For every faculty dollar spent on
WST, WST returns .93 in comparison to
the CAS average of .71.

(All Data from University Sources. See Women’s Studies

Response to Provost’s Budgetary Task Force.)
 Myth #3:
Women’s Studies at USF is not in
Demand.

The number of degrees awarded by

faculty FTE in Women’s Studies is similar
to the profiles of the larger Departments
of Philosophy and Religious Studies, both
Departments in CAS.
*
WST faculty productivity per SCH is second
only to Criminology in the Social Science
cohort.
 The Problem:
A Denial of
Resources
The problem is not that the
Department of Women’s
Studies is small; the problem is
that the Department was
deliberately and systematically
made small over time using a
 Overview of Resource
Allocation Decline in Women’s
Studies 2004-2008
The deliberate and systematic withdrawing of faculty resources
to the Department of Women's Studies through the following
institutional means:

 refusal to hire new faculty or replace exiting faculty;

 the refusal to allow qualified spousal hires into the Department of Women's
Studies;
 unclear and contradictory communication from the administration with
Women’s Studies during the Spring 2008 budget deficiency created a chilly
climate for women faculty in the Department of Women's Studies causing
two faculty to flee the department in search of academic safety;
 historic disparities in faculty resource allocation in departments headed by
African Americans in the College of Arts and Sciences
(See Women’s Studies Response to Provost’s Budgetary Task Force.)
Resource Allocation: Issue #1
Refusal to hire new faculty or replace
exiting faculty

CAS Annual Hiring Plans 2004-2007

The Department of Women’s Studies was granted no faculty searches
for permanent lines over this period. (Note, hiring tenure track
professors represents investments in the future of a department.)

Spring 2007
Faculty permanent line funding available from a College-wide initiative
denied to the Department of Women’s Studies:
The Case of M.E., Ph.D.
 The Case of M.E., Ph.D.

In 2006 the Dean of the Graduate School instituted an initiative on Sustainability which included a
cluster hire of three tenure-earning positions into the College of Arts and Sciences. M.E., Ph.D.,
who was duly approved by a multidisciplinary search committee consisting of CAS chairs and
senior faculty to join the Deparment of Women's Studies on a tenure track line because she was
found to have the experience to lead the initiative, was subsequently denied the position. That line
was removed from consideration to Women's Studies and the line was given to Sociology on the
authority of the Dean of the Graduate School and the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Dean of CAS blamed (someone else) i.e., Dean of Graduate School for removing the line from
consideration, but it was actually the CAS Dean who decided to withhold the line from Women’s
Studies, after consultation with the Graduate School Dean. The CAS Dean decided that the “current
preference is to hold on the making the third offer and use the remaining salary dollars (plus likely
more from the college) to go after a senior hire in sociology that can meet some of their disciplinary
needs and fit in with the thrust initiative and provide it with some senior leadership” (Source: email
May 27, 2007 to Search Committee)*.

*Women’s Studies faculty had competed and received a research grant from the Graduate School Sustainability Initiative, making the
Women’s Studies Department project one of the five applications selected for funding.
Resource Allocation: Issue #2
The refusal to allow qualified spousal hires into the Department of Women's Studies
but placing such hires in other departments

Since 2005, CAS administrators have tried to place two spousal

hires whose credentials fit the teaching, research and service
mission of the Women’s Studies Department. In spite of the fact
that those individuals expressed an interest in joining our
Department--their requests were not honored.

They, however, were placed in other Departments.

• Dr. L. was placed in English and not allowed to have a
“joint” visiting appointment with Women’s Studies.

•Dr. N. was allowed to interview in the Humanities

Department in CAS, while WST was not allowed to interview
her even though our Department has a minor in “Women of
Color Studies”, the exact area of her expertise. She was
ultimately placed on a branch campus.
 Resource Allocation: Issue #3
Budget Crisis and Chilly Climate for
Women Faculty

After the release of the Provost’s Budgetary Task Force Women’s Studies was
targeted budget cuts, the uncertainty about whether the department would
survive or be forced into quick merger became intolerable.

In a single semester, the administrative management of the budget crisis

resulted in such a chilly climate for women faculty in the Department of
Women's Studies, that faculty felt forced to flee the Department in search
of more security for their academic careers. All the faculty in Women's
Studies who left were from recognized "protected" minority groups: race,
religion, sexual orientation, not to mention gender/sex.
history is herstory
too.
 Implications for the types of knowledge
(e.g., books, articles, courses taught, )
encouraged and produced at USF
Without a research-based faculty in a Department (not Program)
of Women’s Studies, where faculty members can earn tenure in
Women’s Studies, rather than another department where the
faculty member’s disciplinary commitment take precedence:

USF students will have limited access to knowledge of the

intersectionality of gender, race, class and social institutions;

USF students will leave USF with the erroneous assumption that
knowledge of feminist analyses of social and academic subjects is
unimportant for their success in a globalized economy; and

USF will not produce a Women’s Studies knowledge base in this

nationally recognized emerging field of study and risks being
perceived by the national and international academic community
as hostile to Women’s Studies knowledge production.
Resource Allocation: Issue #4
Disparities in Faculty Resource Allocation in Departments
Headed by Chairs of African Descent

An analysis of faculty hiring data in the

College of Arts and Sciences (CAS)
demonstrates that departments headed by
Chairs of African descent gained the fewest
faculty resources in comparison to other CAS
Departments headed by non-Black
Chairpersons between 2002-2007.
Resource Allocation: Issue #4 (Cont.)
Disparities in Faculty Resource Allocation in
Departments Headed by Chairs of African Descent

Women’s Studies is located within the Social Science Cohort

of CAS. Faculty lines in the Social Science cohort in CAS
have grown by 15% between 2002-2007. Women’s
Studies, along with Africana Studies, have declined by 15%
during that time—the steepest decline in the cohort.

**********
Both of these Departments have been headed by
Chair’s of African Descent since 2004. When we
include in our analysis the faculty hiring patterns
in non-science departments headed by Chairs of
Color for this same period, this resource disparity
holds true in those departments also.
 The System of Fairness and
Equitable Treatment for Women’s
Studies is Broken

Rise Up!
USF Student March
 Why Preserve Women’s
Studies as an Operationally
Autonomous Department?

The reality of women’s lives are

not reflected in the
conventional academic
disciplines and this is why
Women’s Studies scholarship
has evolved into a discrete
discipline. 
Why Preserve Women’s Studies as
an Operationally Autonomous
Department?
The field of Women’s Studies advances different
paradigms and different theoretical approaches to
the analysis of and interpretation of social power.
Why Preserve Women’s Studies as
an Operationally Autonomous
Department?
At a time when women outnumber
men in college enrollments all over
the country and enroll in higher and
higher numbers in post graduate
programs, the experiences of women
need to be explained and understood
like no other historical moment.
Why Preserve Women’s Studies as
an Operationally Autonomous
Department?
Over half of our students want an
explanation for their own
experience and Women’s Studies
offers that explanation.
What We Need to Function
in an Academically
Responsible Manner

 Retention of administrative autonomy

 Conversion to permanent positions of

the visiting faculty to form a core
faculty

 An equity audit of race and gender

disparities in CAS
What We Need to Function
in an Academically
Responsible Manner

The conversion to permanent positions of

the visiting faculty in Women's studies:
Gary Lemons, Nagwa Dajani, Linda Lucas
and Orathai Northern to form a core
faculty for the Department beginning in
Fall 2008.
What We Need to Function
in an Academically
Responsible Manner
The immediate reinstatement of Irina Ramirez-
Fuentes, as office manager for the Department of
Women's Studies, representing the continuation
of the operational autonomy of the Department of
Women's Studies as an independent, peer
academic department within the College of Arts
and Sciences. This woman of color was given no
choice in the reassignment to the consolidated
ethnic studies units; whereas the office manager
of one of the consolidated units was given all due
consideration in her preference to leave the unit
to assume duties in a non-threatened
department.
The Need for an Equity
Audit

An equity audit of race

and gender disparities
in the College of Arts &
Sciences is needed.
Want More Information?
Go to usfwst.blogspot.com