Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2000 09:35:20 -0500 (EST)
Subject: CSWA Newsletter of 3/1/2000
To: AASMAIL: ;
AAS Committee on the Status of Women
weekly issues of 3/ 1/2000, ed. by Priscilla Benson
*** send email and addresses to aaswomen
wellesley.edu ***
This week's issues:
1. Contributions to Status
2. The Annie Jump Cannon Award
3. Undergraduate Advising
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1. Contributions to Status
From: frattarestsci.edu (Lisa Frattare)
STATUS Newsletter- June 2000
We are soliciting new contributions for the feature "Notes
from a Life" for the June issue of STATUS. These are short
episodes that capture in small ways the daily influence of
gender in science. These vignettes were highlighted in a
recent NYTimes article on women in astronomy (see
www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/021500sci-
astronomy-women.html), so they are obviously having an
impact!
Since "Notes" premiered in the June 1999 STATUS, we have
received a number of contributions from readers (thank
you!). If you too have experiences to share and want to make
a positive impact, please e-mail them to cmustsci.edu or
frattarestsci.edu. Publication is anonymous but
submissions should be signed so that the editors can vouch
for their validity. Examples of previous Notes can be found
in back issues of STATUS, online at
www.aas.org/~cswa/pubs.html. Other contributions to STATUS
(e.g., biographies of women scientists, statistics, or other
articles) are also welcome at any time.
Finally, we have a few extra copies of the January 2000
STATUS. If you would like a hard copy or a few copies for
your home institution please contact frattarestsci.edu.
(Note: the issue is on-line at the above "aas" url). If you
are an AAS member and have not yet subscribed to STATUS,
please do so by sending your mail addressto ssavoyaas.org.
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2. The Annie Jump Cannon Award
From: aassecrouge.phys.lsu.edu
In answer to the paragraphs in the just received CSW
electronic newsletter, the Annie J. Cannon Award has not
been an AAS award since 1974. The Award now is property of
the American Association of University women (AAUW) [please
see the AAS website at www.aas.org]. The AAS provides
advice to the AAUW, primarily in providing on an annual
basis, a committee which reviews the
applications/nominations which the AAUW receives in response
to its annual call for applications/nominations. Beyond
that, the AAS has no role, although from time to time
Council, through my office, is asked for advice.
Insofar as prize talks at AAS meetings are
concerned, the AAS has no obligations to provide slots for
talks to anyone other than its own prize, award, and Invited
Talks, and its Divisions', prize and award winners. Indeed,
the number of available slots are few enough in number that
it sometimes has been, and is increasingly becoming more
difficult, to accommodate those prize and award winners
which are supposed to give talks. Not all recipients are
expected to give talks; it depends in part upon the rules
and guidelines for each prize and award.
I hope that the above words are of use. Please
write or call if I may be of additional help.
The Executive Office staff went through the last ten years
of invited speakers, versus the last eleven Cannon Prize
winners (1989-1999), and found:
Four were invited speakers at AAS meetings:
Hewitt (1989) spoke in 1991
Luu (1991) spoke in 1992
Ghez (1994) spoke in 1995, and again with the Pierce Prize
in 1998
Kaspi (1998) spoke in 1999
So, the situation is better than I thought.... it's
worthwhile, though, making us all reflect on what goes on,
or maybe doesn't.
Arlo U. Landolt Phone:(225) 388-1160
Physics & Astronomy Fax: (225) 334-1098
Louisiana State University E-mail:
aassecrouge.phys.lsu.edu
Baton Rouge, La 70803-4001
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3. Undergraduate Advising
From: Margaret Hanson hansonphysics.uc.edu
In graduate school, I felt many of the graduate students
were there simply because they didn't know what else to do.
As Kirsten Larson pointed out (02/23/00), "I had never been
given the option of anything BUT graduate school." This was
true for me, too, though I had worked an industry job for
several years in my 20s. Lucky for me, academia was what I
wanted to do. However, I think several of the other
students would have been better off not going to graduate
school. The "bitter attitude" Kirsten describes can run
rampant in some grad programs, as people realize what's
expected of them, and the sacrifices they must make---
particularly when they realize how competitive the jobs are
in the end. Typical academics don't know about other
options, having not taken those paths them- selves. But
there is another more nagging problem. There can be a lot
of stigma placed on students not continuing in physics.
While there is a feeling of pride among the department when
physics majors go on to graduate school, they tend to have a
rather defeatist attitude, "better luck with the next
student", when one does not continue into graduate studies.
It is frequently presumed that the student couldn't get in
to graduate school and might now be seen as less successful.
Students sense this in their discussions with professors and
advisors. Students claiming to pursue graduate school
might more readily be given research opportunities in the
department, for instance.
Many of you may be saying, "We went to graduate school. We
know this." Well now is the time to maybe do something
about it.
I advise our majors and Society of Physics Students. I try
hard not to let any prejudiced comments or ideas seep into
my discussion of post-graduate plans. I talk equally about
the great opportunities that exist in industry in a booming
economy. Quite a number of students have contacted me by
email about an 'industry connections list' I helped obtain
from the engineering dept, and recently posted. Engineering
places hundreds of students each year, and think nothing of
a few physics students applying to similar companies. Anne
Turner's FAQ on industry is fantastic to suggest to
(http://www.astro.utoronto.ca/~hall/anne.html) students
having trouble visualizing the transition. I encourage all
of you who have not already done so, to line up contacts and
information on industry and other fields for your under-
graduates, and make these as abundantly available to your
students as all the graduate school posters lining the walls
of your local SPS chapter's meeting room. Finally, make
sure students choosing alternative paths know they are
successes in your program and honor and respect them equally
with those planning to go on to graduate school. This
stigma is particularly hard to get past at Research I
universities such as Cincinnati. I know I do not have full
agreement from my colleagues, but I also know its the right
thing to do (and its one of the reasons I asked to be
adviser to the undergraduate majors).
Margaret M. Hanson, Assistant Professor of Physics
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0011
(513)556-0524 http://www.physics.uc.edu/~hanson/
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End of CSWA Newsletter of 3/1/2000