While gender equity has been achieved in some fields, and educational participation of women has, in general, reached equitable numbers, the number of women in science and engineering (S/E) has persistently and alarmingly lagged far behind the participation of men. Strong institutional and societal efforts are needed to foster change to bring gender equity to S/E. UCSD Chancellor and chemist Marye Anne Fox, and UCSC Chancellor and electrical engineer Denice Denton, both newly inaugurated, are committed to leading the efforts to enact change collaboratively at their campuses, within the University of California (UC) system, and on a national level.

UCSC and UCSD bring a unique partnership towards advancing women in S/E that builds on their strengths and their differences. Both UCSC and UCSD are in the midst of substantial growthin faculty and students over the next 15 years, resulting jointly in over 1100 new faculty. Since over 50% of this growth will be in S/E, this increase presents a unique opportunity to foster major changes that advance the representation of women faculty in these areas. As well, both the San Diego and Santa Cruz regions are known for high technology endeavors encompassing biotechnology, communication, software, defense, space, information technology, and multimedia. Both regions are growing, and their ethnic composition is becoming increasingly diverse. While both campuses came into being at the same time, they also have unique and different characters. Thus, our collaborative approach to institutional transformation will be facilitated by our similarities and stimulated by our differences. Most importantly, our institutional collaboration provides the opportunity for a “living laboratory” where some of the same activities can be instigated separately on both campuses and the outcomes can be examined in a comparative framework. Sharing and comparing our results can lead to a better understanding of what variables influence their success. At the same time, we will share jointly some activities to create a broader network of support, and with the cooperation of the UC President’s Office, we will use the best of these activities to institute change across UC in the future.  

We envision the UC-WISE (Women in S/E) Collaborative Center as a major force to advance women and underrepresented minorities in science and engineering in the upcoming period of faculty growth. Faculty-led and project oriented, UC-WISE will drive multifaceted and multilayered transformation at our UC institutions by focusing upon activities that (1) transform the perceptions and practices in faculty recruitment, retention and promotion, (2) provide support, mentoring and career development for women and underrepresented minority faculty in S/E at each career point, and (3) promote and retain women and underrepresented minority faculty as their academic careers evolve, including improving the academic climate.

UC-WISE will impactthe science and engineering community by making permanent changes to academic culture of universal benefit. The intellectual merit of this proposed work is to advance research and knowledge on academic culture transformation for promoting women in S/E, particularly in academic careers. The broader impacts of our proposed activities include the enhanced participation of women across the spectrum of academia in S/E at UCSD and UCSC, enhanced networks of women faculty across the UC campuses, and an increase in the number of women faculty mentors for the next generation of scientists and engineers. The collaborative approach also has the potential to lead to changes that can be readily exported to other campuses.