"Vision 2000" is a call to our Presidents and Chancellors to ensure full and equitable participation by women in the New England Land Grant Universities. Through nine broad recommendations, the document sets forth a vision of where women at our six insti tutions can and should be at the beginning of the next century. "Vision 2000" is the combined effort of the faculty, staff, and students who make up the New England Council of Land-Grant University Women. The nine recommendations are:
To guarantee continuing excellence in public higher education, the leaders of our institutions, and specifically our Presidents and Chancellors, must understand the issues raised by "Vision 2000" and provide clear and visible leadership to bring the nine recommendations to fruition.
Institutional demographics are changing as more women enter higher education at all levels, however, the structures to encourage, support, and retain women have not kept pace. Women continue to be underrepresented in the curriculum, ignored or disparaged in the classroom, underrepresented in leadership roles and overrepresented in entry-level and support positions. Women face sexual violence and sexual harassment in the classroom and in the workplace, and are too often silenced by a system that protects the perpetrators of these crimes. Women of color, lesbians, and women with disabilities are further marginalized. At the same time, since men are overrepresented in the curriculum and in leadership roles, a system of privilege and gender inequity is pe rpetuated. We cannot commit ourselves and our institutions to principles of social justice, multiculturalism, and pluralism without a clear plan for achieving gender equity.
Despite some 30 years of gradual legislative change, fulfillment of the goal of gender equity has been slow, partial, and painful. The legal and ethical mandate is clear; institutions of higher education can no longer ignore the harmful effects of the in equitable allocation of resources. Our claim is not to additional resources, but to our fair share of resources.
We ask our Presidents and Chancellors to lead us to "Vision 2000." Hold department heads accountable for improvement in achieving gender equity. Reward those departments that can demonstrate measurable progress. Collect and analyze data on the status o f women. Publish an annual report that measures progress on each of the nine recommendations outlined in "Vision 2000." Report our successes to the public via an annual press conference. Our campuses are involved in various strategic planning and re-en gineering processes, which provide a unique opportunity for leaders to be creative, innovative, thoughtful, and specific in reallocating moneys to those groups who have historically been marginalized and underrepresented.