Mentoring and networking continue!

Looking for life and career skills in about one hour a week?

Add Perspectives on Career and Gender! During this discussion-based 1-credit seminar,  learn about career paths, interviewing, mentorship, rights, negotiation, intersectionality, balancing work & life, #MeToo and more!  Gain skills in group facilitation, literature review, peer mentoring, and networking.  Tuesdays, 3:30-4:25 PM, Bray 324; during the weeks when WiSE Professions meets, those events will substitute for class.  Employees and un-enrolled students may also sit in.  Direct questions to Diane Kuehn (dmkuehn@esf.edu) and Heather Engelman (engelman@esf.edu).

Coffee Breaks!

Take a breather and give or gain insight into work or life challenges, while helping others.   Comparing notes can help us identify issues, share strategies and possible paths forward (or around).

Join in person in 110 Moon or online/phone in (register at https://syracuseuniversity.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMsd-Ggrz4rGNQkzp59XyKkzUM6GeHnFH2l) from wherever you happen to be on (mostly) 1st Fridays (2/3, 3/3, 4/14, 5/5) during the 11:40-12:35 class block, or 3rd Thursdays (2/16, 3/23, 4/20, 5/18),9:30-10:30am.   

WiSE Professions speaker series returns, with a combination of virtual and in person sessions:

• Women in STEM Alumnae Career Panel, with Alumni Association, Career Services, and others. Thursday, March 2, 7pm, virtual.
• Dr. Meredith Holgerson, EFB MS 2011, Assistant Professor, Ecology and Evolution, Cornell U, title TBD, with Adaptive Peaks,  Thursday, April 6, 3:45pm, 5 Illick
• Dr. Gina Dilio-Whitaker, on Indigenous Environmental Justice, with Center for Native Peoples and the Environment and others, Wednesday, April 26, 5pm, Gateway

 Pre-college Pipeline programs:

• Take our Kids to Work Day, Thursday, April 27, STEM exploration for 8-11 year olds with an adult that works or studies at ESF, regardless of the child’s gender or relationship to their adult.  Kids, grandkids, godkids, niblings, siblings, neighbors, and other connections are all welcome (on a space limited basis—this is a class day, so we are working in between other users of classrooms and labspaces, and presenters’ ongoing obligations).
• Girls’ Summit, Saturday May 20. Kids’ Day’s ‘big sister’, expanding STEAM exploration to 5^th-10^th graders in the community.  If you are looking for a program for a class you sponsor, youth group or scout troop, this is the program for your group! Annual collaboration of the YWCA of Onondaga County, C/STEP, and multiple on-campus partners (Open Academy, OIDE, Women’s Caucus).

Student parents: connect to other parents on campus

 Students with children, eldercare, or other caretaking responsibilities can feel extra stretched, and sometimes isolated.  Talking with others is a great way to discover resources and family friendly events on- or off-campus, set up study-and-play dates (or play dates/study breaks) and to share advice.  

If you would like to join a virtual discussion forum comprised of other caregivers (largely students and employees; a few retirees/alumni and community members), please subscribe to the FamilyResources listserv:  email listserv@listserv.syr.edu a message of:  SUBSCRIBE familyresources FirstName LastName (Please substitute your own name for those last fields, and leave the “subject” line empty).

If you have any questions or need assistance subscribing, please contact Heather Engelman, engelman@esf.edu

Connecting over coffee

Coffee Breaks!  During the standard business week, it gets so busy that you've skipped lunch, opted not to refill a  water bottle to save that time (and that of the inevitable restroom break)—and are running out of steam carrying more than our fair shares of mental load and taking care of everyone around us. So, put on the brakes, recharge batteries a bit, connect, bounce ideas off of one another, and offer and receive advice about handling work and life pressures. Join in person (110 Moon), or online/phone in (please register), this semester from wherever you happen to be on (mostly) 1st Wednesdays (9/7, 10/12, 11/2, 12/7) at 8:30 am, or 3rd Thursdays (9/15; 10/20; 11/17; 12/15) at 2pm.  The

hybrid option should allow folks from Harrison St, remote campuses, telecommuting, or relocated to also participate, without dealing with commute times or parking.

Please attend, share your ideas, requests for discussion topics, formal workshops, speakers (WiSE Professions), or other events, as well as what you think decision makers should know about women working/studying at ESF.  If you prefer to do that more anonymously, this link is remaining open https://forms.gle/UKFCE6r6Daxb8nqU6.

Please note that you don’t need to wait for those breaks to ask questions or share resources!  We manage two listservs, both configured as discussion forums:

·        ESFWomen is primarily used for announcements like this, and can be used to communicate with about 100 people, some still on campus, some that have graduated or gone to other institution.

·        FamilyResources.  Child- and elder-care impact folks regardless of gender/gender identity, and not all women have an interest in those resources.  By spinning off family discussions, we hope to make them more accessible to those who need them (now, or thinking ahead), unclutter the inboxes of those who don’t, and affirm  “balancing work and family” as a universal workplace concern.

  

Input needed regarding childcare need

A small, intrepid group has been investigating resources and options for ESF childcare.  

Oakie onesie

Critical questions for those investigating options for ESF include:  "how many spaces are you looking for?  What ages”  Please help move conversations forward, and determine which, if any, funding opportunities might be available, by completing the feasibility survey (Please use ESFid to authenticate) and encourage those in your ESF employee and student circles to do so as well.    Student parents can be particularly hard to reach over the summer, so please nudge them to respond as well. 

 

Whether folks have children, are thinking about when to start families or to foster children, or have other comments to share, aggregated responses will help guide ESF’s next steps as well as answer questions SUNY has asked of campuses (same as above, plus which challenges are impacting each population the most acutely). 

This survey clearly does not address every contingency. Anyone with information that the survey does not seem to address, or is wary of sharing via that venue, I hope is comfortable contacting me directly or referring others to do so. 

 

Related notes:

• We are working on updating guidance for those seeking childcare at:  Any suggestion for childcare https://www.esf.edu/resources/family
• Parents (of any gender identity) and others caring for, or supporting in any way, any family member, friend, or colleague--past, present, or future--consider subscribing to the FamilyResources listserv.  Follow instructions at: https://www.esf.edu/resources/family. 

Take our Kids to Work Day returns

 

After a two year hiatus, Take our Kids to Work Day returned to ESF on April 28. Kids 8-11 years old with an adult that works or studies at ESF explored ESF fostered-careers through their own class day:

• ESF Sustainability: Which uses the least energy? A laptop, fan, or LED desk lamp? ESF’s new Energy Manager (and alum) Michael Amadori measured the electricity required to use all these household items.  Kids also played Wasketball, sorting common household waste into trash and recycling and used (with supervision!) solar power as a campfire starter.  They also had a sneek peak at our in-house power station.
• Color changing chemistry! Chemistry’s Kate Bailie (and graduate student assistants) helped students with simple acid-base reactions; use salt water, aluminum foil, and a complete circuit to create a temporary “ink”, and assembled teeny temperature sensitive LCDs
• All about Maple.  Which maples for syrup? (Any, but sugar has the best yield) What do the buds look like? The inside of a tree? With alumna Jill Rahn of ESF Forest Properties. 
• Something's Fishy: tracing mercury.  Details are important in science! What can we measure? Kids received instructions, and then helped Environmental Biology faculty member, Environmental Toxicologist Dr. Roxanne Razavi and grad students Abby Webster and Mike Ackland with record keeping, measured length and weight of whole yellow perch and (with careful supervision) retrieved otoliths (tiny ear bones that can be used to age the fish, much like rings in a tree), eye lenses, and a piece of dorsal fin.  These fish are part of an ongoing study, Project Breathless.  The samples, along with many others, will be assessed by grad students and faculty to help trace mercury through the sample population’s habitat.  Kids and volunteers thought yellow wasn’t an apt description, and that they should be called apricot perch.  A few Kids thought this the grossest of the activities, but others really enjoyed being part of active research!
• In the Lego® Bridge Challenge, Kids were tasked with planning (on paper) and then building (with Lego®) wide enough for Thomas the Tank Engine™ (or friend) to use, and allow 2 matchbox™ car wide lanes beneath. How much weight can it support? How few bricks can you use? (More bricks=higher materials and labor cost). With ESF Environmental Resources Engineering’s Karen Karker (planning support by Lindi Quackenbush).
• Building an Urban Ecosystem.  What are the components of a park (or community garden)? Kids working on the park explain their choices to ESF grad student and Open Academy staff members Dan Collins and Maura Harling Stefl. Through this, they realized park spaces will be hot. So they added a snack shack, water stations and shade. These introduce a new challenge: how to deal with the trash?
• Chemistry students David Spector and John Pezzulo ended the day with a Super Cool “Cooking” Demo, emphasizing safe handling of liquid nitrogen. While Kids (and volunteers) enjoyed some of the best strawberry and vanilla ice cream (served in low-waste waffle cone bowls) ever, John shared a secret:  that if really like what you are learning, and work hard, colleges might pay them to continue learning about that field through graduate school stipends and tuition waivers, and work in support of teaching and/or research.  

Kids Day is one of the earliest, and most enduring, programs of ESF's Women's Caucus. For a photo journey of the day, visit https://www.facebook.com/ESFKidsDay/; for information about past programs, please visit https://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus/kids.htm.  

Acknowledgments:  A huge Thank you to presentation teams for their time and supplies, and the many others who set up spaces, background checked and provided training to volunteers; Allison Oakes, John Turbeville, Brad Fierke, Linda McGuigan, Kathy Lang and Kelly Berger who got everyone where they needed to be; Diane Jaramillo for hep at registration; Danielle Gerhart, Nichole Doherty and Steve Waldron who helped serve lunch and chaperoned restroom trips; and Doherty for checking kids back to their adults. Thanks are also due to James  Zappola, Gentry Battaglia and Ilsa Dohner of the Trailhead Café for their lunch preparations, and to the Provost’s Office and the Women’s Caucus for covering these expenses and snacks. Gratitude to the Bookstore and Centennial Hall for day end gifts to Kids.

YWCA’s Girls’ Summit held at ESF

72 5th-10th grade participants descended on campus to learn about a few STEM based careers during the YWCA Girls’ Summit on April 2.  Local alumnae, students and staff featured prominently in the hands-on portion of the day:

Dr. Kim Cargill (EFB 2004) with assistance of veterinary technician Carrie Curry (EFB 2014), and veterinary assistants/current ESF students Sarah Hoffman and Savannah Rutt,led participants through  Teddy Bear Surgery and Pet First Aid. 

Current ESF students Katherine Gannon; Julia Frank; Kathryn Resanovich,  Alexandria  Kirkpatrick of the Student Environmental Education Coalition (SEEC) led concurrent workshops on Building Urban Ecosystems

Chemical Engineering Staff E. Kelly Watson-Collins, Sean Hohm (PBE 2017-I think), and George Westby (Chemistry 2001, MS 2006), and students Autumn Elniski (PSE 2015, MS 2017, PhD Candidate), Will Contento, Nicole Byrnes, and Serena Brandt led perennial favorite Paper Making and Testing.

ESF students Shawna Mulvihil and Winnie Ne and staff members Heather Engelman (Dual 92, MS 1995), Maura Harling Stefl, Kelly Berger joined other community general volunteers and Group Guides that offered ice breakers, supervised small groups, and helped in other capacities during the day.  Engelman, Harling Stefl, Berger, Dr. Malika Carter and Dr. Lizette Rivera (representing ESF Women's Caucus, ESF in the High School and the Office of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity) collaborated with YWCA staff and colleagues at Syracuse University and LeMoyne College to plan the program.  

The mission of the program was to empower, motivate, educate, and change the perception of girls and women in STEAM.  The program was open to everyone, regardless of sex, gender or gender identity. 

Is ESF friendly to nursing parents?

ESF Lactation Room: 313 Baker Lab. 258 Marshall Hall, coming Spring 2023!

SU's lactation rooms: see Map

Carer Grant Application. For more information on this trial grant program, click here.

Although lots of ESF kids are nursed, neither ESF nor SUNY have lactation policies in place for employees or students-- it is not addressed in the college's sexual harassment policy, or student, graduate student, or employee handbooks. As such, we did not have an official "lactation" or "mother's" room until July 23, 2013--you may now find it in 313 Baker, with renovations completed over the fall semester. Thanks are due to: Computing and Network Services next door for the more comfortable, easier to clean chair: Physical Plant giving up the room, and for the structural renovations (finishing the walls, replacing the original floor basin with a counter and sink, additional outlet, installing a mirror for checking that all buttons have been refastened); Tim Blehar, HR, for shepherding the upgrades; and the VP for Administration for authorizing the work.

How do we fit into the bigger picture?

New York is among the states that have laws that specifically allow women to breastfeed in any public or private location, and that exempt breastfeeding from public indecency laws.

Employees have had ample legal support. A 2007 NYS law (see PDF) requires employers to provide new mothers with a private space to either express milk or breast feed for three years after child birth. Employers are also required to give mothers the time to either express or breast feed. The company does not have to pay the mother for that time (but they also cannot dock her if she can use scheduled breaks or otherwise makes up the time; see PDF). A 2010 federal law states that the employer must also provide a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from co-workers and the public for the employee to express breast milk for the child's first year. If these requirements impose undue hardship, an employer that employs fewer than 50 employees is not subject to these requirement.

Putting this into practice was another matter, however. If you were able to schedule when a child could be brought to you to nurse, you were, and remain, free to use almost any place on campus (there are some labs that no one should be eating in; and that should go double for our babes! This is true for the bathrooms!). For those lucky enough to have private offices (ie, faculty, administrators) pumping could and can still be done in the privacy of your office. The rest of us had to be more creative, and were only successful if we had supportive (vs barely tolerant) colleagues. And effective, July 23, 2013, 313 Baker Lab (near the freight elevator) was designated for nursing moms.

According to Tim Blehar, the door should remain unlocked except when in use, so moms do not have to reserve it to nurse, pump, or clean their pumps. HR assures us that the room is available to student and visiting mothers, too. If repairs are needed, please contact Tim, but for general use questions, feel free to contact Heather Engelman.

Syracuse University has also created a series of Lactation Rooms across campus, which have been mapped by Syr Grad Students with Children. See also https://hr.syr.edu/work-life-benefits-and-resources/raising-a-family/lactation-support for locations and links explaining who to contact for each space, and to access those additional resources.

On a related note, the Gateway Building was designed with a family restroom (i.e. large enough for a family member to accompany any person requiring assistance and with room for the individuals wheelchair or other mobility device, including a stroller) with a changing table in its basement.

We still have a way to go to develop policies that support all parents, including flextime and part-time options, but its good to know that we have support for moms at so many levels of the administration. That said, additional Lactation Rooms across campus would be a lot more accessible for administrative staff--especially in the winter.

Please note that while the nursing room appears on the "Locations of Women’s and Gender Inclusive/All-Gender Bathrooms", mothers should NEVER be referred to a bathroom to pump or nurse.

Caregiver Travel Grants for pre-tenure, full-time faculty with nursing infants

Presenting at, and attending conferences, is a key means for scientists, engineers, and other professionals to further scholarly activities, build collaborations, and establish reputations in their fields. Nursing parents face unique hurdles in realizing these critical networking opportunities, including age limitations and cost of conference childcare (if childcare is even available/offered), challenges pumping and managing breastmilk throughout the conference, sponsor travel reimbursement restrictions, and the significant financial strain of bringing a caregiver.

We are excited to announce that the Office of Research Programs has launched a trial Caregiver Travel Grant Program to support conference attendance for pre-tenure, full-time faculty, for two years post-birth. (Adjunct positions, post-docs, and graduate students are not covered by this program at this time.). Please not that for the purposes of this grant, "full-time" extends to those who were full-time Assistant Professors but have temporarily changed title or FTE due to an Extension of Continuing Appointment Decision.

Grants will reimburse up to $500 of the caregiver’s air- or train-fare per fiscal year, for the purpose of assisting with the care of a nursing infant during the conference. Designated caregivers can be a co-parent, grandparent, babysitter, or other individual of the faculty member’s choice.

For application materials and additional instructions, please visit ORP.  Applications should be submitted at least one month prior to conference travel.   Reimbursement will occur after the trip is completed.

Kids Day returns! registration now open! Volunteers needed!

After a two year hiatus, registration has opened for ESF’s Take our Kids to Work Day, Thursday, April 28, 2022!   Kids 8-11 years old with an adult that works or studies at ESF are invited to explore ESF fostered-careers through their own class day, starting and ending the day in the Gateway Center.  

Space is limited, and pre-registration is required.  FAQs and Registration Forms (due 4/21) are available at https://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus/kids.htm.  Past adults have requested information to share with schools to request the absence be excused; a form is available at that same page to facilitate that conversation and (if necessary) to coordinate makeup or alternate assignments. 

We are also seeking volunteers to chaperone groups: https://forms.gle/nYXVQYtnZYAadE7x5.  

Kids Day is one of the earliest, and most enduring, programs of ESF's Women's Caucus. The group is pleased to return to an in-person option, as well as to continue to share photos and materials via https://www.facebook.com/ESFKidsDay/.

Questions about the program, accommodations, or volunteering, please contact Heather Engelman,  engelman@esf.edu, 315-470-4752. 

Interviewing? John Turbeville shares tips

Dr. Turbeville, Senior Assistant Dean for Student Affairs and Director of Career Services at SUNY-ESF shared interviewing tips on Tuesday, March 29, 2022, as part of ESF's Perspectives on Career and Gender Spring Seminar Series.

Dr. Turbeville presented the services provided by Career Service at ESF along with interviewing statistics. I was amazed to find out that 90% of employers find social media important when evaluating candidates and 79% of HR professionals have denied a job to a candidate due to inappropriate content on social media. He also shared some common questions asked during an interview and ways to obtain success in an interview.

Dr. Turbeville completed his M.S. and Ph.D. from Syracuse University. He has more than fifteen years of higher education experience in the areas of academic support services, career services, educational programming, judicial affairs, and crisis management.

For more information about the Perspective on Career and Gender Seminar Series, please visit
http://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus and http://esfwomen.blogspot.com/search/label/Speakers. For upcoming public events and lectures, please visit ESF’s College Calendar at http://www.esf.edu/calendar.

As part of the course requirements for FOR797 Perspectives on Career and Gender, students share  responsibility of reporting on class discussions as well as on the speakers in the campus-wide Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series.  The preceding was prepared by Poonam Joshi, Department of Sustainable Forest Management, studying Master of Science in Natural Resources Management.