Dr. Carole Brandt made history in 1994 when she was named the first female dean of a college at SMU. At that time, many believed her appointment signaled the first step toward gender diversity in the high ranks of the university’s administration.
Recent events prove them wrong.
Last week, SMU hired a successor to Brandt, who is retiring as dean of the Meadows School of the Arts. Her successor, Dr. Jose Bowen, is a man. Brandt remains the only woman ever to serve as a dean at SMU.
Meanwhile, SMU has yet to name a replacement for Dr. Jasper Neel, who is stepping down as dean of Dedman College. The interim dean announced Thursday is anthropology professor Caroline B. Brettell who is female. Her term begins July 1 and ends on June 30, 2007.
As matters stand, the SMU president, provost and the dean of every college-save one serving in an interim position-are male. This is at a university where women account for almost 55 percent of the undergraduate student population.
Many female students are disillusioned at the exclusion of women from the top ranks of SMU.
“How can we be expected, as women, to strive for success when there are no examples of powerful women in our university?” said Lizzie Lovelady, a junior majoring in theatre.
Experts say that institutions of higher learning that provide only male role models at the top shortchange students.
“Role models are very important,” said Dr. Elsie Echeverri-Carroll, a research professor and the director of the economic development program at the University of Texas’ McCombs School of Business. “If you take into consideration the surveys done from the students’ perspective, you will find that diverse role models are necessary at all levels.”
SMU officials defend their selections, saying their primary concern is hiring the most qualified candidate. “I think the president and provost and the university search committees have done due diligence in developing pools of candidates and selecting the best candidate for the job,” said Dr. Jim Caswell, vice president of student affairs at SMU.
Asked if having a male-dominated administration sends the wrong message to faculty and students, Caswell said that officials should be judged on what they do rather than their gender. “Actions are more important,” he said.
Several professors and students disagree. They said a male-dominated administration tends to exclude diverse points of view. And they said it sends the wrong message to the university and the public.
“It’s important for students to see, when they look at people of power, that there are all kinds of people that can be in power,” said Dr. Carolyn Sargent, the head of the Women’s Studies Program at SMU.
Dr. R Gerald Turner, the president of SMU, was hired in 1995. Dr. Robert Blocker, the provost and vice president of Academic Affairs, was hired in 2005. There are eight colleges at SMU – Cox School of Business, Dedman School of Law, Dedman College, the engineering school, the Meadows School of the Arts, the Perkins School of Theology, the school of education and human development and the school of research and graduate studies. All are currently headed by men save for Dedman College where the sole female dean serves in an interim capacity.
“We don’t look like a very mixed crowd,” said Dr. Kathleen Wellman, a history professor. “It’s interesting. Two of the Dedman dean candidates, who are male, commented on the fact that there were so few women in administrative positions at SMU.”
When Brandt first came to SMU, she knew she was the first female to serve as the dean of Meadows. But it wasn’t until she was driving to campus on her first day that she heard on the radio that she was the first female dean at SMU. “That was a shock to me,” Brandt said in a recent interview. “I am very sad that there aren’t additional female administrators; I hope this is remedied in future searches.”
Turner recently created an oversight committee to report on gender equity issues including search committees appointed to fill top administrative posts. The group has tried to encourage the search committees to seek out qualified female candidates whenever possible. But Sargent said this type of carrot approach has not been successful.
“I think that our sense is that this informal system of encouragement has not produced results,” she said.
Professors and students say the under-representation of women in top academic positions at SMU is aggravated by the fact that there are relatively few tenured female professors here and many of them are paid significantly less than their male colleagues. The lack of female authority inside and outside the classroom does not send a positive message to students.
“It’s sad that women are cut off,” said Dr. Camille Kraeplin, a journalism professor. “Role models help to provide students with strategies that can best be applied to them.”
Some students said that having a male-dominated administration is not a problem. Justin Montgomery, a Dedman II senator majoring in finance, as well as markets and culture, said gender should play no role when it comes to selecting those who will oversee the university.
“I think they ought to pick the person who can run the school best,” he said. “Gender isn’t important.”
Other students said having a male-dominated administration could hurt the university in the long run because it would be relying on a single point of view.
“It’s like we are running on a 19th-century model,” said Lovelady. “This can’t possibly be progress.”
Almost everyone agrees that attracting highly qualified academic officials is difficult. That is why it is particularly important that SMU reach out to the most accomplished female scholars.
“It is so important for many universities to have women in high-level positions,” said Dr. Courtney Aberle, director of the SMU Women’s Center. “It is harder to retain talented women who might have more competitive offers at other universities.”
A number of professors at SMU say that as things now stand, the lack of women in top positions at SMU sends out the wrong message to potential students, faculty members and administrators.
“I think the problem is that women looking at SMU might not be likely to apply because there are so few women in our administration,” Wellman said.
Some female professors said gender should play no role in filling top positions at the university. “It shouldn’t be an issue,” said Dr. Shelley Berg, a professor in the division of dance. “I hope that any dean would be capable of being sensitive to the needs of all of their students.”
Others, however, said that it will remain an important issue as long as women tend to be excluded from positions of power. In the words of Sargent: “Don’t you think it would send a better message if there were diversity in all the domains of university life?”
