August 13, 2002

To: 	George H. Davis
	Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and  Provost

From:	Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs Advisory Council 
	(acting also as the GIDP Millenium Committee)
		Leslie Tolbert (chair), Professor, ARL Neurobiology 
		Ann Baldwin, Professor, Physiology
		Timothy Bowden, Professor, Radiation Oncology	
		John Hildebrand, Professor, ARL Neurobiology
		Teresa McCarty, Professor, Language, Reading, and Culture
		Andrea Yool, Associate Professor, Physiology

Re: 	Implementation plans of the Millenium Committee for the Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs

	GIDPAC has volunteered to act as the Millenium Committee for the Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs, and the chair of GIDPAC (currently Prof. Leslie Tolbert) to act as the contact person.  We are fully committed to promoting the goals of the Millennium Project in the GIDPs.

	Although 80% of UA faculty participate in GIDPs, few faculty positions actually reside in the GIDPs.  Most GIDP faculty are appointed in university departments; their involvement in the GIDPs as insructors, advisors, and administrators is voluntary or, in a minority of cases, done with compensation paid through their home departments.  The names of the faculty and their percent FTE, sex, and ethnicity for all GIDP-based positions are listed below:

GIDP in American Indian Studies:
Mary Jo Fox (chair)	100% 		female		Native American
Joseph Stauss		100% 		male		Native American
Tsianina Lomawaima	100% 		female		Native American
Tom Holm		100% 		male		Native American
Nancy Parezo		100% 		female		Native American
Eileen Luna 		100% 		female		Native American
Mary Willie 		45% 		female		Native American
Rob Williams 		45% 		male		Native American
Luci Topohonso 	49%		female		Native American
Manley Begay		11% 		male		Native American

GIDP in Applied Mathematics:
Michael Tabor (chair)	100% 		male 		white

GIDP in Biomedical Engineering:
Stuart Williams (chair)	100% 		male		white
Jennifer Barton		100% 		female		white
Urs Utzinger		100% 		male		white
Jay Hoying		100% 		male		white
Theodore Trouard 	100% 		male		white

Clearly, overall, the representation of one ethnic minority (Native American) is unusually high as a result of faculty appointments in American Indian Studies; however, other individual GIDPs are not diverse in ethnicity for FTE appointed faculty (although they may have ethnic diversity in their broader memberships).  Regarding gender representation, it is laudable that the Biomedical Engineering faculty includes a woman, and that one of the GIDP chairs on this list is a woman.

	In the interest of increasing ethnic diversity, we will send a letter to GIDP chairs, urging most of them to actively consider increasing the number of faculty of color not only as they hire into GIDP-based FTEs, but also when they invite department-based faculty to join their GIDPs.  In the case of American Indian Studies, it probably is not appropriate to urge consideration of hiring of white faculty or faculty of other ethnicities, because one of their mandates is to bring Native American faculty to the UA to serve as role models and mentors to Native American students.  We also will remind GIDP executive committees that, when replacing chairs (generally done from within, whether in GIDP_ or department_based positions), they should make special efforts to consider women and faculty of color.  Changes in formal policy probably are not needed at this time.

	We have reviewed the salaries for the faculty listed above, and see no evidence of systematic bias against women faculty or faculty of color.  We will review the salaries of all faculty whose FTEs are based in GIDP’s annually, and will work to fix any problems that arise.