Over the last several years, external granting agencies (specifically the Sloan Foundation in cooperation with the American Council on Education --- ACE) have recognized the need to promote the development of family-friendly policies in higher education. Sloan subsequently developed a competitive grant to provide funds for a select group of colleges and universities to develop more family-friendly policies (i.e., paid leave, tenure-clock extension, part-time tenure-track options, childcare vouchers, etc.). The hope is that the changes of a few innovative universities will create a national trend in higher education. A new survey by the higher education HR association (CUPA) tells us otherwise:
The CUPA-HR survey provides a snapshot on a range of benefits issues. At a time that many academics are urging institutions to adopt more “family friendly” policies, the survey suggests progress has been minimal.
Only 21 percent of institutions have paid leave for new parents over and above vacation and sick leave. Only 26 percent of the responding institutions provide child day-care benefits, and only 2 percent provide sick-child day-care benefits. Of those institutions that subsidize the costs of day care, the median subsidy was 20 percent.
What is your college doing to promote family-friendly policies? What can we do as individuals?
No comments:
Post a Comment