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Women find their way to top jobs
Number of women in administrative positions at A&M climbing higher
By Jill Reed
Science writer
At Texas A&M most adminis
trative and senior research posi
tions are still filled by men, al
though women have attended
the University as undergraduates
over 35 years, and more than
half of the new freshman classes
are women.
Dr. Sallie Sheppard, associate
provost for undergraduate pro
grams and academic services,
said female representation at
A&M has changed a lot since she
entered the university in 1963 as
one of the first woman under
graduates.
“A&M has made some real ef
forts to get more women in
volved,” Sheppard said. “More
could be done, but I see a healthy
trend of opportunities opening
for women.”
In 1977, she was one of the first
two women awarded tenure in
the department of computer sci
ence in the College of Engineering,
and by 1987, she became the first
woman associate provost at A&M.
When Sheppard accepted the
job as Associate Provost for Un
dergraduate Programs and Acade
mic Services in 1987, there was
only one female department head.
Now there are three female as
sistant provosts, several female de
partment heads and one of the
eleven college deans is a woman.
“When I got here, there was
just a handful of women, but the
last two freshman classes have
been more than half women,”
Sheppard said. “It is still predom
inantly men at the graduate lev
el, but it is growing.”
Women at A&M are climbing to
senior levels, but progress is being
made in small steps rather than
“As an institution, we
are trying to remove
glass ceilings for
women, and although
they are getting higher,
they are still there.”
Sallie Sheppard
Associate provost
leaps and bounds.
“As an institution, we are trying
to remove glass ceilings for
women, and although they are
getting higher, they are still
there,’’Sheppard said.
The numbers of senior-rank
ing females may imply gender
discrimination, but the delay
may be because of a lag in the
opening of senior administrative
positions compared to the rate at
which female enrollment at A&M
is growing.
Sue Geller, professor of math
ematics and veterinary anatomy
and public health, said, “As more
women reach senior ranks, there is
a greater pool available to fill
opening positions.”
“Most decisions now are made
by white males,” Geller said. “It is
not intentional exclusion of
women; we are just not there yet.”
Now Sheppard, as well as Dr.
William Perry, the dean of faculty,
are leaving administrative posi
tions, leaving a few more openings
for the next qualified applicants.
Dr. Martha Scott, an associate
professor in the oceanography de
partment, said, “There are now
more women in faculty positions,
administrative positions, graduate
school and medical school than in
the past.”
“The trend is an encouraging
one, but there is room for im
provement,” she said.
Scott, who has been at A&M for
over 25 years, said, “The best
change in a long time has been the
creation and growth of the
Women’s Faculty Network.”
Sherry Yennello, recently
awarded tenure in the College of
Science, has served as president of
the Women’s Faculty Network for
the past three years.
“The Network has done a lot to
help women meet other women,
get professional development and
have a support network because a
lot of information flows through
informal channels,” Yennello said.
“Professional development,
mentoring and networking are im-
Astronauts to bq
experiments inspj
portant to anyone’s career,” Yen
nello said, “and since men have in
formal connections more readily,
the Women’s Faculty Network al
lows information to flow to
women, where they might never
have access to these things.”
“We must somehow counter
balance self-similar selection,”
Yennello said. “We all tend to iden
tify with people like ourselves and
unconsciously pick them.”
Susan Golden, professor of bi
ology and a member of the
Women’s Faculty Network, appre
ciates the Network’s emphasis on
mentoring.
“In my department, existing
faculty helps all new faculty get
started, both women and men,”
Golden said. “All people in gradu
ate school or faculty positions
need advice, and at A&M there is a
new emphasis on giving people
the right starts.”
“The representation of women
has the momentum it needs to
grow, and it is taking care of itself,”
Golden said.
“I am more concerned with
representation of ethnic minori
ties than women because we need
more role models for Hispanic and
African-American students,”
Golden said, “and that is an area
that is not growing.”
“It is important to encourage
and highlight the successes of
women and ethnic minorities so
the students can.see role models
in people like themselves,” Shep
pard said.
SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP)
— Astronauts aboard space shut
tle Columbia removed the fetuses
of nine pregnant mice Sunday so
they can be examined to deter
mine how the nervous system de
velops in space.
The experiment, one of 26 being
performed on the two-week Neuro
lab mission, should help scientists
learn whether gravity is required for
normal brain development.
The answer is critical in deter
mining whether animals and hu
mans could be born in space,
enabling space colonies to
be established.
“These experiments
are going to answer very
basic and very impor
tant questions that
are particularly rele
vant not only to hu
mans but to animal
health here on Earth
as well as in space,’’
NASA scientist Louis
Ostrach said. “The
value of these exper
iments is consider
able.”
Before the dissec
tions, crew members
injected the pregnant
mice with cell mark
ers to label the brain
cells in their em-
biyos. This allows!
t rack the development^
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The mice then
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TWUA judges select!
best tap water in Text
Italian architect wins prestigious prize
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Italian
architect Renzo Piano, whose abil
ity to meld art, architecture and
engineering has been compared
to that of Leonardo da Vinci and
Michelangelo, won this year’s
Pritzker Architecture Prize.
The prestigious award, which in
cludes a $100,000 grant and a
bronze medallion, honors a living
architect whose work demonstrates
a combination of talent, vision and
commitment. Announced Sunday
by the Hyatt Foundation, it will be
presented June 17 at a White House
ceremony.
Piano, 60, possesses “intellectu
al curiosity and problem-solving
techniques as broad and far-rang
ing as those earlier masters of his
native land,” the prize jury said.
“While his work embraces the most
current technology of the era, his
roots are clearly in the classic Ital
ian philosophy and tradition.”
Piano of Genoa, Italy, first
achieved international fame with
the completion of the Georges
Pompidou Center in Paris in 1978.
When it opened, it was ridiculed
and criticized for its whimsical,
factorylike appearance with
green, blue, white and red pipes
running up and down the facades;
today, it’s the nation’s most popu
lar museum.
He went on to create a diverse
array of structures that include the
Beyeler Foundation Museum in
Basel, Switzerland; the Cy
Twombly Gallery at the Menil Col
lection museum in Houston and
the Kansai Air Terminal in Osaka
Bay, Japan.
His current projects include the
renovation and expansion of parts
of Harvard University and the
Padre Pio Pilgrimage Church in
Foggia, Italy. Besides museums
and art complexes, Piano has also
designed homes, shopping cen
ters, bridges and cars.
Piano said he achieves his
works by forcing himself to try
things that never have been done.
“Ifyou intend to use a material,
a construction technique, or an ar
chitectural element in an unusual
way, there is always a time when
you hear yourself saying, Tt can’t
be done,’ simply because no one
has ever tried before,” Piano has
said. “But if you have actually
tried, then you can keep going —
and so you gain a degree of inde
pendence in design that you
would not have otherwise.”
The Pritzker prize was estab
lished by the Hyatt Foundation in
1979. Piano is the second Italian to
receive the award. The late Aldo
Rossi was selected in 1990.
HOUSTON (AP) — While thou
sands of Texans endure tap-water
torment with H2O that packs a
chlorine wallop or resembles eau
de swamp, Longview residents can
guzzle their municipal water with
a smile.
For the second time in five
years, Longview’s Lake Cherokee
water has taken top honors in the
Texas Water Utility Association’s
best-tasting water contest. Last
year’s winner was Cherokee’s sister
plant, which processes water from
the Sabine River.
Cherokee ’98, with no nose to
speak of and only the slightest hint
of sweetness, came within a drop of
reaching the tap water ideal of no
taste or odor at all, judges said.
“It was,” said Linda White, an
Abilene water lab technician who
was among the taste testers, “a very
pleasant water.”
Those responsiblefoi
ors, the men and woi
process 26 million gallon
ing Cherokee purificad::
each day, responded
shucks nonchalance toil-
found celebrity.
“Well, it feels great,’ML
utility plant manager Milt®,,,,
“Normally, we’re theM®.u
mous people in thewtlilBL
when things go wrong
shoot to the top.” K
The water was one the:
reason Detroit-basedStroB
Co. built a brewery in Longi
Stroll’s spokesperson Lace
“We test our waterdaii
said, “and we are very
The local water is keyt
of Stroh’s prize-winningli
beer, she said.
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