BOSTON (AP) -- Harvard University outlined plans Tuesday to expand child care and other faculty support, detailing how it would begin spending $50 million President Lawrence Summers committed last year to help women and minority employees.
The cost of the initial effort totals $7.5 million. It includes a 53 percent increase in child-care scholarships, plus other steps such as funding for child-care grants when faculty and staff travel to professional conferences.
The programs are outlined in the first report of Harvard's new office of faculty development and diversity, which was created by Summers last year in the wake of the uproar over his comments that genetics might help explain why fewer women than men reach top scientific posts. Summers' clashes with faculty -- including over women in science -- led to his resignation. He is leaving office June 30.
"Harvard is at the beginning of a very long journey," said Evelynn Hammonds, whom Summers appointed as senior vice provost for faculty development and diversity. "While significant progress has been made here at Harvard this year, there is much work to be done to transform this institution."
Harvard also will create university-wide parental leave guidelines, increase by 50 percent its subsidy to six existing day-care centers, and provide more staff and equipment so junior professors can conduct research more efficiently en route to tenure.
The report also details the status of women and minority faculty in all divisions of the university, and compared Harvard to peer institutions. Women represent considerably fewer than half of tenure-track candidates in most fields, but there are some indications of progress.
In the natural sciences faculty -- an area of particular focus after Summers' remarks -- the percentage of women faculty on the tenure track rose from 22 percent to 25 percent last year. Just 8 percent of tenured faculty in the natural sciences are women.