There were no permanent women deans at Syracuse University when Diane Lyden Murphy earned her undergraduate degree in 1967. Now, she’s one of only three.

SU has 13 schools and colleges, including the graduate school. Nine have permanent men deans. Along with the three permanent women deans, professor Amy Falkner serves as interim dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

“The world is changing, but we’re not there yet,” said Murphy, dean of the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics.

SU’s three women deans said the university needs to prioritize diversity within leadership positions to provide role models to young women. SU not only needs to seek out women representation, but representation across all backgrounds, they said.

“We have to be diligent in seeking out diverse candidates for jobs and being intentional about changing what the face of the university looks like,” said Joanna Masingila, dean of SU’s School of Education.

Chancellor Kent Syverud said last month that he’s concerned about inequality among SU’s academic deans. The university has lost several permanent women deans in recent years, replacing two of the positions with men.

Raj Dewan succeeded Liz Liddy as dean of the School of Information Studies after Liddy retired last year. J. Cole Smith replaced Teresa Abi-Nader Dahlberg as dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science when Dahlberg took a position at Texas Christian University in 2018.

Falkner was chosen to serve as interim dean of Newhouse following the death of former dean Lorraine Branham in April. The school’s search for its permanent dean is ongoing.

These circumstances are beyond the university’s control, Masingila said. But administration has a responsibility to recognize inequality among university leadership and bring different perspectives to the table, she said.

“We have lived in a society for a long time that has been dominated by white men,” Masingila said. “It’s a barrier. It’s an uphill battle to try to overcome what has been the structure of power that has been put in place.”

Murphy said SU needs not only more women faculty members, but also more faculty of color. A university that doesn’t recognize and resolve issues of gender inequality is depriving itself of the future, and a university without any diversity is irrelevant, Murphy said.

As a university leader, Murphy prioritizes increasing faculty diversity, she said. She recently hired four new faculty of color, three of whom are women.

“Women are very good administrators,” Murphy said. “They’re just not given the opportunities.”

Karin Ruhlandt, dean of SU’s College of Arts and Sciences, said she’s particularly concerned about inequality across disciplines. Many STEM disciplines lack women leaders, faculty and students, Ruhlandt said.

As the first woman chair of SU’s chemistry department, Ruhlandt said she had a lot of ideas for improving and diversifying the program’s faculty. She was the only woman in the chemistry department for about 10 years, she said.

“We need to provide role models for our students, and that’s not just female role models. We need to provide role models for everybody in the student body,” Ruhlandt said. “We have work to do, there’s no question.”

Ruhlandt was the first in her family to attend college. While earning her Ph.D. in Germany, she said she never saw a woman professor, not to mention a woman dean.

Attending college was a struggle without having many women role models to look up to, Ruhlandt said. It’s important for SU to encourage and support young women to aspire to leadership positions, she said.

“You need to build a pipeline,” she said. “You don’t create a leader out of nothing.”

Masingila said diversifying positions of leadership shows people of underrepresented backgrounds that they can achieve the same. It’s important that people see others who look like them in decision-making positions, she said.

When she was in the fourth grade, Masingila said her teacher told her parents she displayed strong leadership skills. It’s important for young women to have mentors, people who encourage them to recognize their abilities and support them in achieving their goals, she said.

“If no representation is there, it’s a signal to other faculty members and students,” Masingila said. “If I don’t see anybody who looks like me in that position, could I be in that position? Is this something I could aspire to?”

The next generation of leaders has a responsibility to increase diversity across the board, Murphy said.

“Women in power make everything change,” Murphy said. “And they change it for generations.”

Published on March 1, 2020 at 10:36 pm

Contact Sarah: scalessa@syr.edu | @sarahalessan