Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education

By Jeremy Bailin

Image Credit: NASEM

Action Collaborative is a collaboration between academic institutions that grew out of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) 2018 Sexual Harassment of Women report. Its goal is to "collaboratively work toward and share targeted action on addressing and preventing sexual harassment across all disciplines and among all people in higher education". More specifically, members pledge to advance research on preventing sexual harassment, develop evidence-based policies, share and implement those policies, and assess progress towards preventing sexual harassment in academia.

The Action Collaborative consists of 52 Member Organizations, who form the working groups and provide financial support, plus an additional 16 Partner Network Organizations. Applications to join the collaborative are accepted every January; for further information on applying, please contact the Action Collaborative staff at shactioncollab_at_nas.edu (replace the _at_ with @).

The collaborative hosts annual public summits, with videos of previous talks available. Individual working groups dedicated towards prevention, response, remediation, and evaluation meet 1-3 times per quarter.

Action Collaborative has put out a number of publications this year:

• Developing, Implementing, and Sustaining Sexual Harassment Bystander Intervention Programs
• Preventing and Addressing Retaliation
• Policies to Prevent "Passing the Harasser"
• Evaluation of Sexual Harassment Prevention and Response Efforts

To find out more about Action Collaborative, see

https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/action-collaborative-on-preventing-sexual-harassment-in-higher-education/about

Requesting Input for Study on Caregiving

By Jeff Gillis-Davs, Washington University

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a committee on Policies and Practices for Supporting Family Caregivers Working in Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Two of the goals of this committee are:

• Summarize the published research on the challenges faced by scientists, engineers, and medical professionals who are family caregivers (i.e., parents and those with eldercare responsibilities, or both), including research on the impact of COVID-19 these individuals;
• Document institutional and governmental efforts to support caregivers and the positive and negative impacts of such efforts (if known), including any unintended consequences of well-intentioned policies and practices;

We seek your input (basically white papers, but we're calling them dear colleague letters) on our study examining policies and programs to support the retention, re-entry, and advancement of students and professionals working in academic science, engineering, and medicine with caregiving responsibilities (e.g., these responsibilities include caregiving for kids, spouses, significant others, dependent adults, parents, etc.). 

To share information, please submit a description and any related publications 

by June 1, 2023, using this link.

Although the primary focus of the study is women caregivers in science, engineering, and medicine, people of all genders, including men, face obstacles as caregivers. Therefore, the study scope will include caregivers of all genders but emphasize women. The study will also take an intersectional approach and place particular emphasis on the experiences of the most marginalized groups in science, engineering, and medicine, such as women of color, who remain particularly underrepresented in these fields.

For questions, please contact j.gillis-davis_at_wustl.edu.