KEVIN KLAUS/Arizona Daily Wildcat

Naomi Miller, co-chair of the Millennium Project and past president of the Association of Women Faculty, led the study that uncovered a disparity in the salaries of women and minority faculty members. The project, which found that women professors make an average of nearly $10,000 less than their male counterparts, has garnered the backing of both President Peter Likins and Provost George Davis.

Women and minority faculty members are readying to fight what looks to be an uphill battle against a university environment that a recent study shows discriminates against them.

But they have garnered the support of several top administrators, including University of Arizona President Peter Likins, who has said that reforms for the treatment of women and minorities are long overdue.

The recently released Millennium Project detailed the obstacles that these faculty members have had to overcome, including lower salaries and a disproportionately low number of administrative positions.

Likins said he has supported the project from the beginning, and that he was sure it would lead to changes in how faculty are treated on campus.

"Women should receive the same compensation as men in the same position if they are similarly qualified," he said.

Naomi Miller, the professor of English who co-chaired the Millennium Project, is confident the project will create equality among faculty members of different backgrounds.

"I do hope there can be equity at the university," Miller said.

Myra Dinnerstein, past president of the Commission on the Status for Women and co-chair for the Millennium Project, agreed that UA administration has been supportive.

"I don't think this report will remain on the shelf," Dinnerstein said.

Miller said statistics from the project show that women planning to become university faculty members might be discouraged to do so. The ratio of female faculty to female undergraduate students is 35-to-1, compared to 12-to-1 for male faculty to male undergraduate students.

For Miller, the road to her professorship was filled with obstacles that she considered directly related to her sex.

"My research in women's studies was sometimes considered less significant," Miller said.

Growing up in a home with both parents as educators encouraged her to become a professor as well as helped her to gain new insight into gender roles in the classroom.

"Being a professor was the family business," she said. "I was able to see the differences between male and female professors and the challenges with being a female professor."

Miller said by the time she was pursuing her graduate studies, she had already had two of her four children - a decision her advisers discouraged her from making while still completing her degree.

Still, she said she wouldn't have changed how she handled her past.

"I learned how to balance life and work issues," Miller said.

Jeni Hart, a graduate associate who also worked on the Millennium Project, said that she faced more hostility from her peers than from her professors.

But Hart said she would not let negative comments from her peers take away her drive to become a faculty member.

"I think it's motivated me," Miller said. "But I can understand why it would be discouraging."

She also said knowing Likins is supportive of a proposal like the Millennium Project is encouraging

"I feel there is a sense of hope," Hart said.

History professor Karen Anderson said she too faced challenges in the beginning of her career. She said she experienced a large difference in her salary, even though she was publishing as many, if not more articles than her male counterparts.

The actual difference in salary was $6,000, Anderson said, and that she was the lowest paid faculty member in her department.

"I believe it is absolutely true women are paid less than men with the same achievements," Anderson said, "but that situation varies from department to department within the university."

According to results of the Millennium Project, the average salary for female professors throughout the university is $77,435 compared to men who on average make $86,514.

Anderson also said that at the beginning of her career at the UA, she felt isolated because she is female.

"The guys just did what they were going to do," Anderson said.

While she does not have any children of her own, Anderson said she thinks women who choose to have children and continue their career have a difficult time, but that our society plays a significant role in overplaying that idea.

"Society has the obligation to support and honor the work that goes into child bearing," she said.

She said women who take time off to have children should receive the same respect as their male counterparts in the same position, since most times the female continues to work at home.

"It's not true that women just go home to rock the cradle," Anderson said.

Lindy Brigham, president elect for the Association for Women Faculty, said she too is no stranger to discrimination as a result of her sex. She recalled a time as a graduate student at Southern Methodist University when her department head told her that she couldn't participate in a class because certain facilities would not be made available to her on class field trips.

Brigham said her response was to fight back, but after going through all the necessary steps to do so, she finally gave up because of lack of support from organizations such as the Affirmative Action Office to help fight against the administration.

"It was very discouraging," Brigham said.

As a young girl, Brigham said her parents had always told her she could do whatever she wanted to do, but that they had failed to tell her she was living in a society where that is not true.

Brigham also said while she did not feel supported in the past by her colleagues to make changes in how female faculty are treated, she said UA administration has been overtly supportive of the Millennium Project.

After state-wide budget cuts are finalized, Millennium Project participants will present its desired action initiatives and lobby the UA for additional funding.

"I am optimistic of the allocation of funds for the Millennium Project because it is a priority of the President." Miller said.

Miller said certain initiatives can already be enacted because they require no funding, just a lot of work.

"The first changes will deal with the equitable enforcement of university policies," Miller said.

An oversight committee working with the President's cabinet will be formed to enforce these recommendations and decide which action initiatives will be completed first.

Miller said she is hoping to initiate mini-Millennium projects within each college, such as the GRACE project, which was administered by the College of Medicine to research the vast differences of salary among faculty.

"That would be a positive change," Miller said.

Administrators at the University of Colorado have been interested in starting their own Millennium Projects she said.

"We offer a national model for public research universities," Miller said.