By Jenny Schuster
Staff Writer

It’s a well-known fact that men outnumber women at Purdue. In some more technical majors, especially in the schools of Engineering and Science, women are sometimes outnumbered by a significant margin.

Barb Clark, director of Women in Science Programs, said the goal is to retain more women science students at all levels, from undergraduate to graduate.

When the programs were introduced in January of 1995, they involved only graduate women in science. In 1997, the grant that funded this program ended, and the School of Science, in response, funded an endowment to guarantee the program would continue and added new undergraduate programs.

The Graduate Mentoring Program involves approximately 70 graduate women pursuing various degrees who attend a dinner featuring a speaker of interest on a monthly basis. The dinners are an opportunity to interact with female faculty members who can suggest specific strategies for academic and personal success, Clark said. Since this program has started, the number of masters and doctoral degrees conferred to women has increased.

Programs for undergraduate women in science include the Undergraduate Mentoring Program and the Residential Program. Clark said, "Each year, we invite all the newly admitted women in the School of Science to apply for the Residential Program in Earhart Hall. This year, we had about 70 girls participating in this program — living on two and a half floors in Earhart. We can never sail how many people we will admit from year to year — it depends on how many empty spaces are left on the floors we want to use.

"Of the 47 students who participated in (Women in Science Programs) in 1997, 91 percent of them are still at Purdue, and 47 percent of them are still in the School of Science," Clark said. "This is opposed to 74 percent at Purdue and 28 percent in science of a matched control group. The data suggest that the same effects are true for the 200 women who have participated in (the program) for the three years since it was established."

Erin O’Neal, a freshman in the School of Science and a participant in the Residential Program, said, "I thought it would be neat to live on a floor with people of similar interests. I’m coming back next year mostly because of friends I made. Most of the girls I know are staying here next year because they like it so much."

In addition to living on a floor populated mostly by women who share similar interests, the freshmen living on the Women in Science floors in Earhart Residence Hall are paired with an upper-class mentor in their major with whom they meet informally to discuss various academic and career concerns, Clark said.

Also, like the Graduate Mentoring Program, the group of undergraduate mentors and mentees meets monthly for dinner, along with a career speaker in Earhart Residence Hall.

Julia Howell, a sophomore in the School of Science and a participant in the program, said, "I enjoyed getting to know girls in my major — learning from them and helping them. Last year, my mentor helped me to find the right classes. This year, I helped my mentee to find undergraduate research."

O’Neal said, "We had a ropes course where we learned team building and leadership skills. We met new people and got to know our mentors better."

The program sponsors nightly mathematics and science tutoring in Earhart Residence Hall, co-sponsored by Women in Engineering programs. Upper-class women in the Schools of Engineering and the School of Science provide free tutoring to interested students.

Clark regularly provides information to participants about various internship and career opportunities and recently began publishing a newsletter for participants called, "WISPers."

For more information, visit the organization’s Web site, http://www.science.purdue.edu/wisp.