Oral History Program Karen Beaver Interviewed by Unknown 11 May 1995 i Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Karen Beaver Interviewed by Unknown 11 May 1995 Copyright © 2012 by Weber State University, Stewart Library ii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. Archival copies are placed in University Archives. The Stewart Library also houses the original recording so researchers can gain a sense of the interviewee's voice and intonations. Project Description The Weber State College/University Student Projects have been created by students working with several different professors on the Weber State campus. The topics are varied and based on the student's interest or task for a specific assignment. These oral history assignments were created to help Weber State students learn the value and importance of recording public history and to benefit the expansion of the Weber State oral history collections. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Stewart Library of Weber State University. No part of the manuscript may be published without the written permission of the University Librarian. Requests for permission to publish should be addressed to the Administration Office, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408. The request should include identification of the specific item and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Beaver, Karen, an oral history by Unknown, 11 May 1995, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Karen Beaver ca. 1995 Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Karen Beaver. The interview was conducted on May 11, 1995, by Unknown. Beaver discusses her time working in the Nursing Program at Weber State University. KB: I'm a professor of nursing here at Weber State University, since 1963. We have a career ladder in the Nursing program and I coordinate the Practical Nursing part of things. I have an Associate degree and a Baccalaureate from the Registered Nursing program also. In my tenure here at the University - now a University, once a College - lots of things have happened as far as women’s issues are concerned. Probably one of the ones that still remains is the inequity in salaries, and recognizing that Nursing is primarily a women's profession; we certainly have men nurses, but we have not had very many male faculty members in the program. We've had some on our satellite campuses, but I am not aware of any male Nursing faculty on this campus. And as a result, I think sometimes we have been left out of the picture, so to speak, as far as the equity. When the College of Health Professions was organized, I can remember, probably back in the late '60's, early 70's, Dr. Helen Farr became in charge of the Equity Committee, and within the College of Health Professions, as it's presently called, of course there are male faculty members, and the dean at that time, I won't mention the name, rationalized the issue - that the men in the Department, in the College, deserved higher salaries because they were heads of households, fathers, and all those other kinds of things. That was a real putdown, I thought, for women, as he talked as to his rationale as to why men were more deserving of the increases in salary. That particular year we, as women, didn't get any merit, we didn't get any equity at all, and when Page 1 of 5 challenged, that was his answer. Well, at that point, I know Dr. Farr and her Committee - and I served on that Committee briefly - did have access then to some records. Up until that time, there was no access, or any awareness of who made what, or anything. So, that was made available to the Committee. We got some publicity, some recognition that way, but nothing ever happened. And I guess I can only speak for myself as to why that was tolerated, literally, or allowed, but I love what I'm doing. It sounds like a real excuse, and I know we have to be politically active, but I guess I just didn't choose to take the time at that point, or energy, or whatever was necessary to really pursue this in a very fervent way. And so, years go by, and still, as I look at the salaries that were now published a year ago; I've been here for 32 years, and I have full professor status, and I'm not close to many of the other like professors in other departments. And within our own college there's much inequity within some programs. So, I just think fair is fair. I certainly am going to give my support this year to the committee that's looking into that specific issue. Other concerns, I think, have been relatively addressed in a way that in today's Signpost, it has something to do with the number of women that have come on board in leadership positions. Several women now are Deans in the different Colleges; that's good, that's progress, and recognition and intentional kinds of activities have taken place to encourage that. I think we have had many opportunities; Weber, I think, has been very focused in those kinds of pursuits. Even the top administration of the University has their share of women representatives; Dr. Luck and Dr. Kotter come to mind quickly, and they represent Weber State very well. Interestingly enough, both of those women come from Allied Health - just a little toot for us. Page 2 of 5 UN: When you were talking about the newspaper articles at first, I was thinking, when I read that, it's interesting that they say salary equity is only now becoming a major issue since they've been published. I was thinking, "I bet some women have been thinking it's a major issue for a long time." KB: I'm glad you brought that up, because I just happened to pick that up this morning, coming down the hall, and that is really not a true statement. I'm not sure if Dr. Smith has been quoted in context, but, just because, quote, "you're not out parading with picket signs” and things like that, doesn't mean that the issue has quieted down. I think, again speaking for myself; you see yourself as a professional person, you have a job to do, and the political part of things on campus almost have to take a second seat to what you're initially about, and our program in Nursing has been very changeable, very progressive, we're doing lots of new and different things. We have a program in Sitka, Alaska, right now. Anyway, to be awfully concerned about what's going on the campus, in a political nature- I am, but I guess the time isn't available to always avail myself of the full support. But, promises have been made in the past. I can remember Vice President Smith, Provost Smith, maybe mentioning his name might not be appropriate, use your judgment, but it's a fact, it's not like a story or anything. In the College of Health Professions at one point, it's probably within the last ten years, I lose track of time, there was some problem with - for example, faculty who used to work in the summertime got overload salaries. Most people didn't object to working summers, but that was changed, so that it was a relative kind of thing. Nursing has never had to work summers, we don't have courses offered in the summer, that's been true of us, as far as being able to go to graduate school, or whatever other things; but we didn't have the Page 3 of 5 option to do anything different than what we had been doing, and because we weren't able to fit into the rollover that they had been doing in other colleges, we were promised we would be equalized with pay the next year around when the legislature made their appropriation. That never happened. But what do you do in retrospect? Complain loud and hard and all those things? That isn't very professional, but just because you're not out there signing petitions, making a lot of noise, doesn't mean that the issue is dead. So, some of this information that he shared isn't really accurate. And, (quoting from the Signpost) "Two reasons why female salaries are lower than males has been a nationwide phenomena"- that isn't true, either. I serve on many national committees based on the Nursing major; vocational education, interestingly enough, seems to have much more money, even in this state, than does higher education. I'm not sure why that disparity occurs, but when I'm able to share with other colleagues my salary, for example, in comparison to theirs, without nearly the same preparation or years in service, etc., there's usually at least $10,000 difference, in their behalf. So, that isn't necessarily true, that fairly large exaggeration, that article they've written. The other was that "The disparity can be attributed to recent increase in female faculty members employed on campus". Well, what about all the rest of us that have been here forever when are they going to catch up with the rest of the crowd? I realize that, having hired on thirty plus years ago, I certainly did make a change from nursing service to come to the college at that point; I was wise enough to know that I was getting a salary increase. But that isn't the case now, so to catch up with what even a similar position in a hospital, or health agency, is paying - it just doesn't happen. And yet, I like what I'm doing. I'd hate to have that as the focus of being unhappy enough to look elsewhere. So, it Page 4 of 5 sounds like the committee this year is maybe going to give that some investigation... Certainly, if you have to pound desks and all these sorts of things for people to recognize what you think you're worth - how demoralizing does that become? But this issue is not a new one, it has been going on for years and years, and is not a recent result of an influx of female faculty members. Page 5 of 5