In a faculty survey, the authors found that while over all things are much better than several decades ago, one of the overwhelmingly frustrating trends is that faculty do not know what their department’s, college’s or university’s policies are. Knowledge is power. However, it is a two-way street. Policies about parental and bereavement leave, for example, should be equitably distributed and transparently applied. These should be communicated to all faculty during job interviews and not just at employee orientation. They should be easily and ubiquitously accessible.

Colleges and universities should provide health insurance for graduate students and contingent faculty. They should provide lactation rooms in every building and accommodate teaching schedules so that lactating women+ will have adequate time to express milk. Colleges and universities should also provide affordable on-campus childcare -- this is one of the hugest burdens for academic parents. Because we are often not able to choose where we live as academics, we end up far from family, friends and support systems that are crucial for the well-being of parents and children during the early years. Paid parental leave is essential, and supervisors should ensure that men use this time for parenting, not publishing.

Colleges and universities should mandate implicit bias training to ensure that hiring and promotion decisions, campus policies, and day-to-day interactions make the academy a more welcoming, inclusive, equitable and accessible place for all scholars at all ranks.