Gardner named director of Rising Tide Center and WGS Program

UMaine Alert

Posted: April 19, 2024 - 1:32 PM

At approximately 9:24 a.m. on Friday, April 19, a University of Maine graduate student was struck by a university vehicle on Long Road at the University of Maine campus in Orono. The student reports that they are at a local hospital with minor injuries.

Emergency services, including the Orono Fire Department, University Volunteer Ambulance Corps, University of Maine Police Department, Orono Police Department and Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.

The university vehicle involved in the incident was a Chevrolet Express van. It was being operated by a university employee.

Counseling services and support are available for students, faculty or staff who may have been affected. The Counseling Center can be reached at 207-581-1392 and the Dean of Students Office can be reached at 207-581-1406.

The scene has been cleared and Long Road is now accessible. An investigation is being conducted by the University of Maine Police Department with assistance from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office Crash Reconstruction Unit. Any witnesses to the incident are encouraged to contact Lt. Noel Santiago at noel.santiago@maine.edu.

July 18, 2017 News, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Professor of higher education Susan Gardner has been named director of the University of Maine Rising Tide Center for Gender Equity, and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program.

Her appointment, effective July 17, concludes a national search for a director of the center that is an outgrowth of UMaine’s ADVANCE Rising Tide Center and support for the interdisciplinary academic program. With its expanded mission and philosophy, the Rising Tide Center, and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program will work to forward teaching, research and outreach efforts centered around gender equity and inclusive excellence.

“The Rising Tide Center is essential to UMaine’s commitment to diversity, gender equity and inclusion as a 21st-century university,” says Jeffrey Hecker, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost. “Under Susan’s experienced leadership, the center will build on its successful foundation of nationally recognized research and outreach initiatives, and provide a strong partnership with women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. The center’s collaborative focus on equity and inclusion will benefit the entire UMaine community, and provide important leadership in Maine and beyond.”

In 2011, the ADVANCE Rising Tide Center was established at UMaine with the help of a five-year, $3.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The center’s purpose was to improve opportunities for female faculty members in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and social-behavioral sciences to “create a rising tide for the entire university.”

The initiative was part of a national effort to develop systemic approaches that can be institutionalized at colleges and universities to increase the representation of women. At UMaine, the initiative resulted in improved hiring, mentoring, peer-review, and promotion and tenure processes across campus.

In spring 2016, the ADVANCE Rising Tide Center marked its fifth anniversary at UMaine. Because of its success, the university committed to continuing the effort and expanding the center’s mission to focus on female faculty from all academic disciplines, with the goal of improving gender equity throughout the community.

Gardner was a co-principal investigator on the NSF ADVANCE grant and served as the center’s research team leader. Gardner also directed the Rising Tide Center for a year in 2013–14.

In 2014, she was named associate dean of UMaine’s College of Education and Human Development, and a year later served nine months as interim dean. Prior to joining the UMaine community in 2007, Gardner was at Louisiana State University, where she taught courses in higher education, and in women’s and gender studies.

The Rising Tide Center for Gender Equity connects well to the core tenets of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. Established in 1981, the WGS Program has a rich history of examining gender and sexuality as they intersect with race, ethnicity, class, nationality, ability and other sites of social inequality. Providing an undergraduate major, minor and graduate concentration, its students and graduates connect with Maine’s communities and organizations to further gender and sexual equity.