Hate Crimes Legislation Signed Into Law

On Wednesday, October 28, President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law. This critical piece of legislation will provide for stronger federal enforcement and prosecution of hate crimes motivated by the victim's actual or perceived gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.  AAUW has been a supporter of stronger Hate Crimes legislation.

AAUW Funds

Quoted from an e-mail by Laura Stepp

The former AAUW Educational Foundation included the Legal Advocacy Fund, The Eleanor Roosevelt Fund, and our educational programs. Among those educational programs were Fellowships, Grants, and the Fellows Alumnae Initiative. Now these educational programs are part of the AAUW Educational Opportunities Fund.

All programs that were formerly a part of AAUW Educational Foundation are now part of AAUW. In addition, the programs of the former AAUW Leadership and Training Institute and some of the programs of the former Association are now part of AAUW.
AAUW Funds is how we refer to the charitable destination of our contributions to AAUW. All donations to AAUW Funds are fully tax deductible.

AAUW Funds (#9110) provides support to all of the following:
Legal Advocacy Fund (#3999) – formerly part of AAUW-EF
Eleanor Roosevelt Fund (#9170) – formerly part of AAUW-EF
Educational Opportunities Fund (#4336) – formerly part of AAUW-EF
Leadership Programs Fund (#4339) – formerly part of AAUW-Leadership & Training Institute

The names and numbers of the former AAUW EF programs, fellowships and grants have not changed and can still be used to designate your giving.

So, when people ask “how do we refer to the former Educational Foundation?” I think it is fair to say that AAUW Funds does everything that the Educational Foundation did – and more.

New CA State Bylaws Amendment

At their October meeting, the AAUW CA Board of Directors voted to accept amended bylaws proposed by Jo Harberson, Bylaws Director, and her committee. One of the important changes in these bylaws is the election of state officers by the members of AAUW CA.

Under the previous bylaws, the sixteen directors were elected by the members (eight each year), and the officers were elected by those directors among themselves.

The amended bylaws call for the four officers (President, Vice President, Secretary, and Chief Financial Officer) to be elected directly by the members. The amended bylaws can be found on the website in the Forms & Documents section, Under Governance. Or by clicking HERE.

At our state convention and annual meeting, April 30-May 2, 2010 in San Ramon, members present will elect the President, Vice-President, Secretary and CFO as well as General Directors. The President and Secretary will be elected to a two-year term. The Vice-President and CFO will be elected to a one-year term this election only in order to establish a rotation in which only two of the officers will be elected each year and all officers will be elected to two- year terms.

AAUW Member Wins Nobel Prize

AAUW celebrates Carol Greider, AAUW member-at-large and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with her two colleagues, Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak.
Greider has been a member of AAUW since 2002.

Greider, Blackburn, and Szostak “discovered that telomeres are made up of simple, repeating blocks of DNA building blocks and are found in all organisms,” according to a Johns Hopkins University announcement. Understanding this biological process has paved the way to deeper knowledge of cancer and cellular aging.

Greider, who holds a doctorate in molecular biology from the University of California, Berkeley, currently works as the Daniel Nathans Professor and Director of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences. She, Blackburn, and Szostak will attend the Nobel Prize awards ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 10.

“Greider and Blackburn have shown that women can break through barriers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics,” said AAUW President Carolyn H. Garfein. “Their accomplishment serves as an excellent example of women making valuable contributions and the need that exists for supporting and encouraging great female minds, as AAUW does with our fellowships, grants, and community of successful women.”

Read more about the award and Greider on AAUW Dialog.

LAF Case Support Funding

At their October meeting, the AAUW board approved $4,000 in funding for each of these LAF- supported cases:

Jaureguito v. Feather River Community College (CA)
Mansourian et al. v. Regents of the University of California, et al.
Potera-Haskins v. Gamble, Montana State University, et al.
Schuster v. Berea College (KY)
Thein v. Feather River Community College (CA)
Wartluft v. Feather River Community College (CA)

California Legislative Bills Report

By Sue Miller -- AAUW CA Public Policy Director

Not all the bills on which AAUW took positions made it out of committees, due largely to the preoccupation of the Legislature with budget issues and prison reform. Thus those remaining will become two-year bills and be resubmitted in January. This session, 15 AAUW bills went to the Governor.
Seven SUPPORT -- 4 signed ,3 vetoed
Six APPROVE -- 1 signed ,5 vetoed
Two WATCH -- 1 signed ,1 vetoed

AB 8 (Brownley) Education Finance: Working Group
AAUW Position: SUPPORT -- Vetoed by Governor
AB 23 (Jones) Cal-COBRA
AAUW Position: APPROVE -- Signed by Governor
AB 56 (Portantino) Health Care Coverage
AAUW Position: APPROVE -- Vetoed by Governor
AB 98 (De La Torre) Maternity Services
AAUW Position: SUPPORT -- Vetoed by Governor
AB 119 (Jones) Health Care Coverage: Pricing
Very important legislation!
AAUW Position: SUPPORT -- Signed by Governor
AB 261 (Salas) Pupil Records: Privacy Rights
AAUW Position: APPROVE -- Vetoed by Governor
AB 332 (Fuentes) Work-Based Learning
AAUW Position: APPROVE -- Vetoed by Governor
AB 429 (Brownley) Public Schools Accountability: Advisory Committee
AAUW Position: APPROVE -- Vetoed by Governor
AB 503 (Furutani) Battered Women’s Shelters: Grant Program
AAUW Position: WATCH -- Vetoed by Governor
AB 793 (Jones) Employment: Discrimination
AAUW Position: SUPPORT -- Vetoed by Governor
AB 1317 (Block) Assisted Oocyte Production: Advertisement
AAUW Position: SUPPORT -- Signed by Governor
SB 54 (Leno) Family Law: Out of State Same Sex Marriages
AAUW Position: SUPPORT -- Signed by Governor
SB 197 (Pavley) Domestic Violence Proceedings: Examination of Witness
AAUW Position: SUPPORT -- Signed by Governor AAUW was the only large organization in support of this important bill!
SB 541 (Pavley) Elections: Ballot Cards & Voting Systems
AAUW Position: APPROVE -- Vetoed by Governor
SB 786 (Yee) Civil Procedure: Attorney’s Fees & Costs
AAUW Position: WATCH Signed by Governor

Schuster vs Berea College Moves Forward

An AAUW supported plaintiff, Claire Schuster, a tenured Associate Professor of nursing, has won her latest legal battle against Berea College when the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled in her favor. She had sued for pay disscrimination when a male nurse was hired at an Associate Professor level with little experience and at a higher salary. She still faces another state trial date, but her lawyers can now use important discovery that hadn't been used before. http://www.aauw.org/advocacy/laf/cases/schuster.cfm

It's ironic that Berea College recently received a $214,000 grant to increase the number of women and underrepresented populations in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math). The College charges no tuition and admits only academically promising students, primarily from Appalachia with limited economic resources.