White House, the Stories of Women in STEM Will Remain Untold Because of Your Website Problems

I am a member of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) and last week I received, through its e-list announcements, the following information:

Honoring Women in STEM. The White House has posted a website with audio stories about women in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) who have contributed to critical advancements in their field. The Administration is encouraging others to submit their own stories of women in STEM who have inspired them (e.g., school teacher) to pursue a STEM degree and/or who have contributed to S&T advancements. Go here to submit your story.

After submitting the grades for my students in  my class, I decided to check out the website.

 I  listened to a number of the podcasts, which are nicely done, several of which are by the new Chief Technology Officer, Megan Smith. I then proceeded to add to the stories, and wrote about my doctoral dissertation advisor at Brown University, Professor Stella Dafermos. I also added my experiences.

Then it was time to press the blue Commit button at the bottom of the above page.

And what I got is the page below.

I tweeted to to Megan Smith and also to the White House and tried over several days to submit, hoping that maybe the website problem had been fixed - to no avail.

Mr. President and Madame CTO, the stories of  Women in STEM will remain Untold, unless you fix the website! I am getting feelings of deja vu - ironic - of healthcare.gov.

UMass Amherst Goes Green with a Permaculture Garden and Gets Top Votes in White House Campus Champions of Change Challenge

The post below is being updated on Monday, March 5, with the link on the good news noted in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
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The votes are in and it looks as though UMass Amherst, which reached the finals of the White House College Campus Champions of Change, has garnered the greatest number of votes for a total of 59, 850 with the voting ending yesterday.

The results are in and the UMass Amherst Permaculture Initiative, led by Ryan Harb, should be congratulated.

The UMass Permaculture Initiative is a unique and cutting edge sustainability program that converts unproductive grass lawns on campus into ecological, socially responsible, and financially sustainable permaculture landscapes that are easy to replicate.

The top five vote getters will be invited to an event at the White House. They will also be featured by mtvU and MTV Act and be given the opportunity to host an episode of mtvU’s signature program, “The Dean’s List.”

UMass Amherst is in good company, followed by the University of Arkansas, Grinnell College, UCLA, and the University of Chicago.

UMass Amherst issued a nice press release on this challenge and even the Isenberg School highlighted some of its alums who were involved.

What also impressed me is that, among the student committee members, are several undergraduates who are majoring in my departmental majors of Finance and Operations Management!

Congrats to all involved -- wonderful to have such hard and important work recognized in such a significant way.