A two-year study is underway at MSU to uncover issues facing female students, faculty and staff.

The study, called the "Status of Women Project," will use information gleaned from personal and group interviews to assess the climate and needs for women.

"This evolved out of a request from the Women's Advisory Committee to the Provost," said Provost Lou Anna Simon, who said the initial idea for the study emerged about a year ago.

Simon said the university historically has collected basic information about women on campus through annual MSU diversity reports, which compile statistics about international students and racial, ethnic and social minorities. But, she said, sometimes basic information is not sufficient to address more specific issues.

"Every once in a while, you need to go in-depth about some aspect, and that's what this study is going to do," she said.

The project is being led by a commission including the Women's Resource Center and several women's advisory committees on campus.

Currently, the project still is in its initial phase, which consists of discussions within a 15- to 20-person candid focus group including female faculty, staff and students. Project organizers said the information acquired from these discussions later will be classified into "themes" that will, in turn, be further explored through individual interviews and an Internet survey.

"At every step, there is a quantitative theme that surfaces," said Pat Lowrie, director of the Women's Resource Center.

These quantitative themes, such as the number of women in certain departments or areas of study, also will help determine qualitative questions about work and family life to be asked on the Internet survey, Lowrie said.

The project was planned to be finished after a two-year time period because assessing the issues for all the women on campus - with 28,000 female students alone - is not a simple feat.

Alyssa Friede, a psychology graduate student, represents graduate students on the project's task force, which includes women from all departments and levels of study on campus.

The committee meets regularly to discuss findings and decide which direction to pursue next, with the ultimate goal being the ability to publish the study's results.

"We haven't published anything yet, but we have data collected for ourselves at this point," Friede said. "In the future, we'll be writing reports and making recommendations."

Which, in turn, should benefit everyone, Lowrie said.

"We take this opportunity to reinforce the sense of community, that people matter on campus and that we're paying attention," she said. "What's good for the women is good for the entire campus."