Thi
s week, the Associated Press declared Republican Dan Sullivan the winner of the Alaska Senate race, bringing a shift in the next Senate to 46 Democrats and 53 Republicans, with one contest in Louisiana awaiting a decision from a special runoff election on December 6. On Wednesday, Democratic Reps. Louise Slaughter and Julia Brownley secured re-election after close races and will continue to represent New York’s 25th District and California’s 26th District, respectively. These victories bring the numbers in the next House to 186 Democrats and 244 Republicans, with five races still undecided. Meanwhile, the Senate GOP caucus, Senate Democratic caucus, and House GOP caucus held leadership elections for the 114th Congress, which begins in January. Senate Republicans unanimously elected Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to serve as majority leader, and Senate Democrats elected Nevada Sen. Harry Reid to lead the Senate minority. Senate Democrats also added new members to their leadership team, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
UCR Chancellor Kim Wilcox to Speak
Dr. Kim Wilcox came to the University of California Riverside in August of 1913 after an illustrious career as Provost of Michigan State University from 
2005 to 2013 Before that he had served as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Vice Provost for General Education at the University of Kansas.
Dr. Wilcox graduated from Michigan State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in audiology and speech sciences in 1976. He earned master’s and doctoral degrees in speech and hearing science from Purdue University in 1978 and 1980, respectively.
“My values and interests align perfectly with UC Riverside, one of the nation’s great research universities. I look forward to meeting with students, faculty, staff, alumni and members of the larger community, to learning and exchanging ideas and to working toward making Riverside the best it can be.”
AAUW is indeed fortunate to have this outstanding Chancellor as our speaker on THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13TH AT 10:00 AM. The event will take place at ALTURA CREDIT UNION, 2847 CAMPUS PARKWAY, in Riverside. just off Day Street
Women to Run for Office ?
If you want a woman to run for office, you might have to ask her not once, not twice, but seven times.
Maybe that explains why so few women end up in Congress (we’re at just 18.5 percent representation right now). It certainly sheds some light on why 24 states have never elected a woman governor, 22 states have never elected a woman to the U.S. Senate, and four states have never elected a woman to either chamber of Congress.
An AAUW program called Elect Her–Campus Women Win trains college women how to run an effective political campaign.
There are thousands of Elect Her alumnae, and many have taken the skills and tools they learned from Elect Her and used them to launch successful campaigns for student government positions and even for local office!
Even more inspiring, 95 percent of alumnae from 2014 said that Elect Her prepared them to run for office. More than 50 percent of women surveyed after the training said they were thinking about running for office, and 21 percent reported that they planned to run in the next 10 years
Molly Rockett got elected at age 20. For two minutes watch this Elect Her graduate talk about her experience. It’s inspiring.
New Rules Regarding Campus Sexual Violence
The Department of Education published new rules that will require colleges and univ
ersities to:
- report the number of domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking incidents that occur on campus every year
- add information to their annual security reports on prevention programs, training, and procedures for handling sexual violence
- allow students to bring an adviser of their choice to any disciplinary proceeding
- take other steps to end sexual violence.
The Chronicle of Higher Education spoke with advocates and experts, including AAUW Vice President of Government Relations Lisa M. Maatz, on the potential impact these new rules will have on students. Maatz explained that the ultimate goal is to improve transparency on how institutions handle students’ reports. Maatz said the regulations “make it really clear that each school has to talk about each step of the disciplinary proceedings,” which is important for student survivors and the accused.
Supreme Court decided …
Today the Supreme Court decided not to review the five states with pending same-sex marriage cases. That means the way is cleared for marriage equality in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.
According to the New York Times, “The move will almost immediately increase the number of states allowing same-sex marriage from 19 to 24, along with the District of Columbia.” This increases the possibility that the Supreme Court will eventually rule in favor of same-sex marriage throughout the country.