ISC Topping Off Ceremony Set for Thursday, 2/16/12

ISC Topping Off Ceremony Set for Thursday
UMass Boston Construction Update
February 14, 2012.
As ironworkers near the end of assembling the structural steel of the Integrated Sciences Complex (ISC) frame, UMass Boston will celebrate the milestone with a "topping off" event on Thursday, February 16, at 1:30 p.m. at the intersection of University Drive and the Quinn Roadway, near Healey Library.
The "topping off" of a construction project is a ceremonial event marking the end of steel construction by putting into place a final, signed beam. The campus community is invited to stop by and sign the steel beam between 8 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. on Thursday.
To get to the beam signing and to the ceremony, walk through the Quinn Upper Level doors, take a right and follow the Quinn Roadway. Just before reaching University Drive, take a right. The white beam will be located in front of a fence gate.
Following the ceremony, light refreshments will be served in the Quinn Upper Level lobby.
For those who want to stay inside for the beam-raising ceremony, good viewing areas include the catwalk between the Healey Library and Quinn Administration Building; the Ryan Lounge, third floor McCormack Building; and the Healey Library, eighth floor.
The crane on the ISC site is scheduled to leave next week. The most noticeable construction will move to pouring concrete for the floors of the new building.   
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Museum exhibit shows women in industry

By Kellie Rowe | Originally Published: 02/08/12 10:34pm |Modified: 02/08/12 10:34pm | 

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Aaron Snyder | The State News

A new exhibit at the MSU Museum takes a look at tradeswomen’s 30 year struggle for access and equality in the construction industry. The On Equal Terms exhibit, which opened on Sunday, is free to the public.

When Emettra Nelson enters the classroom, the construction management freshman notices a lot more men in the classroom than women. 

As a woman entering a primarily male-dominated field of work, she said she plans to set the bar high for women in construction.

“Going into this field, I’m thinking I would like to change a person’s view, (showing them) that women can do anything that men can do,” she said.

On Sunday, the MSU Museum unveiled its latest exhibit in the Main Gallery, On Equal Terms by Susan Eisenberg, which illustrates many of the hardships women face entering the field of construction and other skilled trades. The exhibit will be on display from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday through May 13.

MSU Museum Director Gary Morgan said the exhibit tackles issues regarding both gender and the work environment.

“No doubt a number of women who did make or try to make a career in construction certainly had to work hard at doing it,” he said. “A lot of this exhibit looks at the relationship between them and a very male-dominated industry.”

Nelson said in her field of study, she often encounters many of the same feelings expressed by women in the exhibit.

“Being a black female (in construction), I have most definitely felt out of the ordinary,” she said. “I definitely feel like I have to prove myself.”

Artist Susan Eisenberg — a faculty member at Brandeis University in Massachusetts — said after creating the elements of the exhibit in the early 1990s, including mixed-media elements such as construction equipment, she’s excited to bring it to MSU.

“It’s really raising the questions of treating people on equal terms and how we really create a fair environment where everyone is equal in the workplace,” she said.

With inspirational stories and struggles of women in construction throughout the years, Morgan said he noticed a personal touch to Eisenberg’s work.

“She explores a lot of that dynamically through (real-life) stories and direct sources,” he said.

Eisenberg said there are new elements to the exhibit, including women’s stories wallpapered under actual wallpaper and a poet’s mailbag telling the story of a woman’s struggles with rape while on the job.

“It’s a constantly evolving exhibit (based on) how I change perspective over time to adapt to a space,” Eisenberg said. “It changes on response to where the conversation about women in construction is heading.”

When it comes to choosing a vocation such as construction management, Nelson said she hopes women realize they don’t have to follow traditional roles.

“(Women) don’t have to settle for being what society thinks typically women should be,” she said. “I want women to be who they want to be and go for their goals, because that’s what I’m doing.”

Retrieved from http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2012/02/museum_exhibit_shows_women_in_industry

Women Get Skills to Break Into Traditional Men’s Trades

Retrieved from: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2012/01/women-get-skills-to-break-into-traditional-mens-trades/

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Image credit: Scott Shulman/ABC

In the shadow of a Long Beach, Calif., power plant, a dozen women step into tool belts, don hard hats and learn  how to carry a bucket of cement up a flight of stairs to get a leg up on trades usually dominated by men.

According to a 2009 Department of Labor report, while gender equality has made headway in the executive ranks — a quarter of CEOs are women — less than 1 percent of 77,000 U.S. ironworkers and steelworkers are female.

Sherron Ballard, 55, used to be a real estate agent — now she wants to work in construction.

Ballard told ABC News that she was making the job switch for the higher income, which would help her raise her daughter.

She is participating in a grueling 10-week program by Women in Non Traditional Employment Roles, or Winter. The Los Angeles group, in its 15th year, trains women to become plumbers, electricians and ironworkers — well-paid, blue-collar occupations previously dominated by men.

At one California construction site, 250 men worked alongside two females.

Winter’s goal is to tip that balance. The women earn safety certificates, learn about timekeeping, what to wear on construction sites and how to handle discrimination.

“When they go out there for their first job, a lot of people are gonna look at them and say: ‘Why aren’t you home? What are you doing here? Are you sure you’re in the right place?’ And they need to learn how to brush it off and continue on with their work,” said Berta Campos, a program instructor. “I think we need more women in order for men to change their mind and we have to prove them wrong.”

“Women have to go out to work,” said Donna Williamson, who recently graduated from the program. “I have a child. I have to support him.”

Williamson, a 41-year-old single mother, used to make minimum wage selling skateboards in a bike shop. Now she’s an apprentice ironworker making $28 an hour, and her wages will are sure to increase as she progresses in her career.

“I used to drive around and I’d look at the guys on the beams, on the high-rises, and it’s one of those intriguing things,” she said. “There are not a whole lot of women in the construction field. At the end of the day, you are dirty, you are sweating, you don’t smell the greatest and that’s fine with me.”

“I love my job,” Williamson said. “If I can do it, they [women] can do it. And I’m only 5’2.”