July 8, 2004
Minority hiring lags: University makes efforts to help underrepresented groups feel welcome
A recent University report on faculty hiring and retention restates a continuing reality: Though minority faculty are growing in overall numbers, the UW still is falling short of its own stated goals for employing black and Hispanic faculty members.
The information comes from the latest Utilization and Goals report, an annual campuswide abstract of faculty and staff broken down by race and gender that compares current numbers with the UW’s goals and the relative availability of scholars in different populations. Briefly put, the 2003 report shows that the UW has 28 fewer black and 10 fewer Hispanic tenure-track faculty members than its goal.
Similar deficits are shown in reports for other recent years. But the news is not all bad — the reports show the UW’s fairly modest goals have mostly been met in hiring Asian, Native American and female faculty. But black and Hispanic faculty hiring remains historically at a deficit.
The problem is not new; the UW, like countless other institutions and organizations, has sought to improve these numbers for years. The question is, how is that done in a way that avoids the perception of being insensitive on the one hand and patronizing on the other? How can the University attract and keep faculty of color?
“We all see this as a larger social issue,” said Helen Remick, assistant provost for equal opportunity. “We should be open and encouraging of people, not stereotyping, and I think that’s a challenge.”
There is no clear, single answer, but UW officials say efforts should start in the earliest stages of recruitment and continue long after the faculty have come to campus.
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“I think there is a need to create community for faculty of color, because all too often they are the only ones in their department,” said Nancy “Rusty” Barcelo, vice president for minority affairs, a member of the University’s Diversity Council and a key player in the UW’s efforts toward a more diverse faculty. “We shouldn’t just bring in faculty of color because of who they are — it’s about how we make them feel valued, and that their work will be recognized.” She said faculty of color are hired because they have the proper credentials and professional talents, “and they want to be valued in the same way other faculty are valued.”
Barcelo said in some cases, the reasoning behind recruitment must evolve, too. Despite the best intentions, she said, some hiring strategies still bear a hint of tokenism: “We need to move beyond the (thinking) that if you recruit one, somehow your work is done.”
Johnnella Butler, an associate dean, associate vice provost and an American ethnic studies faculty member who has worked closely with Barcelo on such issues, agreed. She said though it may sound a bit harsh, some departments still think along the unenlightened lines of “We’ve got our minority, now let’s go after our woman.” Butler said, “I think we kind of mindlessly do that because we haven’t taken time to seriously consider the issues.”
Barcelo told of one minority faculty member at the UW who was professionally content and “couldn’t ask for a more supportive department,” but still felt odd because he was the only person of color there. “He wanted to go to a place where there would be others like him,” she said.
In that effort to create community, Barcelo said, a group of 30 to 50 faculty of color have been meeting once a month or so for mutual support and mentoring. The meetings started after a reception at former President McCormick’s house for minority faculty a few years back, and have continued since.
Another strategy under way, Barcelo said, is the possible creation of a diversity research institute on campus, to bring together those working on diversity issues. Such a move doesn’t assume that minority faculty necessarily work on issues of diversity, of course — that amounts to more stereotyping — but Barcelo said showing institutional awareness of and energy spent on the concern is all part of creating the best campus climate for diversity.
The UW already has several outreach and administrative programs working toward the greater goal of campus diversity. Butler directs the Graduate Opportunity and Minority Achievement Program (GOMAP) and serves in an ad hoc capacity on the Faculty Senate’s Special Committee on Minority Faculty Affairs. Outreach efforts are appropriately aimed at would-be students, too — the GEAR-UP program brings low-income students, often minorities, to campus to help them learn about college options. Denice Denton, dean of the College of Engineering, and the first woman engineering dean of any major research institution, also presides over several diversity-themed programs — and the list goes on from there.
There also have been campus workshops and seminars on diversity and hiring, bringing nationally known experts in the field to advise deans and department heads on these issues, to which Barcelo said there has been a “gratifying” reaction.
Butler said student diversity is strongly linked to faculty diversity, too. “We need to address the synergy between minority and under-represented faculty and students,” she said. “The accepted wisdom is that if the campus has (reached) critical mass of minority faculty, then your under-represented students are going to come to that campus.” She said there is “a statement inherent in the (faculty) presence and in their research that there is a recognition of diversity in the fabric of the institution.”
More simply put, diversity begets more diversity. Or, as Remick of the Equal Opportunity Office said, “The better integrated a group is, the easier it is to integrate it further.”
It’s also true that the students of today are the faculty members of tomorrow. Barcelo and Butler agree that more attention must be paid to “the pipeline,” or the pathway by which students become scholars and seek work at colleges and universities. Most discussions of faculty diversity tend to inevitably lead back to the pipeline, younger students and their relative interest in higher education itself, and how to increase that interest.
“Too often, we don’t talk about (higher education) as a legitimate career path,” Barcelo said. “We need to be talking to young people in general about why becoming a faculty member at a university is an important and exciting career — in the same way we talk about becoming a physician or a lawyer.”
Butler added that it should be part of students’ basic education to meet people different than themselves, and to learn to work through those differences. “Students constantly tell me of the need for having the campus climate reflect the world they are going into.” Also, she said students of all backgrounds should be encouraged to think about graduate and professional degrees beyond just a bachelor’s, all of which could lead them to seeking work in higher education.
Finally, there’s a perception that minority candidates for faculty positions are highly sought-after because they are relatively rare — a perception Butler and Barcelo think is often wrong. “One of the biggest myths is that there are not faculty out there,” Butler said, but research shows there are “many top people who have not been contacted.” Barcelo made a similar point, and said, “We need to find out what that’s all about.”
Butler said, “Institutional change is major cultural change. So this has to be a constant process at chipping away at an iceberg, knowing that one day you’re going to hit a certain point and that whole thing is going to crack. And I think we’re not too far from that point.”
She added, “I’m an optimist in all this. Remember the iceberg — you have to keep working at the resistance to it.”
