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Why colleges don’t hire more
faculty of color. – The Washington Post , 27 Sept.
2016 In “The five things no one will
tell you about,” a piece first published in the Hechinger Report, Prof. Marybeth Gasman took on a common question: Why
aren’t college faculties more racially diverse? It’s a question gaining
increased urgency from student protesters demanding change on campuses
nationally. ............................................................................................................ While giving a talk about
Minority Serving Institutions at a recent higher education forum, I was asked
a question pertaining to the lack of faculty of color
at many majority institutions, especially more elite institutions. My response was frank: “The
reason we don’t have more faculty of color among
college faculty is that we don’t want them. We simply don’t want them.” Those
in the audience were surprised by my candor and
gave me a round of applause for the honesty. Given the short amount of time
I had on the stage, I couldn’t explain the evidence behind my statement. I
will do so here. I have been a faculty member since 2000, working at several
research universities. In addition, I give talks, conduct research and workshops
and do consulting related to diversifying the faculty across the nation. I
have learned a lot about faculty recruitment over 16 years and as a result of
visiting many colleges and universities. First, the word
“quality” is used to dismiss people of color who
are otherwise competitive for faculty positions. Even those people on search
committees that appear to be dedicated to access and equity will point to
“quality” or lack of “quality” as a reason for not hiring a person of color. Typically, “quality” means that
the person didn’t go to an elite institution for their Ph.D. or wasn’t
mentored by a prominent person in the field. What people forget is that
attending the elite institutions and being mentored by prominent people is
linked to social capital and systemic racism ensures that people of color have less of it. Second, the most
common excuse I hear is “there aren’t enough people of color
in the faculty pipeline.” It is accurate that there are
fewer people of color in some disciplines such as
engineering or physics. However, there are great numbers of Ph.D.’s of color in the humanities and education and we still don’t
have great diversity on these faculties. When I hear someone say people
of color aren’t in the pipeline, I respond with
“Why don’t you create the pipeline?” “Why don’t you grow your own?” Since faculty members are
resistant to hiring their own graduates, why not team up with several other
institutions that are “deemed to be of high quality” and bring in more Ph.D.s
of color from those institutions? If you are in a field with few
people of color in the pipeline, why are you
working so hard to “weed” them out of undergraduate and Ph.D. programs? Why
not encourage, mentor, and support more people of color
in your field? Third, I have learned
that faculty will bend rules, knock down walls, and build bridges to hire
those they really want (often white colleagues) but when it comes to hiring
faculty of color, they have to “play by the rules”
and get angry when any exceptions are made. Let me tell you a secret –
exceptions are made for white people constantly in the academy; exceptions
are the rule in academe. Fourth, faculty
search committees are part of the problem. They are not trained in
recruitment, are rarely diverse in makeup, and are often more interested in
hiring people just like them rather than expanding the diversity of their
department. They reach out to those they
know for recommendations and rely on ads in national publications. And, even when they do receive
a diverse group of applicants, often those applicants “aren’t
the right fit” for the institution. What is the “right fit”? Someone
just like you? Fifth, if majority
colleges and universities are truly serious about increasing faculty
diversity, why don’t they visit Minority Serving Institutions — institutions
with great student and faculty diversity — and ask them how they recruit a
diverse faculty. This isn’t hard. The answers
are right in front of us. We need the will. For those reading this essay,
you might be wondering why faculty diversity is important. Your wondering is
yet another reason why we don’t have a more diverse faculty. Having a diverse
faculty — in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion — adds greatly
to the experiences of students in the classroom. It challenges them — given
that they are likely not to have had diversity in their K-12 classroom
teachers — to think differently about who produces
knowledge. It also challenges them to move away from a “white-centered” approach to one that is inclusive of many
different voices and perspectives. Having a diverse faculty
strengthens the faculty and the institution as there is more richness in the
curriculum and in conversations taking place on committees and in faculty
meetings. A diverse faculty also holds the university accountable in ways
that uplift people of color and center
issues that are important to the large and growing communities of color across the nation. Although I have always thought
it vital that our faculty be representative of the nation’s diversity, we are
getting to a point in higher education where increasing faculty diversity is
an absolute necessity and crucial to the future of our nation. In 2014, for the first time,
the nation’s K-12 student population was majority minority. These students
are on their way into colleges and universities and we are not prepared for
them. Our current faculty lacks expertise in working with students of color and our resistance to diversifying the faculty
means that we are not going to be ready anytime soon. I’ll close by asking you to
think deeply about your role in recruiting and hiring faculty. How often do
you use the word “quality” when talking about increased diversity? Why do you
use it? How often do you point to the lack of people of color
in the faculty pipeline while doing nothing about the problem? How many books, articles, or
training sessions have you attended on how to recruit faculty of color? How many times have you reached
out to departments with great diversity in your field and asked them how they
attract and retain a diverse faculty? How often do you resist when
someone asks you to bend the rules for faculty of color
hires but think it’s absolutely necessary when considering a white candidate
(you know, so you don’t lose such a wonderful candidate)? Rather than getting angry at me
for pointing out a problem that most of us are aware of, why don’t you change
your ways and do something to diversify your department or institution’s
faculty? I bet you don’t, but I sure
hope you do. ................................................................................... Prof. Marybeth Gasman is a
professor of higher education in the Graduate School of Education at the
University of Pennsylvania, where she directs the Penn Center
for Minority Serving Institutions and holds secondary appointments in
history, Africana studies, and the School of Social Policy and Practice. |
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