While the percentage of minority faculty members has increased from 13.7 to 22.9 percent over 14 years, black and Hispanic minority faculty increases are stagnant, according to a report presented by the Committee for a Multicultural University at the March 17 faculty Senate Assembly meeting.
“Overall, black faculty hires tend to leave the University at a higher rate than all other faculty groups,” according to the major findings section of the committee’s 2008 report, “Trends in Minority Faculty Participation.”
The Committee on a Multicultural University was established as an advisory body to the office of Lester Monts, senior vice provost for academic affairs.
“I encouraged them to conduct the study and I think Dr. (Billy Joe) Evans has done a superb analysis of the data,” Monts said. “The report is being shared with the deans of the schools and colleges and we are consulting similar reports that have been done on campus on issues of climate.
“We have programs in place to assist the schools and colleges in their recruitment and retention efforts. We will explore ways to access faculty climate on the three campuses,” he continued.
Evans, committee chair and professor emeritus of chemistry, presented the report to the assembly. Among its findings:
• While minority participation has increased across all racial and ethnic categories over 14 years, the growth “is almost completely centered in the Asian faculty,” the report states, as Asian faculty comprise 14.7 percent of the faculty, an increase from 7.6 percent in 1994;
• A significant decline in black and Hispanic assistant professors from 2001-08. “For Hispanic faculty, the percentage of assistant professors falls back to the 1994 level,” the report found. “For black faculty that change is even greater, dropping by a third and ending up a full percentage point below the 1994 level”;
• Black faculty members comprised 4.1 percent of the faculty in 1994 and 5.1 percent now. The percentage of Hispanic faculty has risen from 1.8 to 3 percent in the same period. Evans said it was a concern that black faculty members are passing from assistant to full professorships at a rate behind that reported with other minority groups; and
• While minority participation has increased as a whole, it has not been uniform. Minority participation at the unit level ranges from a low of 10.2 percent in the Law School to a high of 36.5 percent in the Stephen M. Ross School of Business.
Among recommendations, the committee proposes that because American Indian/Alaskan natives are “vastly underrepresented” as they comprise only 0.5 percent of faculty, while this group makes up 1.25 percent of the state’s population, the University should make a special effort to increase participation.
Other recommendations include suggesting that the University commits itself to a special study of factors limiting the participation of black faculty members. The report also suggests that the provost appoint an ad hoc task force to assess the climate faced by minority faculty and its effect on departures. This task force would develop plans for improving the climate for diversity.
