University Moves Forward on Faculty Diversity Plan

University officials and faculty are moving forward on efforts to recruit women and racial and ethnic minorities to the faculty and to then retain them.

The initiatives will build upon the current Black Faculty Strategic Initiative (BFSI), while broadening the university's definition of diversity and putting more of the responsibility on individual departments and hiring units.

The initiatives are part of two reports heard May 8 by the Academic Council. One, from the Women's Faculty Development Task Force, chaired by former psychology chair Susan Roth, is part of the overall university initiative on women at Duke. The Task Force reported that women continue to be underrepresented in the regular-rank faculty members and there has been little gain at the assistant professor level since 1991.

The other report came from the Task Force on Faculty Diversity, chaired by former Fuqua Dean Rex Adams. Following on the heels of the Black Faculty Strategic Initiative, which met its goal of doubling the number of black faculty at Duke within 10 years, the diversity task force has been asked to set a more nuanced direction for a new diversity initiative in the coming years.

"The new effort will not diminish the commitment to the number and the role played by black faculty on the Duke faculty," Adams said. At the same time, the plan proposes that the university expand its efforts and reach out to other underrepresented minorities, including Latinos/Hispanics, Native Americans and Asian Americans outside of the sciences and engineering.

The current black faculty plan works primarily through money supplied by the provost to subsidize a portion of the first year's costs of hiring a minority faculty member. Adams said the mechanism used for the BFSI will be extended to include other targeted constituencies, with some increase in funding, and an approach that is more sensitive to the needs and efforts of individual departments and schools.

"We envision a commitment by all hiring units to integrate this goal [of hiring a diverse faculty] into their budgeting and planning, aided by resources from the provost," Adams said. "Everyone with a voice in selecting faculty should assume responsibility for creating a more diverse faculty."

Other recommendations include:

‚ Stronger work on retention issues, in particular looking at mentoring issues and creating a welcoming climate for minority faculty members, Adams said. The report calls for the Office of Institutional Equity to work with the academic units to develop materials that will help them address climate issues.

‚ Creating a standing committee on faculty diversity to assist with the implementation of both the faculty diversity plan and the women's faculty initiative.

‚ Integrating diversity goals into the appointments, promotions and tenure (APT) process.

‚ Paying close attention to pipeline issues, including the expansion of efforts to reach out and encourage minority students in the local schools to pursue academic careers.

The report did not set specific statistical goals for minority hiring, but said the faculty of each department, in conjunction with the deans and the provost, should set unit-level goals.

At the council meeting, Provost Peter Lange noted that several of the plan's recommendations raised issues for all faculty members, not just minority or women faculty. "Mentoring is an issue across the faculty, regardless of gender and race. The quality of mentoring varies substantially across departments," he said, adding he hoped improvements could be made generally as well as within specific units.

In a wide ranging discussion at the council, the diversity plan received significant support, but the recommendation to include diversity goals as part of the APT process received criticism from a variety of members. "I've always been a supporter of diversity, but I see [including it in APT] as troubling," said Kristine Stiles of art and art history.

Lange said he hadn't made any decision on this aspect of the plan, but shared some concerns. "I'm not sure how this provision can be applied in APT," he said. "I see some merit in keeping APT focused on scholarship, teaching and service, keeping it segmented from other university goals. Even now in APT, the committee is excluded from considering institutional goals in making its individual judgments."

The Women's Faculty Development Task Force report raised several similar issues, calling for more work in mentoring, recruitment and retention. But the task force said some issues for women stood out, and the most troubling one was the lack of growth in the number of women assistant professors.

"Numbers at the senior levels, while growing, are still too low to provide substantial visibility for senior women in many units of our university or to allow senior women to serve important leadership roles without unfairly imposing on their time for research or teaching," the report also stated.

One key recommendation in the report is creating standardized procedures within the schools to improve mentoring for students and faculty, broaden faculty search efforts to ensure women are included and encourage spouse and partner hires of faculty members.

The report also called for more regular collection of data related to women faculty hiring.