Where Minority Hiring Gets an F : In Academe, the Legacy of Racism Defeats Affirmative Action

If faculty departments and hiring committees nationwide were given a grade for their efforts to recruit and retain ethnic minority faculty, most would fail.

Some have begun to recognize how the lack of minority faculty shortchanges students’ higher education. Stanford President Donald Kennedy last week (5/18) announced that he has set a goal to hire 30 minority faculty members in the next 10 years, affirming that “many minority issues and concerns are not the special pleadings of interest groups but are Stanford issues--ones that should engage all of us.”

The argument for hiring minority faculty on predominantly white campuses is clear. Minority scholars offer diverse viewpoints on critical issues and are important role models benefiting all students.

During recent visits to several largely white colleges, it became all too evident to me that predominately white schools are simply not hiring ethnic minorities. And when minority professors are hired, extensive committee work, alienation and, in some cases, lack of academic preparation prevent them from receiving tenure. The consequence for those who ignore the problem will be the penalty their children face as fewer college-educated minorities participate in society because they have no role models. And fewer students will benefit from minority perspectives. The problem is aggravated by the retirement of a growing number of aging professors hired during the baby boom. They are not being replaced by ethnic minorities. The shortage of minority professors is more pronounced in California and other states where ethnic minorities are rapidly becoming the majority. Meanwhile, charges of racism on college campuses are increasing while the legacy of overt and institutional racism is reflected in statistics of full-time minority professors.

For example, in 1987 the University of California system had only 126 full-time black professors out of a total of 7,313. Latino professors totaled 233, Asians 482 and Native Americans only 16. Out of a total of 11,908 full-time professors last fall, the California State University system had only 349 blacks, 474 Latinos, 931 Asians and 54 Native Americans.

National figures also are disheartening. The American Council on Education, a national association of four-year colleges and universities, indicates that between 1977 and 1983 the number of full-time black faculty in American colleges dropped by 4%, from 19,674 to 18,827. At the same time, the organization reported, white faculty increased by 5%.

Although the hiring record and demand for minority faculty has been poor, the supply of minority faculty also has been wanting.

Condoleezza Rice, a black associate professor at Stanford who President Bush has appointed to the National Security Council staff, says that university hiring committees are only part of the problem. “It is not the fault of academic institutions. They are looking for minorities. We (minorities) have just not provided a pool.”

She says that many minorities simply do not understand the rewards of teaching on the college level. “Some of my own relatives did not understand how important my role as an academic was until they saw me on ABC’s ‘Nightline’ program. It is our job to tell students aiming for careers in law and medicine to consider college teaching.

“It does not take simply brilliance to become a Ph.D.; it takes persistence,” Rice said.

“What young minority students don’t realize is that they can have impact on national policy. Where do you think Reaganomics was developed? It came from the Hoover Institution (at Stanford).”

Some faculty on hiring committees complain that they simply cannot find ethnic candidates to fill their posts. And when they do find a candidate, they say, the competition from other schools is fierce.

Figures by the National Research Council indicate that black Americans earned 26.5% fewer doctorates than they received 10 years ago. In fact, in 1986 blacks earned only 820 research degrees. At the same time, whites earned 20,538 doctoral degrees.

San Francisco State University’s president Robert Corrigan says he is facing a serious problem in attracting ethnic minority faculty. “Other institutions across the country competing for the same minority scholars can offer more money, reasonable housing costs and a less rigorous teaching schedule,” Corrigan said.

The solution will require leadership from both white and ethnic minority scholars. They should consider:

--Creating a loan-forgiving program to encourage minorities to earn doctorates.

--Developing a national minority research network.

--Providing low-cost housing aimed at minority professors, especially in California.

--Marketing the profession to minorities in high school.

--Fostering a better social/professional climate between minority and white faculty to help retain minorities.

--Creating local grants for ethnic minority research to enhance tenure opportunities for minority professors and at the same time produce solutions for regional problems.

--Offering incentives to minority graduate students who could be hired first and then sent through doctoral programs.

It is not difficult to conclude that the term affirmative action is not working on college campuses, especially here in California. Recruitment and retention of minority scholars are critical problems in need of urgent attention and timely resolution.