Hiring at SDSU

I have just read the article in the Los Angeles Times (“SDSU’s Filling of Psychology Post Is Faulted,” Feb. 3,1991) concerning the sham of selecting yet another white professor to add to the existing 51 white professors in the psychology department at San Diego State University. In 1991, with young Americans of all colors fighting a war, it is time for this type of bigotry to stop.

A nationally known black psychologist, Dr. Robert Guthrie, is a resident of this city (and literally right under their noses). The search committee could not “find” minority applicants. . . . That is an outrage. Even more outrageous is the fact that Dr. Guthrie had inquired about a job in their precious department during the year. Does the personnel department or the individual department not keep a file of applicants’ inquiries, or are they too cerebral for that?

It truly seems that the faculties of many departments at San Diego State (the Psychology department a perfect example) are determined to keep SDSU “America’s Finest Plantation.” Exactly what will it take to get the various departments to hire and later tenure people “of color”?

STEPHANIE BASS, San Diego