Boston.com
College, antibias agency reviewing policies
By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff October 6, 2009
In its 129-year history, Emerson College has granted tenure to just three black professors. Two of them had to sue for the distinction. Last year, when two more black scholars were up for tenure, school administrators denied them both, despite approval from colleagues in their departments.
The result has been a flurry of accusations and investigations that have swept across the downtown campus and into the academic world around it. The local chapter of the NAACP has cried foul. The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination has launched an inquiry.
And the controversy has heightened worries about Emerson’s ability to attract minority candidates and raised questions about its commitment to retain the few who are already there.
William Smith, director of Emerson’s five-year-old Center for Diversity, acknowledges that, in light of the school’s history, he is often nervous when he talks to people about recruitment. “They say, ‘What happened?’ I say, ‘It’s growing pains.’ It’s an embarrassment.’’
College officials, including president Jacqueline Liebergott, say the rigorous standards for tenure are applied fairly to all candidates at Emerson, which has 76 tenured professors among a full-time faculty of 177. Those who are deemed qualified are granted lifelong jobs at the communications arts school at the end of the six-year tenure process.
But amid pressure from faculty, Liebergott announced that the private school, which has 3,200 students, would convene an outside panel to review how promotion and tenure policies are applied to minority candidates.
The panel, which began its work two weeks ago, is expected to issue its findings and recommendations by January, a report, panel members hope, that will have effects beyond Emerson and will influence other New England colleges struggling to diversify their faculty.
“Students and parents are selecting schools where there are role models of the professionals whom the students aspire to be,’’ said Theodore Landsmark, president ofthe Boston Architectural College and a civil rights leader who is serving on the panel along with Harvard College dean Evelynn Hammonds. “Schools that lack diversity are finding that they are less competitive in a global marketplace,’’ Landsmark said.
While Liebergott said she could not discuss the two disputed cases because tenure deliberations are confidential, she acknowledged in an interview last week that “there are issues for underrepresented minorities here as elsewhere, and we’re trying to work through those.’’
“I’m hoping that what will come out of this committee is recommendations for more aggressive recruiting and ways to build a climate here that will support the community we’re trying hard to build,’’ she said.
Full Story: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/10/06/emersons_tenure_policy_under_review/
College, antibias agency reviewing policies
By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff October 6, 2009
In its 129-year history, Emerson College has granted tenure to just three black professors. Two of them had to sue for the distinction. Last year, when two more black scholars were up for tenure, school administrators denied them both, despite approval from colleagues in their departments.
The result has been a flurry of accusations and investigations that have swept across the downtown campus and into the academic world around it. The local chapter of the NAACP has cried foul. The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination has launched an inquiry.
And the controversy has heightened worries about Emerson’s ability to attract minority candidates and raised questions about its commitment to retain the few who are already there.
William Smith, director of Emerson’s five-year-old Center for Diversity, acknowledges that, in light of the school’s history, he is often nervous when he talks to people about recruitment. “They say, ‘What happened?’ I say, ‘It’s growing pains.’ It’s an embarrassment.’’
College officials, including president Jacqueline Liebergott, say the rigorous standards for tenure are applied fairly to all candidates at Emerson, which has 76 tenured professors among a full-time faculty of 177. Those who are deemed qualified are granted lifelong jobs at the communications arts school at the end of the six-year tenure process.
But amid pressure from faculty, Liebergott announced that the private school, which has 3,200 students, would convene an outside panel to review how promotion and tenure policies are applied to minority candidates.
The panel, which began its work two weeks ago, is expected to issue its findings and recommendations by January, a report, panel members hope, that will have effects beyond Emerson and will influence other New England colleges struggling to diversify their faculty.
“Students and parents are selecting schools where there are role models of the professionals whom the students aspire to be,’’ said Theodore Landsmark, president ofthe Boston Architectural College and a civil rights leader who is serving on the panel along with Harvard College dean Evelynn Hammonds. “Schools that lack diversity are finding that they are less competitive in a global marketplace,’’ Landsmark said.
While Liebergott said she could not discuss the two disputed cases because tenure deliberations are confidential, she acknowledged in an interview last week that “there are issues for underrepresented minorities here as elsewhere, and we’re trying to work through those.’’
“I’m hoping that what will come out of this committee is recommendations for more aggressive recruiting and ways to build a climate here that will support the community we’re trying hard to build,’’ she said.
Full Story: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/10/06/emersons_tenure_policy_under_review/
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