Boston.com
Says school has ignored role of racial bias in faculty tenure, promotion
By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff February 2, 2010
For too long, Emerson College has ignored the role racial bias plays in tenure and promotion, leading to an overwhelmingly white faculty and leaving blacks at a disadvantage, according to a pointed external review released yesterday.
The college commissioned the review last fall following the uproar over college officials’ denial of tenure to two black professors, a controversy that prompted soul-searching at the communications arts school in downtown Boston.
The three-member panel found no overt racism barring the recruitment and retention of black professors. But it said enduring stigma and negative bias leaves black academics in a “caste-like position,’’ in which their intellectual worth and contributions are often undervalued and their advancement slowed.
“It is not intended, but it’s the result of patterns that perpetuate forms of discrimination,’’ said Ted Landsmark, a civil rights activist and president of Boston Architectural College who headed the review panel.
Only four of Emerson’s 117 tenured and tenure-track faculty are black. Of those, just three have been tenured in the school’s 129-year history; two of them had to sue for the promotion.
The review panel - which included Evelynn Hammonds, dean of Harvard College, and JoAnn Moody, a national consultant on faculty diversity and development - recommends that Emerson provide better mentoring and professional development for tenure-track faculty, clarify departmental tenure requirements, and increase the multicultural competency of faculty and administrators to better recognize biases.
The college commissioned the review last fall following the uproar over college officials’ denial of tenure to two black professors, a controversy that prompted soul-searching at the communications arts school in downtown Boston.
The three-member panel found no overt racism barring the recruitment and retention of black professors. But it said enduring stigma and negative bias leaves black academics in a “caste-like position,’’ in which their intellectual worth and contributions are often undervalued and their advancement slowed.
“It is not intended, but it’s the result of patterns that perpetuate forms of discrimination,’’ said Ted Landsmark, a civil rights activist and president of Boston Architectural College who headed the review panel.
Only four of Emerson’s 117 tenured and tenure-track faculty are black. Of those, just three have been tenured in the school’s 129-year history; two of them had to sue for the promotion.
The review panel - which included Evelynn Hammonds, dean of Harvard College, and JoAnn Moody, a national consultant on faculty diversity and development - recommends that Emerson provide better mentoring and professional development for tenure-track faculty, clarify departmental tenure requirements, and increase the multicultural competency of faculty and administrators to better recognize biases.
Picture: Ted Landsmark, Boston Globe
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