MIT faculty study finds diversity is lacking

The Boston Globe
By Tracy Jan
Globe Staff / January 15, 2010

MIT must do a better job recruiting and retaining black and Hispanic faculty, who have a harder time getting promoted than their white and Asian colleagues, if the university expects to remain competitive, according to a strikingly candid internal study released yesterday by the university.
In some departments - such as chemistry, mathematics, and nuclear science and engineering - no black and Hispanic professors have been hired in the last two decades, according to the report, which was more than two years in the making.
MIT’s first comprehensive study of its faculty’s racial diversity and the experience of underrepresented minority professors highlights a national problem across academia: the need to improve the pipeline of black and Hispanic scholars, especially in the fields of science and engineering.
The report urges the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to become more self-reflective and to better appreciate the challenges facing minority faculty, who feel that their qualification to be at the institute is sometimes questioned and who are more likely to leave MIT in their first three to five years.
“There is a tension between the ideas of maintaining high excellence and including a broader range of groups,’’ said Paula Hammond, an African-American chemical engineering professor, who chaired MIT’s Initiative on Faculty Race and Diversity. “But we believe that inclusiveness can lead to excellence, rather than impede it.’’
Blacks and Hispanics make up only 6 percent of MIT’s 1,013-member faculty, an increase from 4.5 percent since 2000 but far below the university’s goal of achieving parity with the nation, where underrepresented minorities constitute 30 percent of the population. MIT’s rate is comparable to research universities such as Harvard and Stanford.
The report indicates that the university needs to provide more mentoring and expand professional opportunities to make the climate at MIT more welcoming to underrepresented groups, which include blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans.
Asian faculty, which make up nearly 13 percent of MIT professors, are not underrepresented, but share some of the same concerns about MIT’s racial climate.

Full Story: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/01/15/mit_faculty_study_finds_diversity_is_lacking/