Title IX as a Threat to Academic Freedom

AAUP attempts to reframe debate and put focus on due process and the importance of faculty freedom of speech.

By Colleen Flaherty

The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights brought needed attention to the problem of sexual assault and harassment on college campuses with its 2011 letter telling institutions to enforce the law. But in so doing, the office has created a slew of new problems with implications for free speech and academic freedom. That’s the premise of a lengthy new report from the American Association of University Professors.

Read the story here.

Related content:

• Tenure Rights and the Rise of Title IX: a Looming Culture Clash (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
• Title IX Interpretations Could Threaten Academic Freedom, Report Says (The Harvard Crimson)
• AAUP Slams Education Dept. and Colleges Over Title IX Enforcement (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Building ‘Bridge Leaders’ for Minority Professors and Students

By Audrey Williams June, The Chronicle of Higher Education

A researcher examines how white faculty members can play a bigger role helping minority students and younger academics succeed.

Read the story here.

Related content:

• How Faculty of Color Can Achieve Good Work-Life Balance in Academe (Inside Higher Ed)

Recruitment and Retention Key in Diversifying Faculty at Public Schools

by Jamaal Abdul-Alim, Diverse Issues in Higher Education

Washington — The longstanding demographic mismatch between America’s public school teachers and the students they serve got a fresh airing Tuesday at Howard University, where a panel explored the nature of the problem and discussed a variety of potential solutions.

Acting U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. said the lack of diversity among America’s teachers emanates from problems of recruitment and retention.

Read the story here.

Related content:

• Why Teach for America Is Scrapping Its National Diversity Office (The Atlantic)

Brown University Announces Plan to Improve Faculty, Graduate Student Diversity

By Macy Salama, INSIGHT Into Diversity

Brown University introduced a plan on Monday aimed at doubling the number of faculty and graduate students who have been historically underrepresented by 2022 in hopes of improving on-campus diversity.

Related content:

• New Study Suggests Women Presidents Influence Colleges and Universities to Hire More Humanities Professors (Inside Higher Ed)
• University of Michigan Launches Program to Promote Inclusion On and Off Campus (INSIGHT Into Diversity)
• University of Maryland, Baltimore County: A university confronts bias in faculty hiring (Marketplace)
• Reconsidering the Pipeline Problem: Increasing Faculty Diversity (American Council on Education)
• Harvard Medical Students Decry Lack of Diversity (STATNews)
• New roster of ABA officer nominees sends a message about the importance of diversity and inclusion (ABA Journal)
• Can I Mentor African-American Faculty? (Inside Higher Ed)

Academia's 'Baby Penalty'

Fathers and childless women in academia are three times more likely to secure tenure-track positions than are working mothers.

By Sandra Waxman and Simone Ispa-Landa, U.S. News and World Report

Last month, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter introduced a suite of new Pentagon policies aimed at retaining female troops, especially those with young families. This follows on the heels of a bold new report issued at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting where 10 major Fortune-500 companies, including Twitter, Barclays and PricewaterhouseCoopers, committed to achieving full gender parity by 2020.

Our nation's universities should join in. Women comprise only 37.5 percent of tenured faculty and 22 percent of university presidents.

Read the story here.

New Book Discusses Self Stratification among Black Academics

By Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed

Social science suggests that stigmatized groups compete for social standing. And a new book that’s part qualitative study, part autobiography, suggests that that trend is evident in higher education among black academics.

Read the story here.

New Report Looks at the Status of Women in Higher Education

American Council on Education

​A new infobrief by ACE's Center for Policy Research and Strategy updates key statistics about women in higher education, examining issues like tenure, compensation and representation in high-ranking leadership positions, such as the presidency and membership on governing boards.

"Pipelines, Pathways, and Institutional Leadership: An Update on the Status of Women in Higher Education,” is part of the Higher Ed Spotlight series and continues the conversation that was started by “The White House Project: Benchmarking Women’s Leadership,” published in 2009, and “Benchmarking Women’s Leadership in the United States,” Colorado Women’s College at the University of Denver’s follow-up report in 2013.

Read the press release here.

The Costs of 'Colorblind' in Doctoral Admissions

To increase racial diversity in the professoriate, we need to build the pool of Ph.D.s of color, writes Julie R. Posselt, and that means confronting barriers in the admissions process.

By Julie R. Posselt

In a closed-door meeting on Nov. 5, Yale University President Peter Salovey admitted to students of color, “We failed you … I think we have to be a better university. I think we have to do a better job.”

Read the story here.

The Flagship Diversity Divide

The student bodies at large state universities are more diverse than the faculties. But the broader population outpaces them both.

Meredith Myers, The Chronicle of Higher Education

Recent protests by student groups have drawn attention back to a broad and important question: How diverse are colleges, really?

Read the story here.

Related content:

• Under Fire From Lawmakers, a Flagship Tries to Explain Why Diversity Matters (The Chronicle of Higher Education - paid subscription required)
• What It's Like to Be Black at the U. of Missouri (The Chronicle of Higher Education - paid subscription required)
• Diversity Courses Are in High Demand. Can They Make a Difference? (The Chronicle of Higher Education - paid subscription required)
• Diversity Proponents Looking for the Academy to Lead Way (Diverse Issues in Higher Education)
• What Black Campus Activists Can Learn From the Freedom Summer of 1964 (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
• Evangelical Colleges’ Diversity Problem (The Chronicle of Higher Education - requires paid subscription)

Walter J. Leonard, architect of Harvard affirmative action plan, dies

By Matt Schudel, The Washington Post

Walter J. Leonard, a Harvard University administrator who was instrumental in devising one of the country’s earliest and most effective affirmative action programs, which became a model for other universities around the country, and who later served as a college president in Tennessee, died Dec. 8 at a retirement facility in Kensington, Md. He was 86.

Read the story here.

Related content:

• Walter Leonard, champion of diversity in higher education: 1929 – 2015 (Harvard Law School)
• Walter J. Leonard, Pioneer of Affirmative Action in Harvard Admissions, Dies at 86 (The New York Times)
• Architect of affirmative action at Harvard dies at 86 (Boston Globe)
• Walter Leonard, Pioneer Of Affirmative Action At Harvard, Dies At 86 (NPR)
• Walter Leonard, attorney who created Harvard affirmative-action policy, dies aged 86 (The Associated Press)

Student Activists Want More Black Faculty Members -- But How Realistic Are These Goals?

Student protesters on a number of campuses want to see many more black faculty members. But how realistic are some of their goals?

By Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed

Increasing faculty diversity has long been a priority on college campuses, but the recent, widespread student protests over race relations have made the issue all the more urgent. And while a number of institutions already have pledged additional resources to increasing faculty diversity, questions remain about how realistic some of these goals are -- at least in the near term.

Read the story here.

Related content:

• What Are Students Demanding? (American Council on Education)
• When Recruiting Minority Faculty Members Isn't Enough (The Chronicle of Higher Education - requires subscription)
• Dearth of Black Ph.D. Recipients Will Complicate Efforts to Diversify Faculty (The Chronicle of Higher Education - requires subscription)
• Here Are the List of Demands from Students Protesting Racism at 51 Colleges
• What Can Campus Leaders Do to Make Protests Unnecessary? (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
• Student Protesters Want Qualitative Diversity on Campus (Slate)
• Student Protest Lists of Demands Get Longer and More Detailed (Inside Higher Ed)
• Percentage of Black College Students in U.S. Outnumber Professors Nearly 2 to 1 (TIME)
• Campus Racism Protests Didn't Come Out Of Nowhere, And They Aren't Going Away Quickly (The Huffington Post)
• White Boys’ Club? White Faculty Still Dominates in National Stats (Diverse Issues in Higher Education)
• Black Youth Filling the Leadership Void (Diverse Issues in Higher Education)

U-Texas Will Require Searches for Administrator Positions to Include Women and Minorities

U of Texas System will mandate that searches for all administrator positions -- from deans on up -- include a female or minority candidate in the final interview round.

By Scott Jaschik

The National Football League has a requirement that a minority candidate be interviewed for every head coaching position. The requirement is known as the Rooney rule, for Dan Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who pushed the idea. On Thursday, the new chancellor of the University of Texas System, William H. McRaven, announced that he plans to apply the rule to every administrative search for dean and higher in the 14-institution system.

Read the story here.

Diversifying the Pathway to the Professoriate

Through the organization C3, liberal arts colleges and research institutions work together to transform higher education

By Alexandra Vollman, INSIGHT into Diversity

For many higher education institutions, the job of diversifying their faculty can be difficult — especially for small liberal arts colleges, which struggle to attract underrepresented candidates because of factors such as geographic location and a candidate pool that reflects an already homogeneous faculty. However, one organization is working to change this situation by providing role models and mentors underrepresented students can relate to.

Read the story here.

Related content:

• Where Are All the Black College Faculty? (Diverse Issues in Higher Education)
• The Invisible Labor of Minority Professors (The Chronicle of Higher Education - requires paid subscription)
• Now Yale Faces the Hard Part: Turning $50 Million into Faculty Diversity (The Chronicle of Higher Education - requires paid subscription)
• After Criticism, Yale Sets Aside $50 million over 5 Years for Faculty Diversity (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

Proven Leader Takes the Helm at Emerson College

Diverse Issues in Higher Education
by Kenneth J. Cooper , September 22, 2011

Faced with a public controversy over its limited faculty diversity, Emerson College has responded with a spate of hirings and promotions of minorities, capped by the installation in July of its first African-American president, Dr. M. Lee Pelton.
Though many other higher education institutions have struggled to effect real change in response to institutional bias allegations, Emerson, a private liberal arts college in Boston, broke from that pattern, first by naming an expert panel to conduct an external review and make a public report on its findings.

Full Story: http://diverseeducation.com/article/16417/

Perspectives: Diversity and the Future of the Professoriate – A Call to Action

Diverse Issues in Higher Education
by Dr. Karen Jackson-Weaver , January 28, 2011

In 1981, the U.S. Department of Education reported that 4.2 percent of full-time faculty positions in higher education were held by African-Americans. In 2003, more than two decades later, the numbers had increased slightly, to 5.6 percent. If this rate remains constant, it will take more than 180 years for the Black faculty percentage to reach parity with the Black percentage of the U.S. population. Compelled by these startling statistics, last November I convened the “Diversity and the Future of the Professoriate” conference at Princeton University’s Graduate School.

Full Story: http://diverseeducation.com/article/14677/

Academic Hiring Freeze Looms as Obstacle to Faculty Diversity

Diverse Issues in Higher Education
by Kenneth J. Cooper , November 17, 2010

Dr. Christopher Tudico, who in the spring received his doctorate in the history of education from the University of Pennsylvania, says he’s realistic about his chances as he launches a search for a tenure-track position.
“I think in all honesty there’s about a 50 percent chance that I get placed because there are so many applicants and not enough positions. It’s impossible for everybody to have a position,” he says. “I think I’m a very strong candidate, but it may not work out.”

Full Story: http://diverseeducation.com/article/14395/

What Search Committees See Across the Table

The Chronicle of Higher Education
September 19, 2010
By Audrey Williams June

Caroline Sotello Turner's career as a professor spans 23 years at three institutions. At all the job interviews she's had over the years, she wanted assurance that her future colleagues were truly interested in diversity. Sometimes she has had to uncover signs of that commitment on her own.
"I would get asked a lot of questions about why I'm interested in coming, but I'm evaluating their campus, too," says Ms. Turner, a Latina newly hired as a professor in the doctoral program in...

Full Story: http://chronicle.com/article/What-Search-Committees-See/124439/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en (Subscription Required)

Gaslight: Proving Institutionalized Racism

Diverse Issues in Higher Education
by Dr. Robin Lee Hughes, July 25, 2010

In a recent talk, I stated that institutional and structural racist systems of opportunity and privilege still exist in the academy. Noticing the pushback — furrowed brows looked like neon signs plastered on folks’ foreheads — I engaged them in a conversation that went something as follows:
Search committees talk about the difficulty they face when trying to “find” faculty of color. When we hear this excuse, some of my colleagues and I share similar responses, “You ain’t looking.” There are more than a few of us around and I would argue that you may not be knocking at the right door. Also, when you folks knock, the universities may be creating a wide chasm. Sometimes, the potential faculty is met at that door with the question “Guess who’s coming to dinner?” And, at the other end of the chasm, “Sorry we already have one.” While some institutions have made significant changes, overall the number of faculty of color on most campuses is still relatively low.

Full Story: http://diverseeducation.com/blogpost/285/gaslight-proving-institutionalized-racism.html

AFT Releases Report on Promoting Diversity

Inside Higher Ed
The American Federation of Teachers released a report Tuesday on steps colleges should take to diversify their faculties. The report reviews data on the lack of racial and ethnic diversity on most faculties, and discusses ways to recruit more diverse pools and to retain minority professors.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/03/24/qt#223205

For a copy of the AFT Report, go to: http://www.aft.org/pdfs/highered/facultydiversity0310.pdf

A Drive to Diversify the Faculty Yields Results in Rochester

The Chronicle of Higher Education
February 28, 2010
Innovative recruiting has helped the Rochester Institute of Technology hire more minority professors
By Audrey Williams June

Seven and a half years ago, when Robert Osgood ambled toward a Rochester Institute of Technology booth at a conference for minority doctoral students, he was not yet ready to go on the job market. But M. Renee Baker, the booth's lone occupant, was ready for him.
Mr. Osgood was still two years away from getting his Ph.D. To Ms. Baker, though, it was the perfect time to sell him on an academic career at Rochester. She whipped out her cellphone and called the chairman of the biological-sciences department to talk with Mr. Osgood on the spot. To his surprise—"I thought there was no way she would reach them," he says—Ms. Baker handed him the phone so he could chat. That phone call was the start of a long-running relationship between Mr. Osgood and Rochester that led to his accepting a job there in 2008 as an assistant professor of medical sciences.
"You have to act like a talent scout all the time," says Ms. Baker, executive director of the office of faculty recruitment and retention at Rochester. "If we stay in touch with them the longest, hopefully we'll be the ones to win out in the end."
For Ms. Baker, that kind of aggressive outreach is key to faculty recruiting—particularly when it comes to diversifying the ranks. On-the-road recruiting is just one part of a multipronged effort to attract African-Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans to a campus that specializes in fields, like science and engineering, from which those groups are largely missing. And with its recent efforts, Rochester has had measurable success.

Full Story: http://chronicle.com/article/A-Drive-to-Diversify-the-Fa/64384/ (Subscription)