Diversify Faculties, But How?

Image from and available at Inside Higher Ed

The protests that have occurred on college campuses this semester have included demands that institutional leaders take steps to create environments that are more sensitive to the needs of students from various racial and ethnic backgrounds.  In recent weeks, some of these demands have grown in number and complexity; some to the point of making students the targets of criticism if not derision.  One demand, however, seem consistent from one institution to the next – that faculty reach particular racial percentages within a specified period of time.  The University of Louisville’s President made such a commitment in the wake of an ethnic offense of his own making.  Similarly Brown announced recently that it would double the number of its faculty from previously underrepresented groups by the 2024-25 academic year.  Such commitments are laudable and other higher education institutions likely will make similar pledges if they have not already done so.  Yet, I am left to wonder from where are eligible faculty candidates to fill all of these new opportunities supposed to come given the historically short supply of qualified candidates.

The National Council for Educational Statistics reports that African Americans represent only 7.4 percent of the PhD’s awarded in 2010.  That number is only slightly better than the previous 10 years, when African Americans represented only 6.6 percent of awarded PhD’s.  The news is similar for Hispanics and Latinos who account for 5.8 percent of awarded PhD’s in 2010, which is only slightly better than the 4.7 percent figure from the previous decade ago.  These percentages remained essentially flat despite the fact that, according to the NCES, “the number of doctor's degrees awarded increased by 60 percent for Hispanic students and by 47 percent for Black students” from 2000 to 2010.

I think it is admirable that universities are committed to reaching particular percentages of black or Hispanic faculty by certain dates, but it seems to me that they all are going to be beating the same bushes to find only a few eligible candidates.  In responding to student demands to diversify faculties, some institutions have highlighted the problem of the so-called leaky pipeline of minority students from undergraduate to graduate school.  That is, many of these students do not contemplate academic careers as undergraduates and thus do not pursue post-baccalaureate education.  Some colleges and universities have made promises to try to fix the leaky pipeline, but that ignores a more fundamental problem of getting minority students to college in the first place.

In my home state of Illinois, blacks and African Americans are 17.5 percent of the school-aged student population while Hispanics and Latinos are 25.1 percent.  In the meantime, the University of Illinois, the state’s flagship public university, reports  that out of its current overall student population, 4.9 percent are African American while 8.1 percent Hispanic.  Admittedly this is not an according to Hoyle scientific statistical analysis, but I think it suggests a larger yet relevant issue, namely students need to succeed academically in their K-through-12 education in order to matriculate in and graduate from college before they can begin a graduate school program or contemplate a career as an academic scholar.

Colleges and universities are going to have to start facing some harsh realities about where future academics come from if they are serious about diversifying their faculties.  A more holistic approach that includes improving K-through-12 education that involves institutions of higher education is needed, otherwise any efforts toward faculty diversification will be little more than window-dressing that helps none of the populations colleges are trying to serve.

Latinos in the News (aka This Again?!?)

My friend, colleague, and fellow Mexican Intellectual, Frank Gaytan, wrote recently about the behavior of writing and referenced a piece from The Atlantic that discussed the connection between writing and running.  No sooner had I shared with him that article that he shared with me an op-ed from The Chronicle of Higher Education.  Regular readers know that I have written before.  They know also that I have written about the scholarly purposes that inform why some academics begin a blog and take such care with it.  In the “3 Rules for Academic Blogging,” however, David Perry, associate professor of history at Dominican University, provides some practical advice of why academics should continue to blog, much of which is relevant to my own – and I think Frank’s - efforts.  In discussing “Rule 3: Write for the sake of writing,” Perry states “Today, a blog becomes a piece of the conversations you are already having on social media.  You are most likely to use a blog to preach to choirs and attempt to convert the already converted.  But it’s fun to preach to the choir.”  I would add also, it does not hurt to try to convert the unconverted.  After all, a free exchange of flowing ideas was one of the promises the Internet offered.  It is in this spirit I wish to share the following experience.

Recently, I have been preoccupied with the issues of racism and free speech developing on some of the nation’s college campuses.  The highest profile of these events occurred at the University of Missouri and at Yale University, the latter of which coincided with Halloween.  Indeed, much of what occurred at Yale began with a discussion about the potential of racially insensitive Halloween costumes.  While Yale students argued with administrators about racial insensitivity, the President of the University of Louisville took matters to an entirely different level, posing for a photo with other administrators and staff all deck out in sombreros, serapes, and handle-bar mustaches as they attended a Mexican-themed costume party.  In the wake of the backlash and protests the photo engendered, President James Ramsey publicly apologized and vowed to improve the racial climate on Louisville’s campus.  One way he vowed to do so was to “[r]ecruit more Hispanic and Latino/a for faculty, staff and administrative positions.”  Another was to “[a]dvance efforts to build Hispanic and Latino/a scholarship and financial aid” for students.


Photo from and available at Latino Rebels

Seeing this story in a news outlet I follow on Facebook, I opined:

If Louisville's President wants to make amends for offending Mexicans, shouldn't he strive for more Mexican representation among faculty, students, and staff specifically instead of more Latinos generally as his press release states?  Such a declaration still demonstrates a lack of cultural awareness by assuming all Hispanic and Latino groups are the same, which they certainly are not.

My comment struck a chord with some people.  As of this writing, 14 people, all of them complete strangers to me, “Liked” what I said to this shared post.  My comment also garnered replies from others, also complete strangers to me.  Most of them, however, overlooked the point I made about differences among Latino and Hispanic groups to discuss costumes in and of themselves.  I say most because at least one person took exception to my idea, writing:

So you're saying some...Hispanics /Latinos are not the same? So you think you are better than what? Your opinion does not represent the majority because even Latino Public Figures state Latinos/Hispanics we are all the same one language, one culture here in USA...struggling for the same American Dream. I'm not sure how intellectual or scholarly etcetera you pretend to spill but I know one principle for sure...to a white you are a pinche...Latino/ Mexican no matter where you came from...period. And they see you as a threat at many levels. ...economic power, political, community based, state, and the National/and Judicial level...they know...we will chip away at intolerance, institutional racism, and some now realize that the new generation of hispanics/Latinos are becoming leaders of this great nation and play a key role in its future [sic in toto].

Not wanting to reply in the heat of the moment, I let what this person said sit for a while, rereading what I wrote and what he wrote several times to ensure the clarity of the point I was making and to find the basis of his reply.  I considered letting go of the entire matter, but after several hours I replied with the following, addressing him by name (which has been redacted):

You don't know me, you don't know the first thing about me, so please do not try to force your orthodoxy on me like some kind of school yard bully.  I did not say anyone was better than anyone else, I said we are different from one another.  Mexicans, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans - the three largest Hispanic and Latino groups - have different historical and cultural heritages that should be acknowledged and celebrated.  They also have different paths to how they got to the United States, have different reasons for being here, and have different citizenship statuses among them.  The case is similar among other Latin Americans in the US.  There is nothing wrong with differences among people.  It is also known as diversity, which is an idea most progressives like me champion.  Hispanics and Latinos saying all Hispanics and Latinos are the same only makes it easier for white people to say we are all the same and gives white people their justification for discriminating against us in all the same ways.  This is all I will say about this as I have no desire to get into a flaming war with a complete stranger.  I wish you well.

I have written before about this issue, most notably here and here.  As an academic, ideas are important to me.  As an historian, ideas of how the past informs our present are no less so.  On one hand, I feel a tad guilty responding to another's idea and then cutting off that interaction.  On the other, however, I feel worst about circumstances that made me feel that I had to cut off the interaction out of some sense of self-preservation in light of such a vulgar ad hominem.  It is difficult to conduct reasoned and rational discussions about important issues on-line or in person when emotions run high and passions are inflamed.  I wonder, if not worry, about the chilling effect on discourse and problem solving that the current temperature on some college campuses will have in both the short- and long-term.

I hope cooler heads will prevail.