University of Rochester Students Demand More Faculty Diversity
Students at the University of Rochester are demanding that university officials hire more faculty members from underrepresented groups, insisting that the administrators spend less time strategizing about diversity and make it a reality.
March 5th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I sit on one of the University’s School-wide diversity committees. I am a person of ‘color.’ Hiring a diverse faculty is not at all easy. One, there are very few people of interest to choose from in most fields; we call most of them directly to apply. Two, virtually all of them do NOT want to be in Rochester for one reason or another. Further, there is something inherent about the academic business that does not encourage diversity. We need to address the root causes of academic monochrome, which are also not easy to identify–but they are likely to require fundamental shifts in the ways academics think about their disciplines. One thing we are doing in the meantime is to increase the number of people who would potentially enter the job market by recruiting talented people at earlier stages in their careers. This sort of change will take generations to accomplish if it is to be done well. I am as impatient as anyone. Please keep in mind that it is also not easy to be one of these ‘colorful’ members of the faculty, and that the mechanisms for keeping one’s job do not favor people who are the least bit different from their peers. But I must wait too…
March 11th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
I read with interest the article attached to this message board attempting to reconcile the lack of diversity in academic staffing with students of color e.g. Marquis Harrison, who experienced a difficult time sustaining a zeal to learn while being situated in a monolithic institution of “learning”.
I applaud Mr. Harrison on many layers and levels for coming forward and pushing the proverbial “envelope” in so fact as to broaden the already wide spectrum of information regarding the University of Rochester’s lack of diversity in faculty.
He makes a poignant statement suggesting that the topical discussion of diversity has superceded the praxis for which to hire minority professors. While that point is lucid and well-taken, my sense is that until AMERICA makes the issue of diversity one to tackle, these “think-tank” discussions and ad-hoc, grassroot committees will become no more than “meetings about meetings”.
I attended a Historical Black College and University. I really and truly appreciate my stay, especially on the heels of this conversation. My solution is that African-American students attend H.B.C.U.’s and let the confederate-South mentality of pristine universities like the U of R feed on its own frenzy. When Black PEOPLE become empowered through self-engagement and dialogue that is predicated on monetarily edifying Black colleges, a truncated discussion on how they are positively impacted in the minds and souls of Black children will emerge. There will be created a convergence of testimonies on how and why Blacks are doing better. Said testimonies will showcase the understanding that Black children became educated within their own institutions and with tangible positive effects on the greater society.