The Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) recently sent a letter to the deans of the different schools of Boston College as well as to the academic vice president and associate academic vice president, calling for a more concerted effort to attract a racially diverse faculty.
In the letter, dated Feb. 25, the UGBC encourages the University to examine how it can more actively populate its faculty with members of racial minority groups.
"The initiative is a way to respond to a need for faculty diversity in a creative way," said one of the letter's authors, Grace Simmons, UGBC chief of Academic Affairs and A&S '05. She said the effort is in response to students' demands for a more racially diverse faculty. She said AHANA (African, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American) students are particularly interested in seeing more diversity.
Many students, including those of AHANA distinction, claim that the race of their professors does not matter to them, and they would rather find the most academically qualified teachers.
"It's hard not to agree with most of the things in the letter," said Vice President for Academic Affairs John Neuhauser. "I think you'd like a population that teaches to look like the population that's in the classroom."
Neuhauser said he discussed the contents of the letter informally at the Academic Vice President's Advisory Council last Thursday, and that it will be on the agenda for this Thursday's Deans' Conference. "I think everyone is basically supportive," said Neuhauser.
Among the suggestions for increasing the pool of minority candidates for professorships is to create a program that would focus on attracting AHANA candidates to postdoctoral positions, who may then go on to become professors. A similar program administered by the New England Board of Higher Education was implemented at BC but did not prove gainful. BC does not currently hire its doctoral or postdoctoral students as faculty members until they have first worked at another institution.
"Most universities like people who have been trained under one set of professors to go out, expand their horizons, do well elsewhere - and some of them may return," said College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) Dean Joseph Quinn. "I do think it is healthy, in general, not to hire your own."
"We want people that go out and see how this chemistry is done somewhere else," said Neuhauser. He said that a university might decide to hire postdoctoral students because they are not necessarily the university's own students.
Limiting the impact such a program would have is the fact that postdoctoral students are mainly in the sciences, and that it is rare to find them in other fields.
Simmons said with BC's growth as a research institution, the need for more postdoctoral students will increase. "We want to extend the post doctorate program for AHANA students."
Neuhauser and Quinn agreed that an intervention on the collegial level may be too late, and that encouraging people, particularly minorities, to consider academic careers, needs to take place at an earlier stage.
Quinn said he has spoken with students and faculty members about the issue, and that it is something he feels the University has made great strides in. He explained that eight of the last 41 professors hired were AHANA, half were women, and five of the eight AHANA were also women. He said that while he doesn't have an ultimate figure for diversity in mind, he wants a mix of characteristics among the faculty, including different races.
"We do everyone a disservice if we're not hiring the best people we can," said Quinn. BC looks for a minimum of three candidates for each opening it fills.
Of BC's 658 faculty members, 10.6 percent are considered AHANA, whereas an average 15 percent of college faculties are such. The letter calls for BC to at least meet the national average.
"We'd love to have a more diverse faculty," said Carroll School of Management (CSOM) Dean Helen Peters. "If we have very few of a particular underserved ethnic group, I would be more inclined to hire that person [of the underserved group]. Whether we can see it or not, people who bring a different exposure see things differently."
Peters said she does not believe that someone's race affects how well they are able to teach, though having a faculty of a singular race may lead to a sense of elitism among students in particular racial groups.
Quinn said he does fear discrediting viable candidates who are in the racial majority in his search to create a racially diverse faculty, but that race never takes precedence over academic ability.
"If you don't pay attention to race as a salient credential, then [the faculty] becomes overwhelmingly white male," said Arar Han, AHANA Leadership Council (ALC) director of research and LSOE '03.
"I've been convinced that someone's race is an important part of who they are," said Quinn. He said that looking at other traits that make a candidate diverse, such as economic status, or upbringing were not things the University looked at in its candidates, and claims there is a difference between race and other characteristics.
Quinn added that diversity will be a priority when the next A&S associate dean or deans are hired.
Neuhauser said academic advantage will not necessarily be advantageous over race in selecting the next dean.
The letter said that creating a larger postdoctoral program, with a particular focus on attracting minorities, could be one of the objectives of the next capital campaign.
"If this was thought to be a good idea by the deans, I would probably bring it to the president and try to convince him that this should be on the docket for the next capital campaign," said Neuhauser. Money raised through the campaign would be used to create positions that could be filled by racial minorities.
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