University Struggles to Retain AHANA Faculty

A recent MIT internal study concluded that MIT should increase the "recruiting and retaining" of black and Hispanic faculty. The release of MIT's report prompted a study by the Boston Globe on faculty diversity among universities in the Boston area. According to the American Council on Education, blacks and Hispanics comprise 8.8 percent of tenure-line faculty, nationally.

The Globe's study reveals that many colleges in the Boston area have fewer black and Hispanic professors on tenure tracks than many other universities. At Boston University, Boston's  largest school, 3.4 percent of its tenured and tenured-track faculty are black or Hispanic. About 13 percent of students at BU identify themselves as either black or Hispanic.

Boston College reports similar statistics, stating that 14 percent of the class of 2011 identify themselves as either black or Hispanic. According to the American Council on Education, 7 percent of BC's tenure-line professors are black or Hispanic.

"Yes, we are challenged, but I would not like to use the language of a problem," said Richard Jefferson, director of institutional diversity, regarding diversity within the BC faculty. "We are challenged like many of the universities in the area." Jefferson said that, in comparison to other local universities, BC is in the "middle of the pack."

For BC, the problem is not recruiting black and hispanic professors, but retaining them, Jefferson said.  "We have done a fairly decent job at recruiting," he said. "Where we have been challenged, is in the area of retention. We are not retaining enough people to have a trend that is moving upward."

Zane Crute, CSOM '12, and an AHANA student said, "I have never had an African American professor at BC and I highly doubt that I will before I leave."
In 2005, the University created a Diversity Steering Committee led by Vice President of Human Resources Leo Sullivan, Executive Vice President Patrick Keating, former Vice President of Student Affairs Cheryl Presley, and former Academic Vice President and Dean of Faculties John J. Neuhauser.

"The Diversity Steering Committee is looking at how we can get our arms around this retention issue," Jefferson said. "In the last year or so we have started looking more closely at data and have concluded that it's a major issue. It's a very difficult issue to grapple with. The student AHANA population has become diverse more quickly than faculty – this can be attributed to better recruiting than retaining," he said.

Many questions arise when analyzing why some AHANA faculty members choose to leave, Jefferson said. "How much of this problem has to deal with the climate at BC?," he said. "Are we competitive when faculty have offers to go elsewhere? How can we improve the AHANA faculty's ability to make tenure? Do they need more support and mentoring? Are we being careful and thoughtful enough when we bring people in?"
The Boston Globe's study suggests that the recruitment of talented AHANA faculty enables colleges to better recruit talented AHANA students. "That's right on the money," Jefferson said. "I think that they reinforce each other. The recruitment of AHANA faculty members reinforces the ability to recruit AHANA students and vice versa."

Zane Crute, CSOM '12, disagrees. He said, "When choosing a school, I focused more on the quality of education as a whole. I did not investigate specific nationalities of professors. I was concerned with getting the best education possible, and not who was giving me that education."

Jefferson said that the process of enacting change is lengthy. "This issue is not going to be solved overnight. It requires our sustained attention," he said. "It has our attention now. We need to stay with it for a period of years. If we do, we will have more success, If we let it fade away because another issue becomes more fashionable, then we will not be successful."

Jefferson said that schools have been working to reverse older structural dilemmas. "Schools in Boston are engaging in cooperative efforts to enhance their ability to recruit and retain AHANA faculty members and to undo the lingering reputation that Boston developed after school desegregation," he said.

"There is also the pipeline issue – the number of AHANA folks who are directing themselves toward academic careers as opposed to other professions such as law and business. This is an issue in terms of recruitment." Jefferson said. "We want to make Boston a mecca for education again."