It seems like I see a new announcement for a diversity officer on LinkedIn every day.
I think it’s great. We need ally’s and advocates in administration.
However, hiring a diversity officer doesn’t address the deeper problem - the lack of a diversity on faculties and in PhD programs.
There are not enough qualified, diverse PhD candidates to meet demand for faculty at all levels - from national research school to the local community college.
For 20+ years, The PhD Project has tackled the pipeline problem - with great success - helping to attract and retain historically disadvantaged students to PhD programs.
There is only so much one organization can do.
So what limits attraction?
Let’s get rid of the obvious excuse, the compensation isn’t competitive with industry.
But compensation isn’t why most people chase academic jobs, they chase them bc they want to impact kids lives and to study things they find interesting.
So what is the elephant in the room?
Despite the conversation about uni’s being politically correct & run by snowflakes, they remain not great places for people from disadvantaged communities to work.
By disadvantaged, I am referring to anyone who identifies as non-white, non-male, non-gender confirming, non-upper SES & so on. ‘So on’ only bc I don’t have enough characters to list all the people historically excluded in the US.
Why?
First, faculty stigmatize people from historically disadvantaged communities.
I can’t tell you how many times I have heard a senior colleague say a candidate is only in play or hired bc they add ‘you know’ to a place.
Second, after a ‘you know’ hire, then someone usually implies to the now colleague that ‘there was someone better’ in the pool … but …
I have had several heard from several people this has happened to - often enough - that I think it’s not a myth - it’s a fact in higher ed.
Third, that stigma trails the new colleague through tenure - and if they seek help addressing a legitimate concern - it is cited as a reason to be dismissive.
I have listened to Dean’s at #HBCUs say this kind of treatment is reason cited by switched assistant faculty for changing jobs - they are tired of being treated differently.
Fourth, because potential #phdstudents aren’t stupid, and they already face challenges in the workplace, they question why change careers, take a salary cut, and enter a culture that stigmatizes them as hired for a reason (eg not as good).
Fifth, and here is the killer, because administrators, including #diversityofficers, insist on hiring for #diversity, they exacerbate the stigma placed on ‘you know’ hires. The language confirms the biases of some faculty.
It’s become a vicious cycle.
To change academe, we need to not only support diversity officers, we need to build places that people want to work, & we need #diversityresearch that helps us understand how to do it the right way.
We can build a better academe.
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