Cultural Competence in Hiring Faculty: Home

Using data collected through case studies of 21 research universities in the United States, I reviewed the efforts institutions are undertaking to meet the growing demand for interdisciplinary knowledge. I adopted the framework of transformative change, where change occurs over time and brings important shifts in the way an institution views itself. Findings indicated that implementing interdisciplinary initiatives is accomplished not only through changes in how institutional work is organized and the facilities in which the work is carried out, but also through concurrent shifts in the institutional culture related to interdisciplinary endeavors.

In the context of increasing support for interdisciplinary modes of research, many in the policy, scientific, and academic communities propose that universities should change structurally to reduce the barriers to investigation that involves researchers from multiple disciplines. This paper examines ‘interdisciplinary strategies’ in U.S. research universities—deliberate efforts to spur collaborative research across traditional departmental and disciplinary boundaries, including the creation and adaptation of university policies, practices, and structures. It identifies and analyzes the use of incentive grants to initiate new interdisciplinary units, the establishment of ‘campus-wide institutes’ that steer campus investments in interdisciplinary areas, and new modes of faculty hiring and evaluation. Illustrative examples are provided, and the implications of these strategies are discussed.

In this paper we investigate 11 initiatives at a research university in the southeast United States. We used a qualitative case study approach. First we compiled an inventory that crossed at least two schools of the university and featured a significant research focus for faculty. Following a survey of those programs, we selected 11 initiatives for in-depth study. Several limitations should be noted. Because we conducted a qualitative analysis of a limited subset of diverse programs at the university as a preliminary investigation, caution should be taken when applying our findings both across the university and to other research universities. However, we determined that our approach would provide valuable insight into the background of these programs from the perspective of their leaders or founding members. This study represents a first step in exploring factors that influence the development of a rich diversity of initiatives. By bringing to light useful information about such pockets of innovation, this work suggests how similar programs might evolve. To learn more about the characteristics and support of such programs, future research should investigate interdisciplinary research across departments and schools systematically, both at the level of individual universities and across the full range of research institutions.

Liberal arts colleges seeking to hire diverse faculty face unique challenges stemming from relative isolation and
limited awareness about their enriching professional environment. Research universities face similar challenges in recruiting diverse graduate students because many liberal arts undergraduates lack exposure to and relationships
with diverse faculty and thus do not envision lives in the professoriate.

Skidmore College needed a more ethnically and racially diverse faculty to remain relevant, 
says Beau Breslin, dean of the faculty. “We were becoming dinosaurs.”

The University of Oregon hopes to improve its scholarly standing by hiring new faculty in academic "clusters," to lift the university to pre-eminence in specific narrow fields, mostly in the sciences.

Stony Brook University is hiring 25 faculty as part of a plan to hire 250 over five years as it launches inter-disciplinary programs designed to break down barriers between study areas.
The university on Tuesday said it approved five of 36 proposals to create interdisciplinary clusters, which will lead to the addition of 25 faculty in the first round of hiring for its interdisciplinary initiative.

There is a need for minority faculty in higher education due to the increase in minority high school graduates and higher education enrollees. Faculty members who are tenured have the ability to advocate for cultural equality in their institutions and serve as mentors for students. Minority faculty whose tenured process is hindered by inequality may also be unable to become a proper mentor for minority students. The purpose of this paper is to identify why faculty diversity will lead to increased student success and comfort, minority mentors, minority research, and equity advocacy, and representation from all minority groups.

Focuses on the efforts of hundreds of campuses across the U. S. to diversify their faculty. Low representation of faculty of color in the aceademy despite years of affirmative action policies; Examination of the departmental search committee process and the conditions that lead to hiring diverse faculty in terms of race and gender; Investigation whether specific intervention account for the hiring of diverse faculty.

We report on a series of pilot programs that we developed and carried out to support the success and satisfaction of new faculty, particularly faculty of color. We hope that others committed to retaining and supporting underrepresented faculty can apply our learning from this pilot project, as a whole or in part.

In the last ten years, many colleges, universities, boards, and agencies have jumped on the diverse faculty/staff hiring bandwagon not only by issuing resolutions, policies, and mandates but also by inventing programs, initiatives, and strategies all intended to increase the number of faculty and staff of color in predominantly White institutions. The statistics illustrate the results: 80-90% of faculty and staff in most colleges and universities are still White. Why, despite the best intentions, are most of these programs and policies failing to increase faculty/staff diversity? Unfortunately what is often overlooked in the diverse hiring conundrum is the crucial role that both search committees and institutional culture play in the recruitment and retention of diverse faculty and staff at predominantly White colleges and universities. It has been assumed that those who serve on search committees prioritize diverse hiring when in reality many have never even discussed, let alone agreed upon, the institutional and departmental advantages of a diverse faculty and staff. This author contends that, if predominantly White colleges and universities are serious about their commitment to faculty/staff diversity, if they want to move from empty rhetoric to real action and progress that changes statistics and transforms institutional culture, they must make a concerted effort to educate everyone who serves on their search committees. Although search committees are only one part of the diverse hiring picture, diversification of faculty and staff at U.S. colleges and universities can not occur without their eyes being opened to the various biases, assumptions, and stereotypes that influence their perceptions, judgments, and decisions. More importantly, inclusive educational cultures that retain diverse students and employees can not be created without knowledge and skills in intercultural competence. Given the rapidly changing demographics affecting colleges and universities, it is imperative that predominantly White institutions recognize now the serious repercussions of a monocultural faculty/staff serving a multicultural student body and support their employees in moving from minimization of cultural differences to acceptance and adaptation so that predominantly White search committees selecting diverse candidates will no longer be an oxymoron.

The Supreme Court has established that diversity is a compelling state interest with regard to student body diversity in the higher education context, namely medical school and law school. Many educators and higher education organizations view racial and ethnic diversity among faculty as an important educational objective. Faculty diversity is also considered critical to achieving student body diversity, which the Court has held to be a compelling state interest. However, the Court has neither articulated whether a diverse faculty is a compelling state interest, nor discussed what affirmative action policies are sufficiently narrowly tailored to achieve the diversity. Legal and policy-based arguments are made with respect to race as a factor in faculty hiring decisions. Also, arguments for university efforts to foster faculty diversification and consider race as a factor in employment are made.

Focuses on the Supreme court rulings regarding consideration of race in hiring university faculty. Conditions for using race as a criterion to achieve faculty diversity; Reasons behind the use of race-conscious affirmative action programs; Significance of faculty diversity.

The underrepresentation of women and minority faculty in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines continues to be a major concern to university leaders, policy makers, and scientists. While a number of complex factors across the entire academic pipeline play significant roles in this problem, important contributing causes of the underrepresentation of women and minorities on the STEM faculty are how recruitment is conducted and how hiring decisions are made. In this article, the authors elucidate how universities can systematically transform their conventional recruitment practices to develop a more diverse faculty and a more inclusive faculty climate. First, the authors describe how conventional recruitment practices contribute to the homogenous replication of the faculty body. Next, they share the results of studies of the nature and consequences of diversity in applicant pools in recent science and engineering searches conducted at their universities. Finally, they provide guidelines and best practices for effective faculty hiring processes.

Many universities have experienced success at improving student, but not faculty, diversity. This paper examines how, over the past few years, a major U.S. research university made significant progress in recruiting faculty candidates from underrepresented groups. The paper situates this progress in the earlier context of a racial incident that disrupted the community's sense of order and civility. It was in the aftermath of this critical incident that a galvanized collective created positive conditions for change. We show that insiders' tacit knowledge can provide key clues to successful organizational change. In particular, we offer our experience of creating a university-wide, online tutorial on recruiting diverse faculty that every search committee member is required to take. Our case also demonstrates that organizational context and history are important factors to consider in understanding why specific faculty life initiatives succeed or flounder.

Increasing the diversity of faculty in small colleges and universities has been found to be critical for accreditation and important for the cultural environment of the institutions. A phenomenological approach identified factors that lead to successful recruitment and retention of non-Caucasian faculty at small private colleges and universities in the Midwest. This examination included the conceptual framework of critical race theory, organization culture, and organization change. Data was collected through interviews with current faculty members at small private institutions in the Midwest. The narrative data from the interviews was analyzed using horizontalization, thematic analysis, and narrative knowing analysis which have been shown as effective methods of analysis for qualitative data. The most important finding regarding recruiting is that the majority of the participants were recruited in a non-traditional manner by a personal contact from the institution. Other findings regarding recruiting included the desire to work directly with students, to work in a collegial atmosphere, and to be a role model for non-Caucasian students. The most important finding regarding retention is that the participants described the Midwest to be welcoming and accepting of minorities. Other retention factors were the satisfaction of working with students and working in a collegial atmosphere, two of the factors that originally brought the participants to the institutions. Institutions striving to increase faculty diversity should consider non-traditional recruiting techniques as well as promoting the Midwest as a comfortable place for non-Caucasians to live and work. A few small private institutions in the Midwest have much higher faculty diversity than most. Future research could include case studies of one or more of these institutions to examine recruitment and retention practices, or other factors that may contribute to higher rates of non-Caucasian faculty.

Faculty members of color are underrepresented in higher education institutions in the United States. Higher education institutions struggle to find qualified candidates to fill their vacant positions, and they deal with an even greater challenge to attract and hire faculty of color. This qualitative study focused on four selected higher education institutions in the Southern United States. Interviews with higher education officials, document analysis, and website observations were conducted in order to collect data on the recruitment of faculty of color in the selected higher education institutions. Three research questions were developed to guide the study. The research questions dealt with the challenges that each institution faced in the recruitment of faculty of color in their institutions. In addition, the research questions addressed the recruitment strategies of each selected institution and the perceptions of higher education leaders of the effectiveness of these strategies.

The findings from this study indicated that higher education institutions were using numerous recruitment strategies to increase diversity on their campuses, and many higher education leaders have emphasized the importance of diversity to their educational programs. The numbers of faculty members of color increased in some departments of the selected higher education institutions but were deficient in other areas. They perceived that although their efforts were somewhat effective in recruiting faculty of color, their existing efforts were continuously improving and needed to be more effective at attracting, recruiting, and retaining faculty of color.

A diverse faculty is a goal of all social work programs. However, recruiting and retaining diverse faculty is often a struggle. In this article, narratives of 3 recent doctoral graduates are analyzed to identify the role that diversity played in their academic job searches. Autoethnographic analysis revealed 2 broad themes: identity and institutional/structural issues. The narratives explore being the potential "diversity hire" and difficulties related to identity negotiation. Issues related to disciplinary and departmental politics as well as structural concerns are represented in the narratives. This study highlights the multiple challenges for minority faculty candidates and the work that still needs to be done to honor diversity and to integrate it into a faculty and institution.

The article discusses the significance of faculty diversity in higher education in the U.S. It highlights the report from the National Center for Education Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau which depict the number of women and underrepresented minorities (URMs) in the country's university faculties. It explores the result of the survey conducted at five institutions which aims to examine their state of faculty diversity and identify the strategies employed to achieve better faculty diversity. It suggests ways on how higher education institutions can attain faculty diversity in the American professoriate.

Racial and ethnic minorities are underrepresented among faculty at research universities in the United States. The presence, representation, and contributions of racial and ethnic minority faculty improve the ability of the educational institution to provide students with a diverse learning environment. Diversity of this nature enables students to become apprentices for global citizenship and leadership. Consequently, student learning is enhanced and more meaningful critical thinking skills are developed when students are placed in classroom settings rich with cultural, racial and gender differences. This dissertation analyzes racial and ethnic diversity among faculty at four research universities participating in the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC). The CIC is an academic consortium of major research universities. The significance of these institutions resonates in their ability to impact relevant societal arenas (i.e. business, industry and government). Particularly within higher education, the role of diversity must be considered because of its capacity to train and educate a workforce that is representative of the racial and ethnic composition of the larger society.

Therefore, this dissertation examines equity issues facing faculty of color in the academy. Primarily, conflict theory, a leading principles underpinning discussions on racial inequality in higher education, along with the epistemological framework of organizational analysis of racism in higher education are used. Considering the afore mentioned theoretical and conceptual frameworks, this dissertation does the following: (a) presents a sociological analysis of the historical and contemporary status and presence of racial and ethnic minority faculty at colleges and universities in the United States; (b) examines policies, programs, procedures, and strategies to increase racial diversity among faculty; and (c) outlines the opportunities, challenges, and policy recommendations for the short-term and long-term goals to achieve racial diversity among the professoriate. Qualitative and descriptive research and multiple methods, including document analysis of reports, procedures, and initiatives are used. Open ended interviews are conducted with academic and administrative leaders. Virtual observation (i.e. viewing institutional web sites) and classical observation methods (i.e. observing institutional leaders in their environment, such as board meetings) have been used. As racial populations increase, many Americans are looking to higher educational institutions to prepare individuals for world citizenship.

In spite of the efforts among colleges and universities, however, the statistics show little progress in diversification of faculty. According to the US Department of Education, 90% of full-time faculty members are White. Here, Kayes and Singley discuss some common myths and assumption about diversity hiring that set up such initiatives and processes for failure.

The article discusses the fundamental differences between college and corporate cultures and the destructive facts that hinder the path to diversity in colleges and universities. Lack of adequate resources and proper understanding hinders the process of organizational change and diversity in college setting. Institutional diversity is a consistent long term process.

Faculty of color continue to face challenges with recruitment, retention, and mentoring in academe.