The Daily Tar Heel
URL: http://www.dailytarheel.com/index.php/article/2011/09/white_0921
Current Date: Thu, 24 May 2012 07:43:53 -0400
Top administrator for diversity and multicultural affairs to join provost’s cabinet
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The University’s top administrator for diversity and multicultural affairs will soon join the provost’s cabinet — a change administrators hope will heighten UNC’s focus on diversity.
The associate provost for diversity and multicultural affairs will become a vice provost and will meet with the provost’s cabinet weekly, said Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Bruce Carney.
The change is meant to address a lack of racial diversity among administration and faculty, an issue widely acknowledged among University leaders, along with a pressing need for action.
“I would just call it an unfortunate reality,” said Terri Houston, who is serving as the interim associate provost for diversity and multicultural affairs as the search continues for a permanent head.
“It’s something that you will find at many predominantly white universities and colleges.”
Carney said the change, which will take effect when the University names its new diversity head, relates to the lack of a focus on diversity on campus.
“I want to make sure we have better representation of diversity issues on campus,” he said.
Carney said the University’s choice for the position will be announced soon but would not provide a specific timeline.
A revealing resignation
Two weeks ago, Julius Nyang’oro, the only black department chairman in the College of Arts and Sciences, resigned from his position as chairman of the African and Afro-American Studies department.
Of the 54 chairmen of the University’s departments and centers within the college, only five are minorities.
Houston said this disparity demands action.
“Can we do better? Absolutely. If we have no African-American department (chairmen) then I have the same question as you. Why is that?
“If we consider ourselves to be the University of the people, we should reflect this at all ranks and levels of the institution,” Houston said.
In response to the lack of diversity, the college has made the recruitment of more diverse faculty a priority, said Dee Reid, director of communications for the college.
A report conducted by the college found that minorities have made up 20 percent of all tenured or tenure-track faculty in the college since July 1, 2010, an increase of 13 percent from one decade ago, Reid said.
Karen Gil, dean of the college, wrote in a email that this increase is commendable but not enough.
“We have made steady progress in hiring outstanding faculty from varied backgrounds, but we need to do more,” she wrote.
Last fall, Gil appointed a task force to explore ways the college could enhance faculty diversity.
Valerie Ashby, a chemistry professor and chairwoman of the task force, said recommendations will be submitted to the dean for review at the department chairmen’s retreat on Sept. 23, but declined to discuss them, saying they have not yet been shared with the department leaders.
A peer’s program
The University of Virginia is also exploring ways to improve diversity through the advancement of minority faculty members into leadership positions.
Like UNC, the university is also struggling with diversity issues among faculty. Only 4.2 percent of its faculty members are African-American.
Gertrude Fraser, vice provost for faculty recruitment and retention at UVa., said administrators have developed a special leadership program to make sure the school has an incoming flow of racially diverse faculty.
“We’re beginning to see an effect on diversity in higher positions and more diverse folks serving on key committees,” she said.
Houston said UNC should look into establishing programs similar to that of UVa.
“I think (the program) is something that would be welcomed at UNC and certainly would provide opportunities for getting good faculty in the pipeline,” she said.
“We’ve got to stop talking about it and put our ideas into action.
Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.
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17 comments
I wish the school would be more focused on the person’s qualifications and the content of their character instead of race.
“It’s something that you will find at many predominantly white universities and colleges.”
White people make up the vast majority of educators and teachers. It should not come as a surprise to anyone that there are more white teachers than African American teachers.
“Like UNC, the university is also struggling with diversity issues among faculty.”
I don’t think UNC is struggling with diversity at all. It’s a very diverse campus with a very diverse faculty.
“I think (the program) is something that would be welcomed at UNC and certainly would provide opportunities for getting good faculty in the pipeline,” she said.”
Good faculty in the pipeline? Is she suggesting that we don’t have good faculty now? Because they are predominantly white? UNC’s educators are world class. Have you seen the college surveys? They are doing an excellent job.
I’d like the DTH to do some investigating and find out how much this Diversity Provost gets paid…
If similar things were said in the reverse and the issue was too many African Americans in the work place it would be branded racist. I’m against all racism no matter who it is against. Martin Luther King didn’t fight for this.
If “Diversiy is our strength” why do we need all of these “Diversity Administrators”? Why does diversity need “administrating” or “directing”? I would seem to me that if diversity was our strength, things would just sort take care of themselves naturally without have to waste money and time on these “Diversity Directorkrats” No wonder this country is losing ground in the “global economy”.
If “Academics is our strength” why do we need all of these “Academic Administrators”? Why does academics need “administrating” or “directing”? I would seem to me that if academics was our strength, things would just sort take care of themselves naturally without have to waste money and time on these “Academic Aristokrats” No wonder this country is losing ground in the “global economy”.
A specious, but highly invalid analogy Pepperbox.
Academia is dynamic and constantly changing. A person’s immutable characteristics are quite static by comparison.
“A report conducted by the college found that minorities have made up 20 percent of all tenured or tenure-track faculty in the college since July 1, 2010.”
White Americans make up 80% of the population, so how can 20% minorities NOT be enough?
RE: Innumerate
Here’s your large print ticket to the clue bus—
No percentage figure will ever be enough.
I can only surmise that the UNC-CH administration views the proposition of elevating the status of the Associate Provost of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs to a full Provost of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs as a sort of “stimulus package” calculated to extricate the University from its fiscal crisis. Imitation of the Obama administration is the sincerest form of flattery, but UNC-CH doesn’t have a money printer. Note that not a word is mentioned in this article about what will surely be a raise in salary commensurate with elevation of status. Fiscal crisis?? What fiscal crisis?? Get outta here!!
@Innumerate
Non-Hispanic Whites make up 64% of the population according to the Census Bureau.
I think this article was written a bit prematurely, especially as it provides little in the way of explanations for why indeed minorities are underrepresented among our school’s departmental leadership. This article should have waited until someone can say on record what they know to be going on. Are faculty members holding minorities out of these roles? Is one’s tenure or capacity to be tenured threatened by expressing the desire to become a department head? In its selection of minority tenure-track professors, is our school filtering out ones who have expressed an interest in leadership roles? In particular, I would have loved to hear Professor Ashby’s suggestions as I can imagine her being quite frank in her analysis.
I do think one question can be answered pretty quick though. Terri Houston asks “If we have no African-American department (chairmen) then I have the same question as you. Why is that?” The department had a chairman who was either corrupt or allowed corrupt behavior, and he was forced to resign on this basis. To suggest that his resignation was the product of racism is pretty offensive given that you are equating his immoral actions with the color of his skin, not the content of his character.
Quite simply, there are not enough highly qualified minority academics to racially balance the ranks of faculty and administration in every univerisity (or even every university that is at or above the ostensible prestige level of UNC-CH) that is obsessed with diversity in the country.
@John Pershing
Perhaps. I would have to see some statistics to prove that though. If that is the case, it shows that the United States has a ways to go in providing equal access to education for minorities.
I’m actually surprised UNC currently has 20%, which is not bad compared to a large number of prestigious schools. Only Columbia in the Ivies has a higher percentage with 25.8%
i hear diversity is strength over and over but without any data to back it up. show me that diversity will increase the quality of the students with real metrics not just meaningless slogans. data on how diversity affects GPA’s would be a start.
if diversity is strength then why is it that we dont see Chinese universities scrambling to increase diversity in their student populations?
Sounds like a good time to save a few bucks by shutting down the African and Afro-American Studies department.
It seems to me that between the disciplines of sociology, history, political science – and throw in a couple courses in statistical analysis for the Social Sciences – the the College of Arts and Sciences should be able to shed some light on “African and Afro-American studies” without going to the absurd lengths of creating a separate department.
Now what the college – and indeed all institutions of higher learning – need to focus their “diversity police” on is the lack of ideological diversity within academia.
Let’s forget color and ethnicity and focus on intellect, knowledge, and dueling philosophies. After all, isn’t that what higher education is supposed to be all about?
Can everyone have a vote one day, or at least a discussion, if referring to African-Americans and Caucasians as “black” and “white” is acceptable? It seems like such a small thing, but it really boils a person down to their skin color, and I thought we weren’t supposed to do that as politically-correct people. I don’t like being called white, and I bet people would be up in arms if I referred to an Asian person as yellow or someone of Native America/Hispanic origin as red. Why is it okay for people to be called unrealistic colors and classify them based on skin tone? I’m more of a pink-orange-yellow color than white, if you’re trying to be accurate.
First of all, people of Native American/Hispanic origin have a brown skin color so why on earth would they be referred to as “red”. Secondly, diversity at this institution is an important factor and has been looked over since the birth of this institution. Not only are there small amounts of diverse students, administrators and faculty, but our head football coach is only the second African American head coach of any sport in UNC’s history. So before trying to figure out the economics of anything, or even how our academics are affected, lets focus on getting more qualified diverse students, faculty and administrators and not just focus our diversity on the minimum wage staff members.
William R. Barker,
I really do think the African American and African Studies departments exist by virtue of there being a market for such specialized majors. Just last year, the department graduated 12 undergraduates with this major, which is equivalent to majors like American Studies or Biomedical Engineering (two other majors that could be swallowed by more general majors like History or Material Science/Physics). So, unless we really want to cut down on departments, we can’t really forsake this department on the basis of its enrollment. However, since your argument deals mostly in redundancy, I would like to address that as well.
For the same reasons that NC State has separate departments for its different engineering specializations, UNC has separate departments for certain specializations within sociology, history, and political science. Along with AFRO & AFAM, we have Linguistics, Women’s Studies, Public Policy, and American Studies. We could probably lump all of these fields into individual elective courses that can be taken under the broad majors of History, Sociology, and Political Science, but often the subtleties of what can be learned from the study of these particular fields can be lost in what would amount to a series of survey courses.
I think that focusing so much on this issue is demeaning to minorities. By suggesting that an effort must be made to hire them just to get the percentages up, you also suggest that they are inferior.
How about we hire the best and brightest available: not judging “by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
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