GOVERNMENT & POLICY
INCREASING ACADEMIC DIVERSITY NSF workshop discusses avenues to improve minority representation in academic faculty
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norities have long faced a difficult road in obtaining tenure-track faculty positions at large research institutions in the U.S. Even with the help of affirmative action, university science staff rosters are still strikingly devoid of diverse faculty members. Finding ways to improve faculty diversity was at the forefront of a workshop held by the National Science Board's Committee on Education & Human Resources at the National Science Foundation on Aug. 12. More than 150 invited guests and NSF staff were on hand to hear four sets of speakers talk about why women and minorities have not matriculated into tenured faculty positions and to discuss ways in which NSF can help. A report from the workshop is expected later this year. Diversity is not a new objective, NSF Director Rita R. Colwell pointed out at the onset of the workshop. What is new, she said, is the current situation. With the nation's future becoming increasingly dependent on new ideas, the education of each citizen in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics is vital, she said. But accomplishing this may be more difficult than simply providing more money or developing new programs. The bottom 24
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line is that the system doesn't work, said Shirley Malcom, director of education and human resources at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "People often say, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.'Well, it's broke," Malcom said of the U.S. academic system. Patching the system, as has been done in the past, is no longer a viable option, she said. It's time to find a fix for the system. ONE APPROACH is to look carefully at small-scale programs that have successfully placed minorities in advanced-degree studies, from which they can go on to compete for faculty positions. Careful analysis of data from these programs can be used to form the basis for policy decisions, several speakers noted. Sharing what works will also benefit universities, which are continually working to improve diversity at all levels —students through faculty "It's okay to occasionally reinvent the wheel, but we keep reinventing the flat tire," Malcom said. Although each university has a unique culture, knowing what works and doesn't work at other schools, she said, will cut some of the steps a university must take to find a process that works for it. To fix the system, it is important to un-
derstand what is happening in the minority pipeline. Several speakers pointed out that students are being lost in high school because of poor science education in urban schools. Another leak in the pipeline—particularly for women—comes when students confront the time it takes to become a faculty member. It can be a very unattractive career path, said Shirley Tilghman, president of Princeton University According to Tilghman and others, students are being turned off to academic careers by the five to seven years it takes to get a Ph.D. and thefive-to six-year postdoc required before even beginning the tenure process. The path to industry is much faster, pointed out Norbert S. Hill Jr., executive director of the American Indian Graduate Center. He agreed that the time requirement is a big reason that people are walking away from academia. For minorities who do decide to stay in the pipeline, finding a faculty position may be complicated by what is known as the academic pedigree requirement, often a focus of search committees looking for and hiring new candidates. This requirement is a problem for minorities because they typically pursue Ph.D.s from schools that are not even on the radar of top research institutions' search committees, the speakers noted. Thus, qualified minority candidates are overlooked for open positions. Search committees must look at candidates whose pedigree may lie outside the range of universities normally considered and evaluate whether they can succeed in the tenure track with mentoring and nurturing, said Evelyn Hu-Dehart, director of the Center for the Study of Race & Ethnicity in America at Brown University A common problem is that a university hires new minority faculty, then abandons them and they fail, she explained. Several speakers also drew attention to the recent U.S. census that showed the changing demographics of the country The data make it clear that the underrepresented minority is becoming the underrepresented majority With the increased numbers of potential students, it may appear that the problem wouldfixitself, but, as the workshop revealed, the situation is quite complicated and is not going to resolve itself. Finding ways to continue to make strides toward a diverse faculty will require a critical evaluation of the entire educational system. "The diversity issue is 100 miles long and two inches deep," Hill observed. "Change will only come when it's in everyone's best interest."—SUSAN MORRISSEY HTTP://WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
