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A Plan for Increasing Diversity within the Faculty
University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
March 18, 1998
Note: The University is currently preparing a more comprehensive diversity plan that defines UNL's commitment to diversity within the context of its strategic agenda, its non-discrimination statement, and the Board of Regents Goals for gender and racial/ethnic equity. The broader plan will cover the recruitment and retention of faculty, staff and students, the enriching of our curricular offerings, and the building of a campus culture that will sustain and nurture diversity. The broader plan, which will eventually will incorporate this document, is currently being developed by Evelyn Jacobson, Linda Crump, and Bruce Currin and will be presented to the Chancellor in Spring, 1998.
This plan presents the University's diversity goals with respect to faculty and outlines the means by which we hope to reach them. It calls for everyone on campus to make good-faith efforts to assist in achieving these goals.
The University commits itself to enhancing our diversity because it is our legal obligation to do so, because it is the right thing for a modern landgrant university to do in serving an increasingly heterogeneous society, because it keeps faith with the open-access dreams of those who founded the University of Nebraska, because it contributes to the redress of historical inequities that continue to plague our nation, because it offers a method of strengthening the academic quality of the University, and because we believe it to be crucial to our ability to educate properly our students for the twenty-first century.
The campus's diversity goals were outlined by Chancellor Moeser as follows:
"Increase cultural, ethnic, racial, geographical, and gender diversity within the student body, faculty, and staff through continued attention to recruitment, hiring and retention. Foster discussion of diversity inside and outside the classroom. Provide programs which enhance experiential learning about other cultures and people." [Strategic Agenda, UNL, October 9, 1996]
Recruitment
The first element of this plan is increasing the racial/ethnic and gender diversity of our faculty through changes in and an intensification of our recruitment efforts.
Goal 1: We should increase the cultural, ethnic, racial, geographical, and gender diversity within the faculty through continued attention to recruitment and hiring.
The primary way we intend to work towards this goal is by enhancing our diversity recruiting within ordinary faculty search processes. We will continue to require that search committees themselves be diverse, that search committee members be trained in equal opportunity and affirmative action procedures, and that vacancies be advertised in a wide enough range of publications so as to reach a varied pool of potential applicants. In addition, however, we will take various other steps to ensure that the positions being advertised reflect the importance that the University places on increasing the faculty's diversity. These steps include (among others, and where appropriate) defining the fields of specialization sufficiently broadly so as not to preclude the possibility of obtaining diverse pools of applicants; incorporating into the formal requirements for the position such elements as a demonstrated record of success in teaching a diverse student body and a demonstrated record of success in incorporating, where appropriate, diversity issues within the curriculum; networking by search committee members and others to encourage a varied pool of completed applications, including in particular those of minority and female applicants; and aggressively developing salary and start-up packages that reflect competitive offers.
In exceptional and infrequent circumstances the University may also make "opportunity hires" hires made without benefit of a formal search process to take advantage of an exceptional and usually serendipitous opportunity whereby an individual capable of making a unique and exceptional contribution to the University could be hired and doing a search would serve no useful purpose.
We expect that the new recruitment initiatives to reach and attract an expanded pool of highly qualified applicants will result in an overall increase in the representation of tenured and tenure-track minority and female faculty at UNL. The following sub-goals provide targets or place-markers that we can use to measure our progress and assess the effects of intensifying our recruiting efforts:
1A. We believe that enhancing our search efforts, if vigorously pursued over the next five years (1997 - 2002), should result in an increase in minority employment such that the percent of minority faculty will exceed the midpoint of UNL's peer institutions by the end of the period. In particular, we intend to focus our outreach and recruiting efforts on what in affirmative action language are termed "underutilized groups"; these groups include African American, Native American, and Latina/o faculty members and in some disciplines Asian Americans. A realistic and achievable expectation for our efforts is that UNL, at present rates of hiring and retention, will be able to add a net of at least five new tenured and tenure-track minority faculty members each year over the next five years from the available pools of quality candidates. We intend to:
Increase the representation of minority faculty at the Assistant Professor level by intensifying search efforts, being responsive to market conditions, and offering competitive salaries and research support.
Increase the representation of minority faculty in the middle and senior ranks by intensifying search efforts, being responsive to more competitive market conditions, aggressively promoting qualified current faculty, and selective opportunity hires.
IB. We believe that enhancing our search efforts, if vigorously pursued over the next five years (1997 - 2002), should result in an increase in the employment of women (also an "underutilized group"), such that the percent of female faculty will exceed the midpoint of UNL's peer institutions by the end of the period. A realistic and achievable expectation for our efforts is that UNL, at present rates of hiring and retention and given special efforts to hire women faculty in academic programs in which they are underutilized in relation to national pool availability, is for at least 45 percent of all new hires in tenured and tenure-track positions to be women. We intend to:
Increase the representation of women faculty at the Assistant Professor level through new hires in order to retain a sufficient cohort for tenure and promotion advancement.
Increase the representation of women faculty in the middle and senior ranks through intensifying search efforts, being responsive to more competitive market conditions, aggressively promoting qualified current faculty, and selective opportunity hires.
1C. To contribute to increasing the flow of future female faculty and faculty of color, we propose to:
Increase the overall representation of minority students in graduate and professional programs of study and increase the overall representation of minority students in undergraduate programs of study through aggressive recruiting.
Increase the representation of women in under-represented undergraduate, graduate and professional programs of study through targeted recruiting.
1D. To insure institutional accountability for faculty diversity, we will implement evaluation and assessment procedures for key administrators to be administered by the Office of Academic Affairs.
Retention
The University is as committed to retaining and sustaining a diverse faculty as we are to enhancing our diversity recruiting. Indeed, our first allegiance should be to ensuring that the existing faculty, including faculty of color and female faculty, are given a full opportunity and encouragement to be successful. After all, the campus can only realize diversity's benefits if we have a stable and continuing diversity presence within the faculty the continuity that makes possible developing diversity initiatives to enrich the curriculum, creating trust with minority and female students, permitting all students to build enduring learning relationships with diverse faculty mentors, building a pluralistic culture on campus, and building long-term relationships with minority and other communities. Moreover, the University is committed to retention, because in taking special actions to recruit a diverse faculty, the University assumes the obligation to create a climate in which those recruited, as is true for all faculty, have the opportunity to excel and contribute. Finally, simply from a practical aspect, recruitment to increase diversity can only be successful if retention maintains the base.
Goal 2: We should increase the retention rates of minority faculty members and of female faculty members so that there is no disparity among any of the major demographic groups on campus.
What variables increase the retention of minority and female faculty? Undoubtedly many factors, some institutional, some relating to the surrounding community, others personal and idiosyncratic affect retention. One of the most important elements must be having the University be deeply committed, not simply in rhetoric but in deeds, to building and sustaining diversity on campus; commitment to diversity builds the framework for success in retaining a diverse faculty. Similarly, other measures support for diversity enrichments in the curriculum, honest review of our policies to ensure that they support of diversity, enhancement of diversity within the campus culture, and outreach to the minority and other communities create the kind of environment that may give hope to faculty members seeking reasons to remain on our faculty.
Beyond these general factors, however, the University must stand ready to make specific and individual commitments to faculty of color and female faculty ( as it does for all faculty members) to retain them. These commitments may take the form of moving quickly to meet salary competition from other universities, aggressively pursuing timely promotion, providing targeted support for research or teaching, or in other ways meeting the particular needs of these faculty members. In every case, the purpose of such actions should be to create a clear link between that individual's own professional aspirations and potential and their place at the University, so that the individual can easily see how continuing at the University is in his or her own best interest.
Fostering Understanding of Diversity
It is the policy of UNL not to discriminate in hiring based on gender, age, disability, race, color, religion, marital status, veteran's status, national or ethnic origin, or sexual orientation. The University therefore has the concomitant responsibility to insure that our campus provides an environment in which people from all groups feel welcomed, supported, and valued as full members of our campus community. We want to create the opportunity for every person on our campus to achieve excellence in the course of study or profession he or she has chosen.
Goal 3:We should foster discussion of and understanding for our obligations to support the educational and employment aspirations and needs of all individuals on our campus and appreciation for the benefits of diversity for enhancing the educational quality of the university and enriching the lives of our students, our faculty, and our staff.
We hope and expect that many groups on campus student government and student clubs and activities, staff associations, academic programs, campus/community partnerships, various levels of academic leaders and administrators, and others will work positively to help us realize this goal. However, the faculty have a particularly crucial role to play, since they lead the intellectual activities of what is most fundamentally a learning community, and so the faculty's attitude and activities in this regard are likely to shape the tone of campus life. (As noted in the next section, the faculty also play the key role in determining our curriculum.)
This plan therefore sees support of the faculty in their unique role as a key element in achieving the campus's diversity goals. The following sub-goals define areas of activity aimed at creating a supportive learning and working environment:
3A. Support faculty who take the lead in sponsoring departmental, collegiate, or university-wide forums that foster discussion, understanding and an appreciation for diversity, thereby achieving a more inclusive culture.
3B. Sponsor administrative workshops/discussions on recruitment/retention diversity strategies.
3C. Sponsor targeted forums, conferences and workshops to address issues such as the chilly climate and isolation that have been experienced by minorities and women.
3D. Annually review and report assessment data on diversity requirements of the Comprehensive Education Program.
3E. Provide support to facilitate community workshops and conferences to help Nebraskans better understand multicultural issues.
3F. Work with the Lincoln community to build a stronger support system for ethnic minorities and women among UNL faculty and staff.
Building Diversity into our Curriculum
Our curriculum is the most explicit and meaningful statement of what our faculty believes well-educated people should learn. In some cases in the Comprehensive Educational Program and in requirements for majors the faculty has determined that certain knowledge is so central to a good education that it is not just offered but required of our students. If we as a campus believe that knowledge about diversity is a key element in preparing students for life in the diverse society of the twenty-first century, then it should follow that helping students achieve an understanding of diversity should be represented in our curriculum.
The content of the curriculum is uniquely the responsibility of the faculty, and great deference is given to individual faculty members to shape the curricula of their own courses. The appropriate role for a diversity plan, then, is to support those faculty members who seek to incorporate a greater emphasis on diversity within their courses.
Goal 4: We should provide support to individual faculty members and to departmental and collegiate faculties who want to revise the curricula of either for-credit courses or other offerings to enhance learning about diverse cultures and peoples.
To accomplish this goal, we establish the following sub-goals:
4A. Provide small grants for faculty members who wish to develop new curricular emphases on diversity, cultural studies, and multi-culturalism.
4B. Enhance support for the "Artists Diversity Residency Program," extending the program university-wide.
4C. Provide co-curricular as well as curricular diversity opportunities for faculty, staff and students.
We believe that if the measures proposed in this plan are carried out in good faith, with good intentions and common sense, the consequences for the campus will be very positive. We will build the academic quality of our institution by extending further our searches for those individuals who can contribute most to its academic enterprise. We will more effectively sustain and encourage the dreams and accomplishments of all members of the campus community, both majority and minority, male and female. We will provide our students with an education more appropriately attuned to the increasingly diverse society they will confront when they leave the campus. And by serving better our diverse state populations, we will reaffirm and extend the historic landgrant mission with which we have been solemnly charged.
Appendix: Implementation Initiatives
Goal 1: Extending and Intensifying Faculty Searches and Recruitment
The 1997-1999 reallocation process provided funding to assist with extending and intensifying search efforts to enable the University to meet the diversity goals established by federal law and the Nebraska unicameral. A total of $708,000 of permanent funds has been redirected for diversity initiatives. Of this, $530,000 was redirected to the Office of Academic Affairs for the specific purpose of recruiting and retaining a more diverse faculty and graduate student population. Administered by the Office of Academic Affairs, these funds will be transferred annually to the colleges for recruitment initiatives.
|
1997-98 |
1998-99 |
Biennium Total |
| Faculty |
$100,000 |
$300,000 |
$400,000 |
| Graduate Students |
$40,000 |
$90,000 |
$130,000 |
| Total |
$140,000 |
$390,000 |
$530,000 |
These funds will be used in a variety of ways to assist in diversity recruiting consistent with the principles outlined above. Most commonly, they will be temporarily transferred to colleges on a year-to-year basis to provide bridge funds where needed to create an attractive recruitment package that is competitive in the marketplace. These funds will be used to leverage existing department and college budgets where searches have been authorized and/or an opportunity hire presents itself. Thus, it is expected that college and department budgets will share in the budgetary commitments with the Office of Academic Affairs.
Because circumstances will vary in each case, the following conditions will generally guide decisions for the use of these funds:
It is expected that colleges and departments will make increasing diversity a goal of their units (2A - C). The funds available from the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs are intended to assist colleges and departments in making this happen. The funds are bridging money only, not permanent funding.
It is expected that college funds will be used in the normal faculty search process and will be the base for hiring. When college funds are insufficient, deans are expected to develop a short proposal describing what residual bridge funds are needed from the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs to hire a faculty member. Ordinarily it is expected that bridge funding will not exceed two years nor be for an amount greater than 50 percent annually of what is required in the package. In addition to starting salary, examples of negotiated employment conditions for which bridge funding can be sought include but are not limited to:
Summer research funding
Assistance with moving expenses
Assistance with start-up costs
Graduate Research Assistant
Operating expenses for aggressive searches (special workshops, conferences, additional recruitment visits, etc.)
Other employment categories (e.g., Special Appointments) and opportunities (e.g. Post Doc leading to opportunity for regular appointment) will also be considered. The primary objective, however, is to use these funds in connection with longer term, more permanent employment.
On occasion, the funds may be used to provide one-time temporary funds to department and college operating budgets for reimbursement in completing searches that enhance campus diversity.
A wide variety of other programmatic efforts are aimed at integrating cultural, academic and community support for minorities and women. Reallocated funds in support of programmatic enhancements for diversity include: $10,000 to support institutional exchange programs with Grambling University and Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi; $50,260 to Graduate Studies to permanently fund the successful Multicultural Teaching Fellowship Program and fund a recruitment, retention and student services position; $15,500 to the Teaching and Learning Center to fund a .5 FTE position for the International Training Institute; $10,000 to Teachers College for EMAC activities; and, $60,000 to the College of Engineering and Technology for the MESA Summer Camp program and a student counselor position.
Other ongoing programs in support of diversity that will continue to be supported include but are not limited to: Summer Institute for Promising Scholars; Minorities in Engineering and Science Achievement; PEN & INC; Summer Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program; Comprehensive Education Program; Alumni Program for Minorities; Institutional Exchange Program (Grambling and Texas A&M, Corpus Christi); Minority Law Day; Faculty in Support of Cultural Diversity; Peer Minority Mentoring Program; First Step Mentoring; Minority Assistance Program; Educational Talent Search; and the Ronald McNair Program.
Footnotes:
Diversity within the staff and student body will be addressed by the broader diversity plan mentioned above.
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Individuals of all demographic categories are eligible for opportunity hires.
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If you have comments about or suggestions for this document, please send your feedback to Evelyn Jacobson.
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