The University of Pennsylvania president, Amy Gutmann, has stated her commitment to diversity in the administration at UPenn. When the university hired a white male to become the dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, many faculty perceived this hire as an opposition to Gutmann's stated mission. This group of faculty are also frustrated because they do not know why the university chose this candidate over others. One faculty member at the university makes the point that there certainly are people of color who are qualified for the dean position so the argument that it is a challenge to find qualified people of different backgrounds is moot. This reminds me of when head football coach, Tim Beckman, was hired at Illinois and there was controversy over his hire because Illinois has yet to have a head football coach who is a person of color. The Daily Illini followed this story. Two trustees in particular cited the disconnect between the university's diversity initiative and their actions and follow through with those initiatives. Although we as a class have not touched on faculty diversity yet (it appears we will later on in the semester) I encourage you to think about diversity in educational leadership positions, not just from the stance of race, but also ability, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc. What effect could lack of diversity in faculty and leadership have on students? Should universities focus on diversifying the student body more than focusing on diversifying the leadership? Or vice versa? In relation to our last class discussion, do you think this issue of diversity in faculty and administration has any link to persistence and access?
Inside Higher Ed article: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/01/31/minority-faculty-university-pennsylvania-question-presidents-commitment-diversity
Brief Daily Illini article (there are many stories written on the issue): http://www.dailyillini.com/sports/article_6ac6016e-8f95-504f-a41e-cabd60084e58.html
I'm not sure what the process is in hiring for coach positions at universities, but I have served on a committee for hiring a Student Affairs professional here at the University of Illinois. The process is long, tedious and completely unbiased. Once we selected the person for the position, we had to present the findings and the whole search in front of a committee who would deem if our process was fair and unbiased.
ReplyDeleteI do feel that there is a need for a diversified staff at universities, however in some cases there might not be underrepresented people who apply for the positions, which can make hiring tricky. Particularly in the case I was explaining, we would have had to repeat the process if our applicant pool was not diversified enough.