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To retain and promote a more diverse workforce, institutions need to welcome tacuty newcomers differently.
We must cultivate and value diversity within the faculty, and the fact that we have not done so, despite our frequent expressions of good intentions, means that something is wrong about how we do business.
-The Recruitment and Retention of a Diverse Faculty, Dean's Diversity Subcommittee, University of Arizona, 2002
Good departmental practices can help women and minority faculty thrive and make the greatest possible contribution to the academic enterprise. Several recent books have explored what is wrong with the current way of doing business.1 In this article, I outline steps to bring U.S. minority and European American women faculty-at both the junior and the senior levels-closer to full citizenship on U.S. campuses. In addition, I suggest how to coach senior faculty to recognize and then rise above cognitive mistakes they often make unwittingly. Examples of such errors include elitism that blinds one to quality outside one's own circle, the longing to clone, the stereotypical assumption that only European American men possess professional competence above suspicion, and snap judgments. These mistakes and lapses in critical thinking frequently result in the underrating of women and minority colleagues and, at times, in the overrating of majority men, immigrant, and international faculty. Here are my recommendations.
First, prepare new faculty hires and the department, beginning about three months before the newcomer's arrival. The department chair (aided by other faculty and the department secretary) should inform newcomers in advance about their course assignments, the office hours expected of a department member, anticipated class sizes, and the approximate academic preparation of students. The department should send the newcomer sample syllabi and book lists for review, the e-mail addresses of faculty who have taught the newcomer's courses and who are willing to chat about typical homework assignments and the like, and a description of student advising duties. Any faculty or personnel handbooks should be included. Easing the transition into the professoriate is a critically important process. Invaluable checklists and tips can be found in the 2000 guide The Department Chair's Role in Developing New Faculty into Teachers and Scholars by higher education scholars Estela Mara Bensimon, Kelly Ward, and Karla Sanders.
If any of...