Faculty to monitor affirmative action

Faculty members expressed their support for the University's affirmative action policy yesterday, passing a resolution calling for a committee to monitor the affirmative action progress of each department. Faculty members voted to charge the Committee on the Faculty with "the annual monitoring of the progress made toward an increased presence of women and minorities on the faculties of the various Schools." The resolution, approved by the Faculty Senate, consisted of four separate motions and was proposed as an alternative to the resolution suggested by the Senate Committee on the Faculty last month. It passed by an outstanding majority. The resolution establishes a new way to check the hiring practices of departments deemed "delinquent" with respect to affirmative action, as determined by a study conducted by the Office of Planning and Institutional Research. The study reported that in 13 SAS departments, 104 male and seven female faculty members were hired between 1982 and 1988, and that 3 Wharton departments hired 47 males and one female faculty member during the same time period. Faculty Senate Chairperson Robert Davies said that yesterday was the first time the faculty has made an official statement about the affirmative action policy. The approved resolution also recommends that the administration conduct confidential exit interviews of women and minority professors who are leaving the University in order to determine if the faculty feel they were treated unfairly in their departments. Senate members decided to vote on the alternate resolution after several members criticized a point in the Committee's plan which suggested that the Provost appoint an outside committee to investigate a department's claim that "the [hiring] pool is not adequate in the subfield in which they wish to appoint faculty." Many faculty members said that they do not support the point, but that without it the Committee's proposal is weak and does not change the current policy in any way. Women's Studies Program Research Director Janice Madden said that she proposed voting on the alternate resolution because while drastic measures need to be taken, the Committee's suggestion may have led to negative responses from departments which were being investigated. She said that she would "feel happier if the strong faculty vote at the meeting carries on into those departments which have problems." The alternate resolution was proposed by a separate group of faculty members. Committee on the Faculty Chairperson Morris Mendelson -- who also signed the approved proposal -- said last week that the two resolutions were alike in principle. "I'm a little disappointed that our [resolution] did not go through," Mendelson said yesterday "But at least we made progress . . . and we're not finished yet." In addition to monitoring hiring procedures and conducting exit interviews, the resolution also says that the Faculty Senate supports the University's affirmative action policy and urges the provost to hold schools responsible for upholding the policy. Physics Professor Michael Cohen said last night that he did not support the proposal's focus on "current deficiencies" in departments' hiring practices because the word "deficiencies" is being defined numerically. Cohen said this method is "somewhat defective" because it does not take into account availability of applicants and departments' success at attracting and retaining women and minority faculty. But Cohen conceded that the majority of the plan would benefit the University and said that he would have voted in favor of the other three points.

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