Progress slow in attracting diverse profs

The University has made little progress in its goal of attracting a more diverse faculty in the last year, but has also avoided a backward slide, statistics released this week by the provost's office show. The survey, detailing composition of both the tenured and standing faculty as of October 31, includes breakdowns of the male and female composition of each of the University's schools. The survey further classifies faculty into white, black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American ethnic categories. This information was not completely available in the past. Deputy Provost Richard Clelland, responsible for compiling the statistics, said yesterday the statistics relate a "tale of slow progress" in the University's attempts to recruit professors from a wider variety of backgrounds. "It's progress in the right direction, but much slower than we'd like to see," Clelland said. Compared against past years, the statistics indicate that women posted small gains in terms of faculty composition while black faculty remained frozen in number. Data for Hispanic, Asian and Native American faculty members were released for the first time this year so it cannot be compared to previous years. "People are interested in these figures and there's no reason people shouldn't know about these things," Clelland said. The statistics indicate the University added 19 members to its standing faculty, reaching a total of 1,924, but the number of tenured faculty shrunk by nine members to 1,035. Of the 19 members added to the standing faculty, nearly three-fourths were women. Among tenured faculty, the nine-person loss actually includes a gain of two positions for women, countered by a decrease of eleven positions for men. Comparisons against past data indicate the University is currently stalled in increasing the ranks of black faculty, whose count remained steady at 50 standing members for this year. According to Clelland, the University recruited several new black faculty in the past year, but lost an equal number through retirement and attrition. Students and faculty contacted last night said they had not yet seen the data, but said they were interested in the apparent trends. Clelland said the statistics are used by a wide range of administrators, including the affirmative action office, the provost's office, school deans, department chairs, faculty members and students. Wharton junior Ileana Garcia, the vice president of La Asociacion Cultural de Estudiantes Latinos Americanos, said last night that although she had not seen the newly-released data on Hispanic faculty, she planned to "check it out." She said students have pressured the administration to step up Hispanic recruiting efforts but have seen little progress. "I know in the past students have made a great effort," Garcia said. "But it's always a struggle." Garcia, who transferred from the College to Wharton, said she was disturbed by a lack of Hispanic faculty in the business school after having contact with Hispanic faculty in the College as a freshman. "You feel kind of ostracized in a way," she said. The new data show that there are 26 Hispanic, one Native American, and 93 Asian standing faculty members at the University, although the groups are unevenly distributed between schools. For example, there are Asian faculty in the School of Arts and Sciences and the Engineering, Dental, Medicine, Social Work and Veterinary Schools, but there are none in Annenberg, the Graduate School of Education, the Graduate School of Fine Arts, the Law School, the Nursing School or Wharton. "We're short of Asians in the humanities and Arts and Sciences," Clelland said. "But that, I think, reflects the pool." Clelland said an additional report comparing statistics on faculty distribution between departments to available ethnic recruiting pools, compiled with the help of the Office of Affirmative Action, would be released in the next month.

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