Almost four years ago, Penn promised to add more minorities to its faculty. But the results have been abysmal, and the Universit

Perspective: Searching for Diversity As a top-ranked Ivy League university, Penn prides itself on offering an enormous range of classes, an eclectic mixture of activities and a unique learning experience. Yet despite its multi-faceted appeal, one area in which Penn struggles is ensuring that there is diversity among its professors. Penn, like its peer institutions, has been trying for years to recruit minority faculty and retain those that it has. But it faces many challenges, including stiff competition among other universities for highly qualified candidates. In 1996, University President Judith Rodin unveiled a plan allocating $5 million to increase the number of minority students and professors at Penn. But today, as nearly four years of the five-year Minority Permanence Plan have elapsed, the plan's efficacy seems debatable. While significant funding has been provided to schools and departments for minority appointments, the actual increases in African-American and Latino faculty are limited. In 1996, Penn had 25 African-American and Latino professors out of 762 total undergraduate faculty members. And today, the number has increased by a total of five professors. Janiece Primus, a Wharton senior who is African American, said, "I've only had one minority professor in all my time here. I don't think I've ever had a Latino professor." "Education is supposed to be a reflection of a wider world," she continued. "If you look around, America is not a society of older white males." United Minorities Council Chairman Jerome Byam agreed that the lack of minority professors at Penn has had a negative impact on his Penn career. "I can say that it would definitely have been a more positive experience if I had been exposed to more minorities here," the College junior said. · When it debuted in 1996, the plan was designed to promote minority awareness and increase minority presence across the University. Provisions of the plan included funding to supplement different schools and departments to assist them in making minority appointments. The money was also used towards minority programs, student recruitment and graduate fellowships. "Substantial central funds have gone to support the DuBois Collective, La Casa Latina, minority student recruitment, graduate student fellowships and a variety of faculty and student projects sponsored by the Provost's Diversity Fund," said Jennifer Baldino, a top aide to Rodin. Since 1996, the University has sought $20 million through fundraising in addition to the $5 million fund to create a permanent endowment specifically for minority permanence. Baldino said the $20 million goal had not yet been achieved, "but we are actively pursuing potential contributors." Individual departments can apply through school deans for funding for minority appointments and are also expected to match every dollar received from the University with department finances. Sociology Department Chairman Douglas Massey said the $5 million minority permanence fund has made it a little less difficult to go about recruiting minority faculty. "It made it easier for the dean to give us a line for recruiting knowing that the provost of the University was willing to underwrite the cost for some of that," he said. And English Department Chairman John Richetti agreed, saying that "it has always been easy to get funds to hire minority candidates. We've done a good job over the year, and the deans are definitely eager to help us do that." But the permanence plan clearly has not helped much to actually increase the number of minority faculty members. Since 1996, the total number of African-American faculty in the undergraduate schools has changed from 19 to 20. And the number of Latino professors has gone from 13 to 17. Some schools, like Engingeering, have not utilized the minority permanence fund at all yet. But Engineering Dean Eduardo Glandt said, "we are cognizant of the fund" and that the school would use it if it had "retention battles to fight." · While acknowledging the progress Penn has made in increasing minority permanence, English Professor Herman Beavers, the director of African American Studies and chairman of the Affirmative Action Council, said that universities like Penn could look harder for minority candidates than they are looking now. "The argument that there are not enough minorities in the pipeline is ridiculous. There are a lot of minority faculty in institutions that are not peer institutions who would do excellent work if they came to Penn," he said. "We don't even consider them." And History Professor Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, who is Latino, said she thought there wasn't a "substantial interest across departments in recruiting and retaining Latino faculty." "My impression is that there has not been any effective change," she said. "I think there should be a discussion across campus that this should be a priority." College senior Leslie Heredia, president of La Asociacion Cultural de Estudiantes Latino Americanos, said she felt there was a lack of Latino professors at Penn and also of professors of color in general. She said having minority professors is particularly important for minority students because it "gives you something to aspire to be." "It's more than just teaching the material," she said. "They are role models and mentors. You can't duplicate that." Yet Beavers conceded that Penn does try to make strong recruitment efforts. "I think we actually do pretty well. We have at least two faculty of color coming this fall from Rutgers and Johns Hopkins," he said, referring to two new Ph.Ds recently hired by the English department for Afro-Caribbean and Afro-American Studies. And Massey said he is looking to bring a Latino professor to his department. He added that his department put a strong emphasis on minority recruitment. "My faculty feels that you can't be a world-ranked department of sociology unless you reflect the diversity of the society you seek to study," he said. Rodin also expressed her vested interest in having minority faculty. "It is crucial to have minority faculty not only as role models for our minority students, but because the value of diversity in education is so significant and minority faculty are extremely important for our non-minority students as well," Rodin said. · Although the actual numbers show scant increases, administrators are quick to point out that minority recruitment is a constant challenge. Many say one major obstacle in recruiting is that there is a small pool of candidates who are sought after by many institutions. Rodin expressed her commitment to the plan while noting, "It continues to be a significant challenge as the pool is thin and our peer institutions are equally committed to recruiting minority faculty." Penn falls roughly in the middle of its peer institutions in terms of minority faculty. Harvard University has 10 African-American and 13 Latino professors out of a total 613 undergraduate faculty members. And Columbia University has higher numbers with 17 African-American and 21 Latino professors from 632 undergraduate faculty members. Harvard Assistant Dean for Academic Advising Elizabeth Doherty said that while the school does not have a minority permanence plan in place like Penn, it does offer funding to departments for minority hires. "In cases where the department lacks the resources to do [recruiting], there is funding available at the president's office," she said. With top-ranked universities all battling for the same scholars, Penn can't always snag the professors it wants. And it sometimes loses the professors it has. Bernard Lentz, director of Institutional Research and Analysis, noted that minority faculty are in high demand. "A person gets an offer from another university, and we try to go out and counter that offer," he said. But he added that "people who are highly sought after -- they are the stars who can move and go as they want to." Beavers cited Houston Baker, a former Penn English professor, as an example of a prestigious African-American scholar who left the University. Baker accepted an offer at Duke University because his wife was also offered a position there. Yet Richetti said that Penn was not to blame for Baker's leaving. "I don't think he left because of any lack of resources," he said. "He had been here 25 years. It was time for a change." Beavers said he himself had also received an attractive offer by another university, but decided against it. "The University responded quickly to my offer," he said, "and they showed clearly that they wanted me to stay."

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