printable versionSmall increases seen in hiring of women and minority faculty
BY RAY DELGADO
Patricia Jones
Despite a strong desire from the university leadership to boost the numbers of minority and women faculty, the numbers are not increasing as quickly as desired, according to Patricia Jones, vice provost for faculty development.
Jones delivered three reports to the Faculty Senate last week on professorial gains, losses and composition; the status of women faculty; and recruitment and retention. Although there was some encouraging news, "the message is that there is more we can be doing," Jones said.
The net annual growth of faculty has averaged about 2 percent over the past several years. But the number of faculty actually decreased by 0.7 percent (from 1,783 to 1,770) last year due to a low number of hires and a slightly higher number of departures, Jones said.
In the past decade, the number of minority faculty members has shown little growth in most groups. While Asian faculty numbers have grown from 122 in 1995 to 206 in 2005, currently representing nearly 12 percent of all faculty, the number of black faculty members has increased from 39 to 46 from 1995 to 2005 and represent less than 3 percent of total faculty. The number of Hispanic faculty members has increased from 35 to 56, accounting for a little more than 3 percent of faculty. The number of American Indian faculty has risen from two to three, representing less than 0.2 percent of faculty.
Over the past academic year, the university hired five black faculty members but lost four; hired 19 Asian faculty but lost 11; and hired two Hispanic faculty but lost six for an overall gain of five minority faculty members (from 308 to 313, representing 17.7 percent of total faculty, up from 17.3 percent). The university hired 55 white faculty last year but lost 75. Jones reported that the experience of having similar numbers of new minority faculty hires and departures is shared by other colleges and universities, according to a recent report from the James W. Irvine Foundation, which has sponsored campus diversity initiatives at private colleges and universities in California, including Stanford.
"The slow progress in increasing numbers of underrepresented minority faculty is obviously not good news," Jones said. "And this is despite efforts by many individuals to recruit candidates and support them while they are here."
Female facultyThe representation of women on the faculty increased from 23 percent to 23.6 percent over the past year, reflecting a net gain of eight women and a net loss of 21 male faculty, according to the Status of Women Faculty report. Slightly more than 29 percent (24 out of 82) of the new faculty hires last year were women. A five-year glance at the overall percentage of women faculty in the individual schools showed modest gains for all schools except the Graduate School of Business and the Medical School's Basic Sciences Division, which both showed slight reductions.
Changes in the representation of women among tenured and untenured tenure-line faculty varied among the schools. While women make up an increased percentage of tenured faculty in most parts of the university, the percentage of untenured tenure-line faculty who are women declined slightly last year. In part, that drop reflects recent reductions in the proportion of women among junior faculty hires in a number of schools and divisions. However, Jones noted encouraging preliminary results suggest that the current year's recruitments may reverse that trend. Additionally, she said, female faculty continue to earn tenure at rates at least as high as male faculty.
Recruitment, retentionOver the past year, the university successfully recruited 82 new faculty members (58 men and 24 women) but did not succeed in recruiting 34 others (21 men, 13 women), according to a report on recruitment and retention. A variety of factors, such as housing costs, better opportunities at other places and spouse/partner career issues, were cited as the main reasons why faculty recruits declined offers to come to Stanford. An additional 23 faculty members (18 men and five women) were not retained. The main factors they cited for leaving Stanford were housing costs and/or availability, salary considerations and aspects of the academic environment.
A number of challenges remain for recruiting and retaining a high quality and diverse faculty, the report noted, including constraints on faculty growth, resources and billets; slow faculty turnover; inadequate "pipelines"; variable efforts of departments and search committees to generate high quality and diverse applicant pools; attractiveness of a department, a school or the university; recruitment and retention packages; timeliness of negotiations; dual-career issues; work/family issues; competition with other institutions; and location (including the high local cost of living and housing).
Many of the comments after the presentations focused on the inadequate pipeline issues that universities across the country struggle with in their attempts to recruit diverse faculty candidates. President John Hennessy said he was "worried to death" about African American faculty numbers, in particular due to pipeline issues, and he issued a plea to colleagues to maintain diligence in recruiting a diverse faculty.
"When there is a talented individual, let's get our act together and let's move," Hennessy said. "Let's not drop the ball and hesitate. Those are individuals who are very sought after. We have to continue to be opportunistic here."
Senators also pointed out that Stanford and other universities have important roles to play in strengthening the pipeline by encouraging their own students to pursue academic careers.