Bernell DorroughWashington University just completed its annual Celebrations Weekend, a time when the admissions office flies accepted minority students in at no expense in an effort to increase minority enrollment. Unfortunately, WU’s commitment to diversity in its student body is not reflected by a similar commitment to diversity among its faculty.
At WU it is entirely too easy to spend four years here and not have a single class taught by a woman or minority faculty member. The economics department, for example, has no female professors. There are, however, several female graduate students in our own economics Ph.D. program, and females are strongly represented in Ph.D. programs across the nation. Schools are turning out female economics Ph.D.s, but WU is not hiring them.
Additionally, the political science department has 27 faculty members, only one of whom is black. Again, it seems highly unlikely that this reflects the proportion of black political science Ph.D. candidates, or even the proportion of those qualified enough to gain appointments at schools like WU.
In fact, it seems as if one must go to the African and Afro-American studies (AFAS) department if they want to find a program where minority representation is strong. While it is a step in the right direction for WU to follow up on its commitment to diversity by adding this program of study, it is sad that this is one of the few departments where minority faculty are not underrepresented.
In fact, to call AFAS a department is a misnomer, since it is technically a program, making it ineligible to receive the kind of financial or administrative support that departments receive. If you look at the list of faculty in the AFAS program, you will notice that most have dual appointments with another department in the university. This is because AFAS, unlike an authentic department, cannot offer its own tenure track positions to prospective faculty members. Individuals seeking a tenure track position must seek a dual appointment with another university department, or they must (and often do) go elsewhere.
This problem is not just limited to AFAS. The Women’s and Gender Studies department is another one of those ‘departments’ that’s really a ‘program.’ This program has been in existence since 1972, and WU was one of the first universities in the country to express its commitment to genders studies by adopting such a program. In its over thirty years of existence, however, it has not achieved the same kind of departmental support and recognition that it deserves.
Like the AFAS program, faculty seeking tenure track positions must obtain a joint appointment with another department. And unfortunately, one of the most common dual appointment departments, the department of history, has a very poor track record of offering tenure to female professors, despite the claims of history chair Derek Hirst (see his 3/14/03 letter to the editor). Even he acknowledges the need for more tenured women among WU’s faculty.
In fact, this may be part of WU’s problem. Once the ball has stopped rolling, it’s hard to get it started again. Women and minority membership among the faculty is low. As a result, the best and the brightest women and minority Ph.D.s go elsewhere to pursue their studies. This is why, for example, certain very large research groups in the chemistry department are composed almost entirely of male researchers. Why would recent Ph.D. recipients and aspiring professors choose a school with such low faculty diversity and a lack of an explicit commitment to improve the situation?
To recognize programs such as women’s studies and AFAS as full departments is a good first step. However, it is absolutely imperative that WU strengthen its diversity across all areas of the university. How can we expect minority interests to be represented in the curriculum as a whole, when minorities are so conspicuously absent from the faculty? It is not just that we need access to a quality department specializing in gender or minority studies; we need to ensure that their perspectives are incorporated into all areas of learning at this university. After all, that’s what diversity is about: not having to search for diverse viewpoints, but having them presented in a way such that most people are readily exposed to them.