Institutional Transformation Workshop

August 27, 2010

NSF ADVANCE

Alex Tan

WSU Faculty Diversity Fellow

FACULTY DIVERSITY AT

WASHINGTON STATE

UNIVERSITY

An organization wants to hire people to develop a high mileage gasoline engine.

It administers a test to 1,000 applicants that measures gasoline engine design abilities.

HIRING DILEMMA

(adapted from Hong & Page, 2004)

The applicants score from 60% to 90%.

Should the organization hire:

1) the person with the highest score2) 20 people with the next 20 highest

scores3) 20 people randomly selected from

the applicant pool

HIRING DILEMMA continued…

Hong and Page (2004):

• 2) is better than 1)• 3) is better than 2) under certain

conditions

HIRING DILEMMA continued…

WHY? Functional Diversity: “differences in how people encode problems and attempt to solve them.”

Central to WSU mission as a public land grant research institution

I. Institutional Mission

• Inclusiveness of thought, cultures,

II. Diversity Defined

life experiences and perspectives

• Manifested, among other indicators, in a faculty, staff, and student body that represents all of the populations that the university serves including, but not limited to, the diversity in race, ethnicity and gender.

(WSU Strategic Plan to Diversify the Faculty, 2008, 2010; also, Report of the University of California President’s Task Force on Faculty Diversity, 2006.)

III. The Case for Faculty Diversity: American Association for the Advancement of Science with the American Association of American Universities, “Navigating a Complex Landscape to Foster Greater Faculty and Student Diversity in Higher Education”, 2010.

III. The Case for Faculty Diversity continued…

• “Students are better equipped to function and thrive in an increasingly multi-cultural world” (p. 12).

• “Faculty are more productive and creative teachers and researchers when they work with diverse colleagues and students” (p.13).

• “Students learn more and the workforce is more productive in a broadly diverse setting “ (p. 12).

III. The Case for Faculty Diversity continued…

• “Diversity ... seems to lead to the broadest spectrum of questions about any posed problem … would seem a prudent strategy for the development of innovation in thinking of students in addition to enhancing each student’s mastery of existing science (p. 14).

• Racial minority faculty at WSU was 11 %

IV. Faculty Diversity at WSU cont…

in 2007 (Institutional Research), last among peer institutions which are also AAU members

• Among peer institutions which are alsomembers of AAU, average percent racial minority faculty in 2007 was 16.5% (Chronicle of Higher Education, Sept. 28, 2007.)

IV. Faculty Diversity at WSU cont…

race/ethnicity in 2009, compared to 1.07 % in WSU legislative peer institutions (Institutional Research)

• At WSU, U.S. racial minorities wereunderutilized (percent on faculty minus percent national availability) in 53 % of schools and departments. Women were underutilized in 43% of schools and departments. These percentages include fulltime tenured, tenure track, clinical and instructor-rank faculty (Center for Human Rights, now Office for Equal Opportunity, 2007.)

• At WSU, 25% of faculty did not report

V. Best Practices for Diversifying the Faculty (American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association of American Universities, 2010.)

WHAT MIGHT WORK AT WSU?

• Accountability: senior leadership

criteria which could include recruitment outreach and programs for and success at retaining faculty.

and accountability:

1) The provost holds deans accountable for demonstrable efforts at diversifying their

2) Deans hold their department chairs

3) Deans and the provost develop review

accountable.

faculties.

• Search Procedures: effective

liaisons to search committees. Diversity liaisons are tenured faculty; will ensure that searches are fairly conducted and inclusive search practices are followed.

outreach1) Deans establish diversity committees in

their colleges to identify target areas for

2) Department chairs appoint diversity

for outreach; develop recruitmentstrategies; develop retention strategies.

• Search Procedures: effective

plan that includes substantial outreach aimed at traditional candidates as well as those from other groups that are not well represented in the institution.

outreach continued…

3) Search committee chairs, members and diversity liaisons complete search

4) Search committees will develop a search

training as a requirement forcommencement of a search.

• Search Procedures: effective

compliance with the outreach methods in the approved search plan.

outreach continued…

5) The department chair, dean and the provost’s office approve the search plan

6) The search committee documents its

before the search begins.

• Search Procedures: effectiveoutreach continued…

7) Before closing an applicant pool(i.e., those submitting applications), thedepartment chair, dean and the provost’s office certify that the search committee’s outreach efforts have complied with the search plan.

• Search Procedures: effective outreach cont…

8) If all reasonable possible outreach has not been undertaken as identified in theapproved search plan, and/or if it is determined that reasonable targeted outreach should have been undertaken that was not identified in the approved search plan, and the pool of applicants is not broadly diverse, including persons from underrepresented groups then the department chair, dean and provost can require additional targeted outreach to broaden the applicant pool before the applicant pool is closed and the potential candidate pool is finalized and interviews commence.

• Search Procedures: effectiveoutreach continued…

9) The Provost’s Office, the Office of Equal Opportunity, Human ResourceServices and Institutional Research will provide assistance as needed to department chairs, deans, search committees and diversity committees.