Faculty Diversity Report Released

The number of female faculty members has increased by 16 percent since 2003 and the number of minorities has increased by 23 percent over the same time, according to the 2009 Faculty Development and Diversity Annual Report.

The report—which was released last week—showed that women now hold 26 percent of the 2009-2010 ladder faculty positions at the University, which include professor, associate professor, and assistant professor.

But while the percentage of women in senior faculty positions (professor) has remained a constant 21 percent from the 2008 report to 2009, the percentage of women who are junior faculty (assistant professor, associate professor) has actually decreased from 37 percent to 36 percent.

Judith D. Singer, Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity, who oversaw the report, said that the pipeline issues for women tend to be less problematic than the pipeline issues for minorities.

“I think there’s an increased consciousness that there are many excellent women on our junior faculty and elsewhere that we’d want to have as colleagues,” Singer said. “Increasing attention to issues for women and women faculty, this is a good news part of the story.”

The report suggests that minorities currently represent 17 percent of the faculty—a small increase from last year’s 16 percent.

“We’re trying to get more minority faculty into every level of the University in all fields,” Singer said. “The numbers of minority Ph.Ds who want to go into academia are simply too low, especially when it comes to blacks, Latinos, and Native American faculty. We’re making a conscious effort like our peers to increase the pipeline, even at the undergraduate level.”

In terms of Asian/Pacific Islanders, the report shows a 23 percent increase over the past six years.

The combined percentage of African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans has remained at approximately five percent over the same period.

According to the report, the total number of senior faculty members has risen by twelve percent during the past six years, but the percentage of junior faculty members has decreased by two percent.

Singer said that the University has placed emphasis on nurturing the junior faculty, hiring people who are initially qualified, and supporting them when they are here.

“We are hiring, we are continuing to recruit,” Singer said. “We will work very hard to aggressively retain our faculty.”