Why Don't More Minorities Teach Here? Med Students and Faculty Discuss Why

At least one side of the Medical School's affirmative action coin is shining. Its 20-per-cent minority student enrollment ranks well in comparison to other highly rated American medical schools. Minority faculty representation at the Med School, however, is another story altogether.

According to Dr. Alvin Poussaint, associate dean for student affairs at the Med School, minorities comprise less than 3 per cent of the medical faculties in the United States, and Harvard's record is not much better than the national average. The scarcity can not easily be attributed to any single outstanding problem and seems instead to be the result of a number of contributing factors.

One of the biggest factors that tends to keep minorities away from academic careers seems to be a prevailing opinion that minorities should steer toward primary (treatment-oriented) medicine. Traditionally, minority students have felt pressured to return to their communities and help their people, Poussaint said, adding that medical faculties have therefore not generally considered them prospective future faculty.

Poussaint also said the economic lure of private practice often discourages minorities from seeking faculty positions. "Minority students usually incur large debts through the course of their education--it is a lot easier to pay these off through a practice."

At a day-long conference last month devoted to exploring the problem, minority students and faculty discussed methods for increasing minority faculty representation.

Jacqueline Gordon, assistant to the dean for recruitment and retention, said the conference was the first in a series of steps aimed at exposing minority students to the possibilities of academic careers and "increasing the level of consciousness" of administrators involved in hiring about the need to employ more minorities. She offered as an example the Beth Israel Hospital, one of the Med School's largest teaching hospitals, which she said has hired only five minorities to faculty positions since 1970.

Some faculty members at the conference indicated that the problem is simply getting more minorities interested in faculty positions. "The positions are there," Harold Amos, professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, said, adding that there aren't enough qualified minorities to fill available positions.

The student representatives at the conference, however, said the problem is considerably more complex. Michelle Holmes, a fourth year student, said a minority student must overcome some stiff pressures in order to pursue an academic career. Holmes said minorities have "different values" from other students which press them to return to their communities. In addition to economic pressures, Holmes said, minorities are not always made to feel welcome in an academic environment. "A minority student seeking a faculty career must make a lifetime commitment to be in a place he or she is not wanted. There is an undercurrent of suspicion that minorities are only here because of affirmative action." Holmes said that because of the suspicion, minority members are often not included in what she called the "informal tracking" for faculty positions which takes place while medical students are still in school.

Lydia Rios and Walter Clair '77, both fourth-year students, said a lack of role models on the faculty is another important reason students might be deterred from seeking faculty careers. "Role models rub off on you. A minority student sees the things a white role model is doing and says, "I want to teach,' but, as a minority, he may be discouraged from this," Clair says. He adds, however, that despite the obstacles a minority student faces in deciding to pursue an academic career, the problem does not lie only in getting students to do this. Clair does not agree with the concept that faculty positions are 'there for the asking' for qualified minorities. "Positions are there, but they are there for everyone--not uniquely for minorities. It's not like there are a certain number of spaces reserved on the faculties for minorities."

People at the Medical School are wary of reverse discrimination, Clair says, adding that some feel that actively recruiting minorities for faculty positions will result in a drop in standards. But this is not the case, Clair, who served as a student member of the Med School admissions committee during his second year, says. "Because of the intense competition for faculty positions, large numbers of highly qualified people get overlooked, and because minorities make up such a small percentage of those seeking positions, their chance of being overlooked is great. Active recruitment is simply a way of making qualified minorities stand out--there is no loss in quality."

One's success in attaining a faculty position depends in part on ties he makes with faculty members while still a student, Clair said, adding that minority students often find it difficult to create these ties. "Faculty members find people they feel comfortable with, and often they feel more comfortable with majority students. There are also the socio-economic factors--people are often more comfortable with those from their own backgrounds."

Dr. Joseph Henry, professor of Oral Surgery, stressed the need for affirmative action in hiring for faculty positions, adding that "there are precious few opportunities at the fellowship level. "The Med School comes up with 20 percent minority student enrollment--we need to have the same kind of commitment at the faculty level," Henry said.

Henry said the importance of bringing minorities into faculty positions is twofold. "We must make the contribution to academic medicine that we are able to make but haven't yet." He added that minority presence on the faculty is important in the recruitment of additional minority candidates.

Henry said Dr. Daniel C. Tosteson, dean of the Med School, has been receptive to the need for better minority representation on the faculty, adding that, "The game is in our ball park now. If we want better minority recruitment programs, we must go to him."