How to Improve Your Recruiting of Minority Faculty Members

Thursday, October 25, at 12 noon, U.S. Eastern time

Desdemona Cardoza is provost and vice president for academic affairs at California State University at Los Angeles. The institution has one of the most diverse faculties in the country (40 percent of its full-time professors are from racial and ethnic minority groups), helped in part by a Cal State program that repays up to $30,000 in graduate-school loans for Ph.D. seekers if they teach on a Cal State campus after earning their doctorates. Ms. Cardoza, whose work was described in a recent Chronicle article, will answer questions and explain how her campus has diversified its faculty.

A transcript of the chat follows.

Carolyn Mooney (Moderator):
    THE GUEST: Dr. Desdemona Cardoza is provost and vice president for academic affairs at California State University at Los Angeles, which has one of the most diverse faculties in the country: 40 percent of its full time professors are minority-group members. Before she was appointed provost, Dr. Cardoza served as dean of the College of Natural and Social Sciences at Los Angeles. She is especially interested in recruiting faculty members who understand the student-focused mission of her university.

Carolyn Mooney (Moderator):
    Hello, and welcome to today's discussion. We'll be talking about how colleges and universities can improve their recruitment -- and retention -- of minority professors. Our guest is Dr. Desdemona Cardoza, provost and vice president for academic affairs at California State University at Los Angeles. We're pleased she could join us today. You can start sending in questions.

Question from J. Taylor, liberal arts college:
    How do small colleges (and colleges in general) handle the sensitive issue of competitive salaries? In particular, are there other "perks" that might help make a job offer more attractive in cases where salary is less negotiable (such as lab equipment, flexibility of schedule, course release, conference funds)?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    There a number of ways that you can offer "perks" to faculty. Being creative in how you fund start-up is one way. If you have any new buildings being built and there is what we call group 2 dollars (this is money for new equipment) you can use this to increase start-up packages for new faculty. Also course release for the firs year is very important. This can be a tremendous perk, especially for teaching universities.

Question from Christine Owens, U. of Missouri-Columbia:
    Are college programs that mentor minority students in middle-school and high-school effective? I'm thinking of those that expose teens to college campuses and explain how to prepare for the challenges and opportunities that they'll face.

Desdemona Cardoza:
    These programs can be very effective. My experience has been in the areas of Math, Science and Engineering. Exposing student from underrepresented groups as early as elementary school can be very effective for getting students into the pipeline.

Question from Jeff, Dept. Chair Public University in Oklahoma:
    What do you suggest doing when your institution seems to have no concept of the importance of faculty diversity and no intention of implementing a minority (African American) recruitment policy?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    The most effective way is to try to recruit faculty who do see the need for this (they do not necessarily need to be underrepresented faculty). There needs to be a critical mass who see the importance of this. Deans and department chairs should interview all candidates to ensure that they embrace this value.

Question from Rebecca -small Community college:
    When first increasing the diversity level how did you ensure minority hires felt welcomed, integrated, etc. into the culture?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    This is the responsibility of all faculty and administrators. You do not want a faculty member to feel marginalized. Social events work nicely. Also, opportunities for new faculty to present their scholarship to their peers work well.

Question from JT, Diversity Task Force:
    Including variables such as size and type of institution and diversity of the surrounding community, can you suggest a formula for gauging reasonable progress or pace of change as an institution moves toward its ideal of a diverse faculty?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    I'm not sure that one could develop a formula. However, institutions need to look at the mix of students they currently serve, as well as the mix they would like to serve in the future. These need to be major driving forces in your faculty recruitment.

Question from Suzanne Soled, Northern Kentucky University:
    What are the classic mistakes that search committees make in the recruitment of minority faculty members? What are the steps we can take to diversify our faculty?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    In my experience the most common mistake is to define the positions very narrowly -- to try to replace a faculty member who has retired with somebody just like that person. The department needs to step back and reexamine its program offerings to see if they are aligned with the student needs. They determine the type of position based on the new look.

Question from Carolyn Mooney, Moderator:
    It seems to be a given that minority professors are important because they serve as mentors to minority students. But can't professors of all backgrounds serve as mentors? Thanks for commenting on this.

Desdemona Cardoza:
    Professors from all backgrounds can and should serve as mentors. For example when we hire faculty at my institution, which is predominately Latino, it is extremely important that the faculty member can relate to and understand our student population. This is more important than their race or ethnicity.

Question from Martha Wharton, Loyola College in Maryland:
    One of our issues is the mission requirement. As a Jesuit institution, faculty have to be able to support the Jesuit mission. That does not mean that a person must be Catholic, but that she must understand and generally support values like diversity, social justice, intellectual achievement, eloquencia perfecta, etc. The perception is that schools like this one are more conservative than that. Consequently, attracting faculty of color to this urban and Jesuit Catholic institution is a real challenge. Comments? Suggestions?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    It sounds like your mission should be ideal for attracting faculty of color. Perhaps what is needed is a PR campaign to dispel the myth of the conservative nature of your institution and to tout the values of diversity, social justice, etc.

Question from Donald Henderson, U. of Akron,state school:
    How do we as higher-education officials promote diversity without someone from the dominant culture yelling "reverse" discrimination? Thanks.

Desdemona Cardoza:
    This is a tough question. I think that the best way is to ensure that you are recruiting top candidates, regardless of their background. However, your definition of "excellence" needs to be broader than the traditional one (lots of publications, etc.) It must include the notion that part of providing an excellent education is to expose students to diversity. This must be stated explicitly, otherwise it well be seen as "reverse" discrimination.

Question from G. Allen, Kent Place School:
    What about working with a diversity coordinator? Does your university have someone or several people working together in this way on hiring?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    The President has designated the College Deans as the Diversity Officers of their unit. The deans must review the applicant pool for all of their hires and determine if the pool is diverse. If not, they keep the search open and require the department to cast the net wider. The dean also must approve the list of candidates to be interviewed, and has the final say on the hire.

Question from Alex Tan, Washington State University:
    Do you use "target hires"(no formal search) to increase minority representation? If yes, how do you get the faculty and department heads to support this strategy?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    No. We do not use target hires. We try to instill the value of diversity in all of what we do. We have many underrepresented faculty who choose to come to us because they believe in what we do -- which is to provide educational opportunity to underrepresented students.

Question from Mathew Kanjirathinkal, Park University:
    First, the reality is that the pool of U.S. minority candidates is small and in such demand that they are easily snatched up by larger institutions with better resources. How can smaller and less resourceful institutions compete for this small pool of minorities? Second, don't foreign professors add value to an institution in terms of diversity?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    When looking to diversify your faculty you need to identify Doctorate-granting institutions that have a pool of underrepresented students. Contact these students before they finish. Let them know that you are very interested in them. Many new faculty would rather go to a smaller institution where they feel that they can really make a difference.

Question from Betty Schmitz, doctoral 1 university:
    Do you know of any cases in which institutions have built diversity into review criteria for tenure and promotion?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    No, I am not aware of any. However, you can reward faculty who participate in recruitment processes that focus on hiring diverse faculty -- for example, by allowing them to take trips to visit ABD students and "sell" them on your institution.

Question from Michael Johnson, University of Massachusetts Boston:
    What has been your experience with alternative recruiting models leading to tenure-track hires: post-doctoral appointments, visiting professorships, junior recruiting from doctoral programs, practitioner hires, others?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    We have had some success in recruiting from doctoral programs. Cal State also has a doctoral forgivable loan program: Students get their undergraduate and sometimes masters degree from a CSU campus, go on for a Doctorate, and if they come back and teach in a tenure track position in the CSU system, their load is forgiven. This has been a very, very successful tool for Cal State L.A. in recruiting underrepresented faculty.

Question from Hector, Small Liberal Arts College:
    What advertising outlets have you utilized in order to broaden the applicant pools?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    Many of the professional organizations have special interest groups for non-white faculty. The American Psychological Association, for example has Division 45. We have been quite successful in getting the word out in that. Hispanic Outlook, Black Issues in Higher Ed, etc. also work well.

Question from Eunice Myers, Wichita State U, urban-serving research university:
    I recently attended the Michael Tilford Conference on Multiculturalism and Diversity here in Wichita. It was suggested that we network with faculty and administration of schools that were traditionally Black institutions. Can you suggest the best ways to accomplish this--in addition to attending Deans' conferences and the like?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    This is an excellent suggestion. I frequently host faculty teams who are interested in becoming a Hispanic Serving Institution, or in receiving our students into their graduate and professional schools. As a provost, and I am sure others would feel the same way, I would be happy to host faculty/administrators who are interested in building community with our faculty.

Question from Laurel McFarland, NASPAA:
    What role do you think accreditors can/should play, especially given the complex legal environment we face?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    Probably the best role that accreditors can play is ensuring that the institution's definition of educational success is one that requires students to be exposed to diversity in the most general sense. Because of the emphasis on assessment (culture of evidence), institutions will then need to show this in very concrete ways.

Question from Erik Devereux, Assn for Public Policy Analysis and Management:
    I recently have seen studies of diversity in the social science disciplines that suggest there have been sufficient Ph.D.s produced over the past 30 years to yield much more faculty diversity than is evident in those disciplines today (at least outside the HBCUs and HACUs). Is there resistance to raising the number of, or percentage of, minority faculty above token levels in many university departments? Is that really the biggest obstacle?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    The numbers of Latino and African-Americans receiving Ph.D's in the social sciences has been slowly increasing. However, we have not made the same progress in the STEM disciplines. This is why we need to increase the number of students in the pipeline in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

As the number of non-white students increases in higher education, I believe that there will be increased demand for non-white faculty.

Carolyn Mooney (Moderator):
    We'll be wrapping up soon, so thank you for sending along any final questions.

Question from Norma Bartrum, American Chemical Society:
    What constitutes a diverse pool of candidates?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    From my perspective it means there are sufficient qualified candidates from all groups (not just underrepresented groups) for the search committee to choose from.

Question from Jim Ruffins, Community College of Philadelphia:
    Is there a way of compiling a list of successful steps institutions have taken, so that multiple options are available nationwide?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    I think that it could be done, if you get folks from institutions that have been successful in this regard together to compile it.

Question from Carolyn Mooney, Moderator:
    In some fields, such as math and physics, very few black and Hispanic scholars are earning doctorates, so the pool for future professors is quite small. Do you think institutions should make this issue a priority? If so, how can they increase the pool of minority scholars in such fields?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    Programs that start early with students are the answer. We need to get more students college- ready for math and science. At Cal State L.A. we have just opened a charter high school with a Math and Science emphasis. All students graduating from the high school will be ready for college work upon entrance.

Question from Kenyon College:
    Does it not make sense to include socioeconomic class background in our understanding of diversity? Class overlaps with race, is not a suspect classification under the law, and implicates important fairness and equity questions about our society.

Desdemona Cardoza:
    Absolutely. It is an essential component of diversity. SES is often the criteria for many scholarship opportunities for our students.

Question from Northwestern University:
    Why is it so hard for institutions to embrace diversity? People of color want to see like kind, including students. We are not there yet (at Northwestern) and not even close. It seems it does not become an issue until federal funding is at risk, or the underrepresented complain, or there is media exposure, and even then a band-aid is applied.This should be dealt with "pro-actively" -- not "re-actively".

Desdemona Cardoza:
    As faculty, we like to create (or recreate) ourselves in our own image. That is why a critical mass of underrepresented faculty is essential. It may be slow getting started, but we must be persistent in our attempts to increase the numbers.

Question from Request for anonymity:
    How do minority members on a hiring committee bypass the bias and prejudice that surround the hiring of more Latinas and Latinos in our higher-education system? There are not enough Latinos with Ph.D.'s to go around and reopen a search all over because there are not enough minority applicants in the pool for the position.

Desdemona Cardoza:
    I feel that it is essential for underrepresented members of a search committee to advocate for all qualified non-white candidates. I keep hearing that there are not enough "minority" candidates out there. If that is the case, then why are so many having difficulties getting jobs?

Question from S. Chandler, large community college:
    Have you found 'Minority Resume Banks' to be an effective source of candidates? Is it better to utilize others or create your own?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    I personally have never used one. I find that personal networking works very well.

Question from Karen, University of Pennsylvania:
    How are faculty search committees increasing outreach to identify minority applicants and expand the pool of minority faculty candidates?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    There needs to be constant attention to this. As a former dean and now as provost, I am always keeping an eye out. Dept. Chairs need to to the same. Word of mouth is a very good tool.

Question from Sarah Potter, Champlain College:
    Champlain College is located in Vermont, a predominantly "white" state. How can we make Vermont an appealing place to live and work for faculty candidates of color?

Desdemona Cardoza:
    Wow. This is a hard one. The only thing I can suggest is that you are consistent in your efforts to recruit "non-white" candidates and support them in all possible ways once they are hired.

Carolyn Mooney (Moderator):
    I'd like to thank everyone for joining us today -- and thanks especially to Dr. Desdemona Cardoza.

For more on faculty-diversity issues, you can visit www.chronicle.com and check out some of our special issues on diversity, as well as our ongoing coverage of these questions.

Thanks, everyone!