For an untenured faculty member, perception is everything. For outsiders, such as women of color, the task of negotiating and performing identity can prove rather burdensome because of the need to counter negative stereotypes based on race, gender, and class. For many junior faculty members, a recurring conflict is the longstanding tension between…

Service is not an optional part of being an assistant professor. The trick is knowing how to do enough without doing too much. In Part 1 of this series, the author enumerated the "good deeds" that assistant professors do in the realm of teaching that tend to blow up or backfire. He cautioned that, while doing good for students was their primary…

New administrative offices for diversity are popping up at universities around the country, and one can usually count on them to cast minority-recruiting efforts in a favorable light. There is still, however, a role for the old-school rabble-rousers, as a new report from a faculty committee at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor makes clear.…

Isolation and lack of services for members of minority groups can be real hurdles for colleges in small towns and rural areas that want to diversify their work forces. The chance to meet people from the same background, worship in a shared faith, or share cultural interests can make or break someone's living experience. This article describes…

Proponents of "diversity hiring" insist that faculty members of color have a different perspective on issues of race and ethnicity that will increase students' understanding of the multiracial, multicultural world they will inhabit in the 21st century. The mere presence of "diverse" faculty members will prepare students for workplace realities,…

In 2005, 109,964 U.S. minority scholars held full-time faculty positions at American colleges and universities, up from 69,505 in 1995, according to the Education Department--a 58-percent increase. The proportion of minority scholars in the overall professoriate also rose, but not as much. The department found that 16.5 percent of scholars were…

Among countless petitioners to the incoming president, higher-education leaders have sent Barack Obama position statements and requests for action that extol the strengths and accomplishments of this nation's higher-education enterprise but also warn of its increasingly dire financial situation. They have asked that a share of an impending…

Nationwide, minority and female faculty members were trailblazers in the 1960s and 1970s. Only in the past generation have most colleges adopted large-scale plans to diversify their faculties. This article revisited ambitious plans announced at five universities during the past two decades to see how they have fared. They are Duke University,…

Describes how Richard Tapia, a Rice University mathematician and drag racer, seeks to fuel the aspirations of minority students and women who want to become scientists and engineers. (EV)

This article shares the experiences of two colleges, Paul D. Camp Community College (Franklin, Virginia) and Durham Technical Community College (Durham, North Carolina), in achieving their dreams. Administrators at Paul D. Camp Community College decided that it was necessary to improve the skills of their adjunct faculty. In 2006, they began…

Female and minority faculty members rated their institutions less positively as places for junior professors to work than did their male and white counterparts, according to a new report. Young professors said institutional policies designed to help them succeed were important, but they were less satisfied that those policies were effective. Women…

A national survey of college faculty employment and attitudes reveals patterns in minority group employment, rank, tenure status, doctoral degrees, workload, sources of stress, professional goals, and perceptions of discrimination. Minority groups include American Indian, Asian, Black, and Latino. Data are also reported for both men and women.…

Panelists at a session of the American Studies Association meeting charged that the personal and professional costs of attendance in graduate school are often so high for minority students that they do not want to go on to become the next generation of scholars. (MLW)

Problems encountered by young minority faculty members at Old Dominion University (Virginia) in the institution's attempt to diversify its faculty are examined, including expectations perceived by new faculty as unreasonable, lack of mentoring or institutional support, and perceptions of racial bias. Difficulties in retaining black faculty members…

In a nationwide strike, law students demonstrated and boycotted classes to protest lack of racial and ethnic diversity in law faculties. Students see female and minority faculty as mentors, and feel the shortage of lawyers serving the minority population will increase without minority faculty to prepare them for that role. (MSE)