For the past fourteen years, the author has been a campus leader in efforts to diversify the faculty. He has raised diversity issues in search committees, met with candidates of color when they visited campus, served as a mentor to incoming faculty, helped to develop a faculty diversity initiative, and led discussions on retaining faculty of…

Efforts to diversify university faculties began almost forty years ago. Since then, the number of white women faculty and faculty of color on U.S. campuses has grown slowly but steadily. At the same time, the explanatory framework for this shift--what they call the "terms of inclusion"--has changed profoundly. "Diversity" and "excellence" were…

The author does not think of himself as a logical candidate to help first-generation college athletes graduate. He is 59 and middle class, not a former athlete or a first-generation college graduate, and obviously not hip. More to the point, he is white and Texas-born, and he attended segregated schools his whole student life. He was even at the…

In the late 1980s, the University of Maryland Baltimore County launched a major initiative to find out why more students were not succeeding in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics--known collectively as the STEM disciplines--despite the university's long-standing commitment to those fields. A review of student data revealed that the…

This article discusses the curious mix of good and bad news the American higher education community found in the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last summer, in "Parents Involved v. Seattle School District" and "Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education," about the use of race-based policies by public elementary and secondary…

Distinctions are made between tolerance, tacit approval, and acceptance, particularly within the context of culture and social power structure. It is concluded that in a world of unequal power, claims of tolerance on the part of the powerful who do nothing to assist the powerless whom they tolerate are unacceptable. (MSE)

Explores why numerical equality--or parity among the proportion of whites, blacks, and Hispanics with 4 or more years of college--has not been achieved. Proposes a reexamination and redefinition of the issues in order to set acceptable standards for measuring success, and discusses the terms of engagement that will move each institution toward the…

Good departmental practices can help women and minority faculty thrive and make the greatest possible contribution to the academic enterprise. Several recent books have explored what is wrong with the current way of doing business. In this article, the author outlines steps to bring U.S. minority and European American women faculty--at both the…

Argues that preferential treatment of women and minorities in the selection of college faculty elevates a form of corruption to standard administrative practice by including people in academic life on the basis of characteristics irrelevant to teaching and research; and previous unjust treatment is inadequate justification for preferential…

Universities as social institutions are shaped and influenced by people who are socialized to repress genuine feelings, to deny prejudices, yet who reflect in their relationships all the imperfections of a society resistant to change. One area in which respect for cultural heterogeneity is urgently needed is evaluation of scholarship. (MLW)

Suggests that tenure, rather than discriminating against minorities and women, benefits these groups by protecting their academic freedom in the classroom and by encouraging depth in scholarship, and also by adding to a democratic balance of power between faculty and administrators. Urges a more open tenure review process to eliminate elements of…

Latinos make up 12.5 percent of the U.S. population. They are now the largest (and fastest-growing) racial or ethnic minority group in the United States, surpassing blacks, who make up 12.3 percent of the population. In higher education, however, Latino groups are underrepresented. According to the 2002 "Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac",…

Three dimensions of the financial aid delivery system that disproportionately discourage minority students from seeking or achieving admission to colleges and universities are discussed: information inequities, negative consequences of system complexity, and institutional aid practices. (MLW)

In this article, the author discusses Portland Community College's Illumination Project, a yearlong academic theater program that tackles issues of oppression through interactive classroom and community performances. Participants write original interactive plays depicting incidents of oppression in students' lives. The project is a central aspect…

The promise of equality in American higher education has gone unfulfilled for too long. The American Council on Education and the Education Commission of the States' report on the status of minorities in higher education, entitled "One-Third of a Nation," is a reminder of the urgency of providing equity. (MSE)