Naomi Zack is one of just six people scheduled to receive a University of Oregon award on Wednesday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
But the philosophy professor expressed mixed feelings about what the award means at a university where so few of her colleagues are minorities.
Ms. Zack, who describes herself as multiracial, said there are no women who identify as black in the College of Arts and Sciences and only two women of color, including herself, who qualify as full professors in the entire university. The other woman, she said, is the university’s vice president for equity and inclusion, Yvette M. Alex-Assensoh.
‘The absence of African-American senior faculty in what presents itself as a world-class research institution is an embarrassment for all members of our community.’
“I am neither thrilled nor honored to receive” the award, Ms. Zack plans to say, according to a copy of her prepared remarks. “I am embarrassed.”
“The absence of African-American senior faculty in what presents itself as a world-class research institution is an embarrassment for all members of our community,” the text reads.
Ms. Zack’s statement comes as student protests across the country are forcing colleges to do more to confront racial inequality on their campuses. And along with urging stronger support for minority students, many of the protesters are calling for colleges to diversify their faculties.
Such protests have also erupted at the University of Oregon, where black students delivered a list of a dozen demands in November, including one to commit to hiring black faculty members across all academic disciplines, and especially in such areas as architecture, business, education, mathematics, and science.
Michael H. Schill, Oregon’s president, said the university was responding to those demands. But he observed that the lack of minority faculty members was far from a unique problem and not one that could be solved quickly.
“This is something that all universities need to focus on intentionally,” he said, “but it’s not going to be a one- or two-year thing.”
“That’s not an excuse for us not to be working very hard,” said Mr. Schill, who cited several programs begun by the institution to attract and keep minority faculty members. In response to demands from black students, the university has formed more than a dozen working groups, including one to focus on the lack of minority faculty members.
And there are more-concrete measures: The university will give departments up to $90,000 over three years for every new faculty member they hire from an underrepresented group. There is also money for departments to engage in “active” recruitment of new faculty members, meaning intentionally building a pool of candidates by “making direct contact with graduate students, faculty, and key institutions, and building relationships over time.”
While that alone won’t ensure faculty diversity, the college’s leaders have to encourage recruiting minorities as part of those pools, Mr. Schill said. “If you don’t have a diverse pool, then maybe you haven’t worked hard enough to find excellence,” he said.
‘We Need Something Top-Down’
Ms. Zack said she was skeptical of some of the measures underway at the university because they rely too much on decisions at the department level, where people are too inclined to hire those like themselves. To prevent that, she said, the hiring process needs to be directed more from the administration.
“It’s human nature to hire people who are the students of your friends,” Ms. Zack said in an interview. That’s not necessarily racist, she said, but “the problem is that it works against excellence.”
“These hires need to be conducted by people who are required to look at the good of the institution as a whole,” she said. “We need something top-down here.”
Gabriela Martínez, an associate professor of journalism, said that she had read Ms. Zack’s prepared speech and that some of her criticisms were “right on target.”
The problems have occurred in part, Ms. Martínez said, because of the amount of turnover in leadership at Oregon. Counting interim leaders, the university has had five presidents since 2009.
And with that lack of consistency, she said, the commitment to creating a diverse faculty has been more lip service.
But Ms. Martínez said she was also optimistic that the current president is committed to real change.
“I personally feel it,” she said. “It seems different than before. Faculty are aware of the issues across the board, and most of us want change.”
Ms. Zack, too, said the moment is right for improving campus diversity, but she credited the student activists.
“This is a moment of possible institutional change because there is a level of student concern that hasn’t existed for a number of years,” she said. “And administrators seem more open to addressing students’ concerns” than those of the faculty.
Eric Kelderman writes about money and accountability in higher education, including such areas as state policy, accreditation, and legal affairs. You can find him on Twitter @etkeld, or email him at eric.kelderman@chronicle.com.
