4 lessons for academic affairs leaders on advancing faculty diversity goals

Faculty diversity has been slow to change despite decades of calls from student activists. Recently, the Black Lives Matter movement has called particular attention to the low numbers of BIPOC faculty. Not only do faculty demographics lag behind the diversity of our campuses and communities, but students also miss the benefits of learning from faculty with a diverse range of backgrounds.

But as more institutions set diversity goals, competition for the best faculty candidates continues to intensify. As a result, academic leaders must take immediate action to increase the diversity of their candidate pool for faculty searches with changes to job ad language, candidate-facing websites, and interviewing processes. At the same time, colleges and universities also need to think about how to make themselves attractive places to work for BIPOC faculty, including setting up candidates and new hires with mentors who can give thoughtful advice about life at the institution and in the local community. Beyond the search process itself, academic leaders also need to make bigger-picture hiring considerations for their institution, including aligning faculty line allocation strategy with DEIJ goals.

We recently held working groups for chief academic officers on recruiting BIPOC faculty. Read the major takeaways below or jump to the next steps.

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Hiring committees can make concrete and practical changes to the recruitment process that improve the likelihood of hiring BIPOC faculty

Institutions may take years to overcome unconscious bias and structural racism. However, changing how committees search for qualified candidates, evaluate application materials, and structure the interviewing and onboarding process can mitigate against these biases in the near-term.

Structure job descriptions more broadly to invite a wider range of candidates from more diverse backgrounds

Many institutions try to diversify applicant pools by posting job advertisements in BIPOC faculty-facing publications. A more effective strategy is to examine the job ad itself. Does the advertisement seek a very narrow specialty, or is it open to a wider range of multidisciplinary experience? Job ads should also describe the institution’s DEIJ efforts and opportunities for collaboration across departments and schools.

Research contacts at Clemson University found that candidates from underrepresented backgrounds used the same publications to look for job ads as majority candidates, making posting in BIPOC-facing publications an ineffective strategy.

Institutions should adopt a candidate-centric hiring strategy as recruitment for top faculty candidates becomes more competitive

Candidate-centric recruitment focuses on creating a positive experience for candidates throughout the recruitment process, and treating candidates as individuals. It acknowledges that candidates are also evaluating the institution as a place to work and live. An example of a candidate-centric hiring strategy is offering a personalized campus tour and highlighting local and community resources that will help the candidate feel welcome and at home in the surrounding city or town.

Create structure and expectations around mentoring for new faculty to help ensure BIPOC faculty have equal access to early-career support

Typical mentorship relationships rely on informal connections between faculty. BIPOC faculty are often left out of these networking connections, missing opportunities to learn the unwritten rules of success at a new institution. The best mentorship programs not only proactively assign mentors to new faculty but also create structured guidance and outcomes on what mentors and mentees should discuss and gain from the relationship.