Faculty and staff diversity at Dartmouth continues to lag behind the diversity of the student body despite current College efforts, according to Evelyn Ellis, vice president of the Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity. As the College seeks to improve minority faculty and staff recruitment by increasing applicant pools for open positions, the Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity is researching effective ways to improve minority faculty and staff retention, Ellis said.
Although Dartmouth has the highest percentage of minority junior faculty members in the Ivy League, it has the lowest percentage of minority senior faculty members, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Several students brought up concerns about faculty diversity at the College during a forum between students, College President Jim Yong Kim and Chief of Staff David Spalding in Cutter-Shabazz hall on Monday, The Dartmouth previously reported. At the forum, Kim said that 36.4 percent of the faculty who left the institution in the 2009-2010 academic year were minority faculty members, a jump from recent years.
Of the College's 539 full-time faculty members, 87 professors comprising 16 percent of the faculty are members of minority groups, according to the College's 2009-2010 Common Data Set. Members of minority groups constitute 7 percent of staff at the College, according to Ellis.
One of the major challenges for retaining minority faculty members is that these professors are in high demand at institutions across the country, Ellis said.
Given Dartmouth's location in rural New Hampshire a predominantly white area and the high level of competition for these faculty members, the College must place a high priority on actively recruiting faculty and staff of diverse backgrounds and ensuring that they feel comfortable and welcome when they arrive, Ellis said.
"If they are coming from a diverse community, we need all kinds of support systems in place mentoring programs, programs that make sure that they feel integrated into the community the moment they get here," she said.
Samantha Ivery, advisor to black students and acting director of the Center for Women and Gender, said it can be challenging for minority faculty to feel comfortable in Hanover because it is a predominantly white community.
Ivery announced on Jan. 31 that she would resign from her position by the end of June, The Dartmouth previously reported.
"If you are a person of color in the Upper Valley, you are hyper-visible and invisible at the same time," she said.
Although the homogeneity of the town does pose an added challenge, Ivery said the "level of understanding and awareness" that is necessary for diverse faculty and staff to feel fully comfortable and welcome in a community does not exist at the College. Ivery said she has experienced racism and sexism in the Dartmouth work environment.
"We don't allow people to come in and create their own space," Ivery said.
Many of Ivery's proposals regarding issues of diversity, inclusivity and cultural awareness at the College were "not appreciated here," she said.
"I get mistrusted," Ivery said. "I get negated. I get ignored."
Ivery said she feels like she constantly has to "negotiate [her] identity" in her interactions with other members of the community.
"There's a specific temperament and culture to Dartmouth," Ivery said. "I don't fit that model and I'm okay with that. There's a lot of people that don't fit that model and I think it's great."
Minority faculty face "a number of special obstacles and issues" at Dartmouth, although few of those obstacles are unique to Dartmouth, African and African American studies professor Russell Rickford said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth.
Increasing support for the research and teaching of minority faculty, along with creating and improving programs such as the African and African American Studies department, "help diversify the ranks of faculty at the junior and senior levels," Rickford said.
Ellis said her goal was for faculty and staff diversity to reflect the diversity of the student body. Students must feel like they have role models at the College with whom they can identify, she said.
"If we are going to tell students that it is possible for them to reach their goals regardless of how high they are or how ambitious they are, we should be able to produce a role model to prove that fact," Ellis said. "We need to keep investing in their careers so that when they come here they are thinking long-term."
Ivery said that students have expressed concerns to her about the lack of diversity among faculty and staff every year.
"Their learning improves when they see themselves reflected in the learning environment," Ivery said.
In response to recent criticisms about the use of affirmative action in College hiring processes, Ellis said affirmative action is the best solution to inequities among College faculty and staff.
"If that data suggests to me that there are still inequities, I think we should use affirmative action or any other process that we have to remedy those inequities," she said. "I have not heard one single suggestion to replace [affirmative action]."
Kyle Battle '11, a member of the Dartmouth chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People who spoke at Monday's forum, said in an interview with The Dartmouth that very few of his professors outside of the African and African American studies department have been minorities.
Battle said it has been a challenge to find professors "that could relate to [his] experience before Dartmouth."
The College does not foster enough diversity in the recruitment or retention processes, Battle said, and the issue of faculty diversity should be "on the president's agenda" following the resignations of Ivery and acting Dean of the College Sylvia Spears.
"What is being done to make people want to stay here?" Battle said. "Why is it that they want to leave and what can we do to keep them here? I would like to have somebody be able to answer those questions."
