Published Monday, May 3, 2004
Faculty Diversity Takes Step Backward
By Andrew K. Mandel
APPIAN STAFF WRITER

Half of the senior faculty members of color at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) have left for New York University (NYU) this year.

With the recent news of Thomas Professor of Education Marcelo Suarez-Orozco’s departure, Keppel Senior Lecturer Robert Peterkin and Fisher Professor of Education Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot remain the only non-white members of the HGSE 28-member senior faculty.  Former Dimon Professor of Communities and Schools Pedro Noguera left for NYU last fall.

Despite HGSE Dean Ellen Condliffe Lagemann’s stated commitment to diversity, student leaders said progress is not only moving forward—it’s moving backward.

“The number of faculty members of color is ridiculous,” said Smita Trivedi, a co-chair of the African, Latino, Asian, and Native American Alliance (ALANA).  “At the number one school of education in the country, if you don’t have faculty members of color, that means something.”

Institutions have traditionally viewed the pipeline – the sheer fact that scholars of color make up a small fraction of the general pool and that Harvard only chooses from an elite subset of that pool – as the primary problem plaguing efforts to increased faculty diversity. 

“I don’t know any other university that says the criteria for tenure is to be ‘the world’s greatest scholar in the field,’” said Professor of Education Julie Reuben, who assumed the chair of HGSE’s new centralized faculty appointments committee last fall.  

Though her committee successfully lobbied the senior faculty to authorize an “open field/open rank search” – meaning that HGSE is looking for scholars of color in one of many fields of education rather than in one predetermined area of expertise – these scholars still need to clear Harvard’s unparalleled bar and meet its specific needs.

Of the more than 250 applications and nominees received by her committee in response to a large recruitment effort this fall, only eight were invited to come to Harvard for public addresses and interviews, including two scholars of color. 

But recent research on faculty diversity, including the work of HGSE Professor of Education Richard Chait, who declined to comment for this article, states that faculty diversity is not simply a pipeline problem.

At Harvard, there is the added challenge of meeting the university’s specific definition of acceptable research.  Even among tenured faculty members, this is a source of contention; former Professor Cornel West has said that a dispute with Harvard President Lawrence Summers over what was appropriate academic work led to West’s departure to Princeton two years ago.

Though tenure discussions are confidential, students have cited Eileen de los Reyes’s course on “Teaching for Social and Political Change,” as a subject not given sufficient credence by Harvard.  De los Reyes did not receive tenure, and her course disappeared.

Julie Reuben, who has been working on faculty searches all year, suggested that Harvard’s conservative requirements for what constitutes excellent scholarship may be inhibiting some well-regarded or well-liked scholars from making headway in the tenure process. 

“I do not know if this “intellectual conservatism” particularly affects recruiting scholars of color,” Reuben said.  “Clearly, there are white scholars advocating new approaches and scholars of color who are distinguished in more traditional methods and fields.  But in the history of the academy, from a political and cultural context, it has often been scholars of color with an agenda to change the way certain subjects are studied or what is considered important.  So it may contribute to the challenge of appointing scholars of color.”

She pointed out that Harvard was relatively late to build its Department of Afro-American Studies, waiting until the field had been established.  In this way, the University tends to follow, not lead, she said.

“New approaches to knowledge must prove themselves or their proponents are unlikely to be considered ‘the world’s greatest,’” she added.  “Someone who is considered the greatest somewhere else, might not meet Harvard’s understanding of excellence. There are prominent scholars of color who won’t make it at Harvard because of what Harvard’s understanding of what world-class research looks like.”

This is not limited to scholars of color, Reuben noted.  She pointed out that Howard Zinn, the left-wing activist and outspoken professor of revisionist American history, would not get hired by Harvard.

“Diversity is a very high priority, but standards and quality are central to our mission,” Reuben said.  “Those are preconditions for anyone.”

When asked how Harvard can improve its faculty diversity, Marcelo Suarez-Orozco stated simply, “Let me just say that rectifying this is not a matter of rocket science.”

Carola Suarez-Orozco said she believes Harvard will continue to face “very stiff competition” in attempting to recruit and retain senior faculty of color.

 “It seems to me that such highly qualified scholars chose their places of work where there is a critical mass of colleagues pursuing complementary research interests and where they can create a community to attract and nurture students and younger colleagues,” she said.

Indeed, Pedro Noguera uttered these exact sentiments in an interview with The Appian when he left Harvard earlier this year. 

"Here [at NYU], there is a lot more support for the work that I do," said Noguera, who has become the director of a new NYU research center on urban schools.  "At Harvard, I was more of a one-man operation…Had I been more tied with other colleagues, it would have been much harder for me to leave.”

Francisco Gaytan, a doctoral student in Human Development and Psychology, said being one of the only faculty members of color comes with other stresses as well—being consistently asked to represent the concerns of minority groups, being hounded by students wishing to be mentored by someone with a similar background or interest, and having your research viewed unfavorably by others if it goes against the traditional grain.

“There needs to be a critical mass of scholars from traditionally underrepresented groups to achieve diversity and faculty retention,” he said.

Trivedi, a masters student in International Education Policy, said Harvard could demonstrate its commitment to diversity by going beyond simply sending out a call for applications and nominations, perhaps by taking trips to universities and actively seeking out candidates. 

These efforts are particularly crucial if Harvard wants to continue to attract students of color, some of whom may feel overlooked, marginalized or invisible as a result of the absence of diversity in the faculty, Trivedi said.

She believes it is not a coincidence that the one professor she has felt close to – Postdoctoral Fellow on Education Mia Ong – happens also to be Asian American.  .

In a class on school reform taught by a different instructor, Trivedi said the professor never led discussions on issues of race during class. 

“How can you talk about school reform and not talk about race?” she asked.

With Ong, “I received the support I felt I needed, from a person I felt like I could talk to,” Trivedi said.

Gaytan’s concerns are about training, saying he is “worried whether HGSE will to be able to prepare its graduates for the issues of diversity that will face us all in the new millennium.”

While sympathetic to frustrations like these, Reuben said her committee is working as hard as it can and believes HGSE is committed to preparing educators who can expand opportunity for young children of all backgrounds.

Part of the Reuben committee’s new strategy in faculty recruitment is building relationships with junior faculty, who might not be willing to move to Cambridge now or who might become a more competitive candidate in the future. 

“I wish I could announce tomorrow – ‘While we have lost these valued colleagues whose work we respect – don’t worry, we’re immediately replacing them with other faculty of color who are even better,’” Reuben said.  “I can’t.  This loss of racial diversity is not going to be immediately made up for.”

For Richard Chait and Cathy Trower’s article on faculty diversity in Harvard Magazine, please see: http://www.harvard-magazine.com/on-line/030218.html

For more on the Suarez-Orozco departure, please see:
http://gseacademic.harvard.edu/~theappian/articles/spring04/suarezorozco0504.htm

Andrew K. Mandel, an Ed.M. candidate in Technology in Education, is a member of the Appian Board of Editors.