Hiring rates high, retention rates low for minorities

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the organization responsible for hiring 44 minority faculty members in 2013. They were hired by the University. The story has been updated to reflect this change. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.

As a young black woman, senior Danielle Moore wishes she had had at least one black faculty member teach a class for her biology major.

“It doesn’t hinder me from learning, but it would be more reassuring because I could relate better,” Moore said. “It’s important for minorities to have key figures in education that look like us.”

Taffye Clayton and Sibby Anderson-Thompkins are working to improve the collegiate experience for students like Moore. Now entering its 30th year, the Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity has helped the University increase its hiring rates of minority faculty members.

“We’re hiring great talent,” said Anderson-Thompkins, the director of the Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity. “ We have to have a commitment on the part of the University to make sure people can thrive and be supported here so they remain.”

Though the situation has improved, the numbers are still bleak for minority faculty members. About 80 percent of UNC faculty is white, with black professors and administrators making up only 5 percent of the entire faculty. Four percent of the faculty is Hispanic and 0.4 percent is American Indian, according to data from the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs.

Retention remains a problem for the University. While the University hired 44 minority faculty members in 2013, there were 13 minority faculty members who left during the same time, said Clayton, the chief diversity officer and the associate vice chancellor for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs. 

The retention issue is where the Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity comes in. The fellowship program aims to advance scholars from historically underrepresented ethnic and racial groups.

The program works to align their recruitment efforts with the UNC departments that are least diverse, such as science and math, Anderson-Thompkins said. This year a black woman joined the biochemistry faculty and more African-American men came to the history, classics and political science departments through the program — all fields she said have struggled to hire minorities.

One of the biggest underlying issues attributed to these low numbers of minority hires is that few minorities are pursuing postdoctoral degrees across the U.S, said Deborah Miles, the executive director at the Center for Diversity Education at UNC-Asheville.

“Colleges can’t hire people of color if they are not in the hiring pool,” Miles said.

Miles said a way to increase this number is to start planting the seed as early as high school.

“As professors and staff members who work with students, we need to be encouraging them to pursue terminal degrees,” she said.

She said high-paying faculty often have negative biases toward minorities who inquire about graduate programs.

“We have to recognize the potential for that conscious and unconscious bias and work to consciously resist that,” she said.

Keith Whitfield , the vice provost of academic affairs at Duke University, is a former scholar of the postdoctoral program. He credits his experience with the program for his successful tenure and his nationally recognized study on the aging of black twins.

With the fellowship, Whitfield was able to get a grant to fund his research.

“That post-doc was extremely critical to my career.”

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