Academia is no different from the media industry and other businesses when it comes to the “last hired, first fired (first laid off)” maxim. In academia, the term is labeled in other ways such as “tenure denial” or “nonrenewal of term contract.” Often the junior faculty is where you will find the greatest percentage of minority faculty and staff hires. A growing retrenchment in journalism education means that many minority faculty members, who often are the standard-bearers for diversity initiatives, are the first to be ushered out the door.
The result is a lack of true commitment to diversity. Minority faculty members are often the ones who perform the day-today tasks of recruitment and retention of students of color — tasks that ultimately, despite vehement denials to the contrary, carry little weight when it comes to promotion and tenure.
It remains to be seen whether education administrators will follow the same trend being followed by their media brethren.
— Ramòn Chàvez, a founder of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and former dean of the American Indian Journalism Institute, is director of the Oklahoma Institute for Diversity in Journalism at the University of Oklahoma.
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