Chan’s rise has been unusual for an educator of color. According to a 2007 report from the American Council on Education, just 0.9 percent of presidents were Asian-American; 5.8 percent were African-American and 4.6 percent were Hispanic.
“There’s a lot of work to do to open those doors,” he said.
Though his ascension to the chancellorship is an encouraging sign, Chan said “I don’t think my being there means the work is done.”
Even as the student body becomes more diverse, UW Bothell faculty lags behind, he said. There are 189 faculty, and of the 125 who took the University of Washington, Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action survey in 2008, just 20 self-reported as minorities.
“It’s not very diverse,” he said. “It’s one of our most important goals that we have in hiring.”
To aggressively recruit minority faculty, he wants departments to give him diversity-recruitment plans, “not just advertisement plans,” he said. “I find that setting up diversity goals means nothing unless they recruit … . They need to call people. They need to identify candidates. They need to call chairs and departments looking for [recommendations for] candidates.”
Chan is encouraged by the UW Bothell faculty’s eagerness and commitment to this cause, but added, “We have a long way to go.”
