Creating Opportunities for Faculty Research

Research is one of the most rewarding aspects of a scholarly career, but until recently few African American scholars have had a chance to pursue it seriously. Gradually, times are changing.

Higher education's sacrosanct route to promotion and tenure  is navigated along  the paths of  teaching, service and research. Good teaching and service are expected, but it is good research that usually attracts  the greatest rewards.
The preferred environment for most researchers is found at large research universities. But these institutions produce few African American Ph.D.s. and because they have a tendency to hire faculty from within or from institutions of like stature, it is rare for African American scholars to land positions at these schools. 
Among the more than 160,000 faculty who work at Research I and II institutions, only about 3 percent are African American, and many of these are junior faculty who have yet to achieve tenure (see BI the Numbers, pg. 38). As a consequence, many African American researchers find themselves teaching at smaller, often historically Black, institutions that lack the funding and infrastructure needed to support extensive research.
Research is an invaluable tool for of faculty career development, offering colleges and universities a means of enhancing institutional competitiveness and a way to expose Black students to valuable learning opportunities. Recognizing this,  a growing number of historically Black universities have begun building impressive research complexes. Subsequently, African American scholars have a variety of options to pursue if they want to teach and conduct research at an HBCU — especially if they are in science and engineering fields.
"Hampton University, for example, has one of the finest physics programs in the country," says Dr. Earnestine Psalmonds, vice chancellor of research at North Carolina A&T University. Florida A&M, Tuskegee, Howard, Norfolk State and Prairie View universities as well as her own university also have dynamic research being conducted on their campuses, Psalmonds says. And even though Howard is the only university in this group that is officially classified as a Research institution by the Carnegie Foundation, these mostly state-supported schools are distinguishing themselves for their research activities.
Even smaller schools — like the John C. Smith University — that do not have the research infrastructure found at larger institutions, are finding ways to get more research money and opportunities by creating incentive programs for young professors.
"It is not difficult getting research opportunities," Psalmonds says. "[Researchers] can come [to HBCUs] and make such a difference in the lives of underrepresented students."
HBCUs that strive to expand their competitiveness also are using research opportunities as a faculty recruitment strategy. Tactics such as offering more competitive salaries are buttressed by other perks like state-of-the-art laboratory space.
There is no lack of funding opportunities for those persons to do research, Psalmonds says.