At a recent meeting in Los Angeles, the American Association of Community College board of directors unanimously approved a statement on inclusion.
The statement urges community colleges "to evaluate policies to ensure diversity and equal access within their institutions." It goes on to say that the association "believes diversity in education is crucial to a democratic society and that colleges should be responsible for shaping an environment that mirrors the general culture and creates opportunities for all within the college community to interact with understanding, tolerance and respect for others."
Many of us believe that the association's statement on inclusion is a good thing. Yet, it would be naive to assume that all share this opinion. If they did, African American, Asian and Latino faculty wouldn't represent less than 5 percent each of all community college faculty members or community college presidents. If everyone agreed that diversity was a good thing, women wouldn't continue to be under-represented in selected disciplines or college presidencies either.
In a recent report by the American Council on Education, funded by the Ford Foundation and titled "Achieving Diversity In the Professoriate: Challenges and Opportunities," eleven universities were polled. The primary reason that administrators gave for the lack of faculty diversity was, as authors Marjorie F. Fine Knowles and Bernard W. Harleston put it, the "pool problem."
Knowles and Harleston went on to say, "Administrators may be aware of techniques that can be used to attract and develop minority scholars, but they have failed to make use of them. It is unclear whether the primary barrier is lack of knowledge or lack of will, though it most likely is a combination of both."
It is the "lack of will" issue that we rarely discuss because it's more acceptable to attribute our hiring shortcomings totally to external factors, purportedly beyond our control. Interestingly enough, when minority faculty and graduate students of the universities polled were asked their views, the responses took a different direction.
