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.
Although acknowledging the pool issue, the primary hiring
disincentive given by faculty and students of color centered on their
contention that the curriculum is static rather than a changing and
evolving entity.
