Penn State
‘Penn State can and must do better.’ Report on black faculty shows inequity in hiring, retention
Penn State has a diversity problem.
That’s the crux of a report released last month titled, “More Rivers to Cross,” by professors Gary King, in the department of biobehavioral health, and Darryl Thomas, in the department of African American studies, which details the depths of systemic bias that has prevented the recruitment and retention of black faculty at Penn State.
The report has prompted response from university leadership, with proposed changes to academic policies among planned action.
Systemic bias in hiring faculty
Over the span of 15 years, King and Thomas found, the number of full-time black faculty at Penn State decreased from 105 to 103, or 1.9%, according to the Penn State Factbook. Another source, the Penn State Office of Planning an Assessment, showed the number black faculty only grew by 2.9%, from 109 to 112 during that time.
In 2018, there were 3,474 full-time faculty employed at University Park, according to the Penn State Factbook.
In that same time period, from 2004 to 2018, the percentage of black tenured and tenure-track faculty decreased by 22.1%. The percentage of white tenured and tenure-track faculty also declined, by 20.4%, while Latinx, Asian and international professors tenured and tenure-track professors saw gains.
Of all the tenured and tenure-track professors at Penn State’s University Park campus, African Americans made up just 3.9% in 2018.
“Not only is it an embarrassment, it represents systemic blasphemy. And it’s something that has been happening over time,” said King of the lack of black faculty in an interview this month.
The problem, he said, is worse in some of Penn State’s colleges than others. In the College of Health and Human Development, where he teaches, “I am the only black full professor in the college. We have over 300, probably closer to 350 if not more, faculty. And you’re telling me you can’t do better than that?”
King and Thomas’s report says that although “there are multifaceted societal problems affecting our institutions of higher learning ... there is endemic systemic reluctance to increasing and maintaining faculty diversity within a considerable number of departments and colleges at the University Park campus.”
The inequity also follows gender lines.
At Penn State, black female faculty are more likely to be assistant and associate professors than full professors. In 2018, there were only six black full professors who were women, compared to 17 black male full professors.
Faculty search committees also contribute to the diversity problem, said the report, because “they are not trained in recruitment, are rarely diverse in makeup, and are often more interested in hiring people who look and act just like them.”
King said the makeup of faculty search committees often depends on how the department head constructs or appoints people to be a part of the committee.
“Seldom will you see an assistant professor leading a search committee,” he said. “If most of the African Americans are at the assistant level or the associate level, they’re not going to be able to lead the committees or to have a very forceful voice on the committees.”
The problem with student evaluations
King and Thomas’s report also expands on a 2017 report released by the Penn State Faculty Senate that cautioned against using the Student Rating of Teaching Effectiveness, or the voluntary student evaluation, to assess a professor’s teaching quality.
Their report explores the body of scientific literature on how SRTEs, which have been in place at Penn State since 1985, reflect considerable bias, particularly from white students from racially homogenous backgrounds, frame questions in a “highly problematic” way and allow these bias-informed opinions to impact annual salary and promotion decisions.
Several studies cited in King and Thomas’s report show that SRTEs and student evaluations of teaching are biased against women and people of color. In one example, students gave lower ratings to women instructors than men, even when they displayed the same teaching behaviors. Black and Asian faculty members were also rated lower than white faculty, especially by white male students.
Furthermore, other research they cited from Susan Basow and Julie Martin found that in evaluating faculty who teach race-focused diversity courses — more likely to be minority faculty — students tend to view African American faculty as more biased and subjective than white faculty teaching the same course.
“(SRTEs are) also used for promotion and it’s also used for annual raises,” said King. “That is part of where the inequity is. And that’s where the systemic bias becomes most pernicious. Not only pernicious but consequential.”
Penn State responds to report
Last month, the Faculty Senate met and discussed “More Rivers to Cross” with senior administration officials, including President Eric Barron and Executive Vice President and Provost Nick Jones.
According to a Penn State News release, Barron said that even though bias problems are widespread in higher education, “that is not an excuse for us not to be thinking about these issues at Penn State. We absolutely have to be thinking about these issues at Penn State.”
The Faculty Senate is forming a task force to address some of the issues raised in the report, but that has not yet been convened, said Penn State spokesperson Lisa Powers in an email.
Also in response, proposed changes to two academic policies — the Recommended Procedure for Hiring New Faculty and Search Procedures for Academic Administrative Positions — are under review by the senate “to codify our institutional commitment to creating searches that are fair and equitable,” said Powers.
Penn State said it is giving more defined guidance to deans and chancellors to require faculty search committees to select a more diverse crowd of candidates for hiring consideration.
“Faculty Search Committee Briefings, which take place each fall, have been restructured to include all search committee members, department/division heads, and college/campus HR staff to promote cross-disciplinary discussion of best practices for recruiting diverse populations,” said Powers. “The content of these sessions is now more focused on recognizing and addressing implicit bias in the search process, and search committee members are provided with specific strategies to implement in each phase of the search process to counter potential bias.”
Each college dean and campus chancellor, said Powers, is conducting “comprehensive reviews” of Penn State’s Affirmative Action Plans, “to examine specific areas of underrepresentation within their units” and form strategies to increase recruitment of those underrepresented populations.
Penn State also added another senior faculty mentor, designated to support and advocate for underrepresented faculty while they navigate the promotion and tenure process, she said.
Additionally, the College of Liberal Arts, with Office of the Vice Provost for Education Equity, received funding to launch a three-year pilot Midcareer Faculty Advancement Program, intended to help associate professors advance to full professors, with a focus on underrepresented candidates.
Until Feb. 28, all students, faculty and staff at every Penn State campus are encouraged to take the new Penn State Community Survey, which is collecting feedback and experiences related to community, diversity and inclusion. Penn State plans to use the responses to “identify strengths and areas for growth, advance the university’s values and help foster a welcoming environment across all Penn State campuses,” according to a news release.
Unit heads will start using the survey results this fall after data is aggregated in July, the university said.
“I’m very grateful to have the support of the many faculty on campus who were as surprised as we were when they saw the data, and as embarrassed as we were. They clearly recognized that this is something that needs to be fully addressed,” said King. He added, “We’re very serious about this matter and Penn State can and must do better.”
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