Diversifying Faculty to Enhance Student Success

Spring
2016
Resolution Number
03.01
 
Contact
Assigned to
Equity and Diversity Action Committee
Category
Diversity and Equity
Status
Completed
Status Report

EDAC has coordinated two regional meetings on the topic and the topic of cultural competency in the classroom and on campuses. The meetings were held on 2/10/17 and 2/11/17 in the north and the south.  The ASCCC still needs to address the "development of guidelines for local academic senates to work jointly with collective bargaining agents, EEO Officers, and Human Resources Offices in order to ensure hiring practices reflect the urgency for developing a work force responsive to the needs of diverse student populations and to correct misperceptions about obstacles to promoting faculty diversity."

2017 - 18: The committee will develop an outline for consideration for approval by the Executive Committee on the development of guidelines for local academic senates to work jointly with collective bargaining agents, EEO Officers, and Human Resources Offices. Note: given that EDAC has another paper to develop, the EDAC chair might consider requesting that a task force be formed to address this resolution since both resolutions seem to be a needed in today's climate.

In 2018, the body adopted the paper "A Re-examination of Faculty Hiring Processes and Procedures"

Whereas, Studies have indicated that a more diverse faculty workforce can enhance student success and may help to close achievement gaps for underrepresented students by as much as 20% to 50%[1];

Whereas, Since the publication of the Academic Senate Paper A Re-examination of Faculty Hiring Processes and Procedures in Fall 2000, the ASCCC has passed 15 resolutions reaffirming positions that express the need for and value of faculty diversity, yet a great disparity between the faculty diversity and the diversity of the student population remains, as approximately 70% of faculty in the system are white while nearly 70% of the students are non-white[2];

Whereas, Education Code Section 87100 (a) (3) cites the need for a “work force that is continually responsive to the needs of a diverse student population,” and hiring practices that promote the development of a workforce better able to serve student needs can work to reduce biases in hiring processes and combat the persistent perception that initiatives to promote the hiring of ethnic minorities compromise professional and academic standards; and

Whereas, Practices that promote the recruitment and hiring of faculty who can serve the needs of diverse student populations will ultimately lead to a more diverse faculty workforce by focusing on and identifying candidates that can best understand, communicate with, and advocate for diverse student populations, thus increasing both faculty diversity and student success;

Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges provide rigorous and easily accessible training to educate colleges and faculty on ways in which they can increase the ethnic diversity of faculty through multiple targeted actions to recruit and hire faculty who are best able to serve the needs of diverse student populations; and

Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges develop guidelines for local academic senates to work jointly with collective bargaining agents, EEO Officers, and Human Resources Offices in order to ensure hiring practices reflect the urgency for developing a work force responsive to the needs of diverse student populations and to correct misperceptions about obstacles to promoting faculty diversity.

MSC   


[1] See, for example, “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black, It Helps to Have a Black Teacher” at http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/01/20/463190789/to-be-young-gifted-and-black-it-helps-to-have-a-black-teacher” and Fairlie, R. W., Hoffman, F., Oreopoulos, P. (2014). A Community College Instructor Like Me: Race and Ethnicity Interactions in the Classroom. American Economic Review, 104(8): 2567-2591.

[2] CCCCO Equity Summit Presentation, Irvine, CA November 4, 2015.