As the University works to maintain its status as a top school among both private and public universities, it is embarking on a new strategy to improve its national rankings. Administrators have been working on something to help raise the University's national and international standing by, among other things, increasing faculty diversity.
Why Diversity?
According to the Board of Visitors, as the University embarks upon setting itself among the top public and private schools, many areas of improvement come into play. Bill Harvey, vice president of diversity and equity, said increased diversity will be integral to achieving a higher standing for the University.
"The presence of a diverse faculty communicates, particularly to our students, the importance of being engaged with individuals from a wide array of experiences and backgrounds as they go through their educational experience," Harvey said.
Jennifer Harvey, chair of the Faculty Senate's newly formed recruitment, retention and welfare committee, said she agreed.
"It enriches your environment," Jennifer Harvey said. "I think that's really the key thing. If you have a very uniform environment, you're going to have a very uniform point of view."
According to Faculty Senate Chair Kenneth Schwartz, this trend to increase diversity has gradually grown over time.
"The University, over its history, has been enriched over its increased diversity in terms of demographics and perspectives," he said. "We're talking about continuing the trend that has been underway for sometime."
Bill Harvey agreed, noting, however, that increased faculty diversity could be the key to an improvement in the University's rankings.
"This is an institution that has absolutely extraordinary potential," Bill Harvey said. "Administrators have an understanding of ways to increase recognition ... but diversity has to be a part of achieving excellence in order for us to be the number one university."
Diversity in the Past
According to the Association of American Universities, in 2003, the University was ranked 21st among 61 of its peer institutions in terms of its African-American faculty hiring. For women, the University was placed at number 53. When it came to Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander and Native American faculty, the University fell into one of the organization's bottom four slots.
Harvey said he believes the University's demographic situation reflects the institution's history; it was segregated until the 1950s.
"We are still an institution that is only moving a few years now out of segregation, so, unfortunately, there's still probably a sense among some people that the very best minds in the country are restricted to one race and gender," Bill Harvey said.
Gertrude Fraser, vice provost for faculty advancement, however, announced at the Board of Visitors September meeting that the University is beginning to break this stereotype.
Fraser revealed that in the 2005 issue of this same report, the University moved up in terms of its hiring of African-Americans and women, ranking 12th and 48th respectively.
Improvements Still Needed
While Fraser and Bill Harvey noted the University has experienced significant shifts, they both stated that there is still work to be done.
"There are 61 institutions in that group, and they are the most prestigious universities in country," Bill Harvey said, noting that the AAU includes all the Ivy League, Big Ten and Pac-10 institutions, among other private peer universities such as Johns Hopkins, Syracuse and Duke. He noted, however, that "the most recent comparisons show the University in need of a tremendous amount of work in this arena."
According to Bill Harvey, the University is still far below where it would like to be in terms of Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian faculty members.
"We're 12th in terms of African-American faculty," Bill Harvey said. "But when we talk about faculty from other racial groups, especially Hispanic, we're ranked 59th, and in terms of Asian faculty, U.Va. is also 59 out of 61 peer universities. We want to be at the top of the group."
Recruiting Faculty
So the question the University faces is how it will achieve wide recognition as a more diverse institution.
Fraser said she was hired three years ago by the University's Provost's Office to specifically deal with "faculty development," in order to assist with the hiring of diverse faculty members.
Fraser said that since then, the University has made progress in identifying ways to recruit a more diverse array of faculty.
"We have really focused our efforts to reach out to a diverse candidate pool," she said.
Fraser said she has already begun to see the results of her department's efforts.
In her report to the Board of Visitors on Friday, Fraser announced that in the past year, the University extended 26 offers to minority faculty candidates.
Of the eight offers extended to African-Americans, seven were accepted, as were eight of the 13 Asian offers and three of the five Hispanic offers.
In addition, Fraser reported that these faculty yield rates have increased in comparison to the past.
Seventy-three percent of the offers extended to women were accepted this past year, up from 54 percent. The most significant changes, however, came from African-American and Hispanic hiring.
Up from 33 percent, 60 percent of Hispanic candidates accepted a University offer, as did 88 percent of African-Americans, a vast improvement over the previous year's 31 percent acceptance rate.
According to Fraser, her department has created specific tools in order to assist with this goal. She said these tools include a tutorial which every member of a faculty search committee must take in order to have some basic knowledge of candidate diversity.
"The other thing the tutorial does is to offer an approach on how to successfully conduct an on-Grounds interview," she said. "We know that when we do things well, it also works well for all searches," not just minority searches.
Fraser noted that another area of improvement has come within the way the University is publicized.
"The other thing that the schools have done successfully is to think very carefully of how to word position announcements and ads to make sure they reach out to places where we think the candidates are," Fraser said. "And to make sure that in our ads we assert and recognize that our University is a University that encourages a welcoming environment."
Fraser noted that in the past, negative publicity has had a negative impact on diversity recruitment and has played into the stereotype Harvey referenced.
"In the past, we have gotten negative press," she said. "People may have all kinds of perceptions of the University ... we want to counter those positions, because the negative ones out there are unfounded."
According to Fraser, various benefits are crucial to the recruitment of new faculty members, including health care and retirement benefits, partner and spousal support (in the form of dual career hires) and competitive salaries, yet she noted that the most important benefit is often understated.
"Salary is important, but not the main thing," she said, noting that it is the emphasis on the contributions of faculty and the work they have done, as well as the opportunity to advance that really makes an impact on hiring.
"It's that full package of support so they understand that when they come ...in the first two or three years, they will have what it takes to develop their careers," she said.
Retaining Faculty
Once a faculty member is hired, however, retention becomes the issue.
According to Fraser, this becomes something for individual schools and departments to deal with.
"Retention efforts are much more focused at the school level, to keep junior faculty and not to lose members at the junior or senior level," she said. "A lot of that work has to take place at school level, they have much better idea of individual issues and as to why a person may be staying or going."
Some of the University's individual colleges, such as the School of Medicine and Darden School, have created specific departments to deal with issues of retention and diversity.
"Under the guidance of our senior associate dean, Sharon Hostler, we have spent a great deal of time on faculty development programs, and Dr. Hostler is in charge of some 120 sessions for faculty development, all aimed at retention," Medical School Dean Arthur Garson said. "We learn so much from each other that the more diverse background that we can have is just so much better for us as people and for us as physicians."
Robert Bruner, dean of the Darden School, noted that the issue of faculty diversity is one that is "near and dear" to his heart, noting that Darden has a "two-prong" initiative that is implemented in order to increase and retain its diverse faculty.
"The first prong is a very active outreach to candidates -- women and minority candidates," he said. "The second prong is creating the kind of environment internally that will appeal to those candidates ... [an] internal environment that makes U.Va. a desirable place to work and achieve professional ambitions."
In addition to the Medical School and Darden, the Faculty Senate has also decided to deal with these issues of retention through the formation of its recruitment, retention and welfare committee.
"It's a grassroots movement to try to focus on these major issues," Schwartz said. "Our committee is going to help with the question of diversity, but it also speaks to the health of the broader faculty as a whole."
Fraser also noted that while issues of retention are usually left to individual schools, her department is also working to develop techniques to retain faculty.
"We are developing a year-long new faculty orientation program, just to make sure new faculty, over the year, have an opportunity to ask questions about tenure, etc.," she said.
The Future of Administrative Diversity
As the University strives to improve its current rankings and perceptions, it must take into consideration the diversity of both its student body and its faculty.
"We need to create an inclusive climate, a climate that truly engages candidates across a range of diversity," Bruner said. "We need to live the virtue, not because of the window dressing but because it will truly make us a stronger university"
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