Increasing Faculty Diversity

by Cole, Stephen

• ISBN13: 9780674009455
• ISBN10: 0674009452
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-02-28
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

In recent years, colleges have successfully increased the racial diversity of their student bodies. They have been less successful, however, in diversifying their faculties. This book identifies the ways in which minority students make occupational choices, what their attitudes are toward a career in academia, and why so few become college professors. Working with a large sample of high-achieving minority students from a variety of institutions, the authors conclude that minority students are no less likely than white students to aspire to academic careers. But because minorities are less likely to go to college and less likely to earn high grades within college, few end up going to graduate school. The shortage of minority academics is not a result of the failure of educational institutions to hire them; but of the very small pool of minority Ph.D. candidates. In examining why some minorities decide to become academics, the authors conclude that same-race role models are no more effective than white role models and that affirmative action contributes to the problem by steering minority students to schools where they perform relatively poorly. They end with policy recommendations on how more minority students might be attracted to an academic career.

Author Biography

Elinor Barber was a research associate in the Provost's Office at Columbia University.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures	viii
Acknowledgments	xi
The Problem	1	(38)
Obtaining the Data	39	(23)
Ethnic Differences in Occupational Choices	62	(19)
Influences on Initial Occupational Choice	81	(19)
The Influence of Academic Performance	100	(39)
Attitudes toward Academia	139	(24)
Role Models, Interaction with Faculty, and Career Aspirations with Melissa Bolyard	163	(24)
The Influence of School Characteristics	187	(26)
The Pipeline into Academia with Elizabeth Arias	213	(23)
Policy Recommendations	236	(25)
Appendix A: The Questionnaires	261	(22)
Appendix B: Supplementary Data	283	(18)
Appendix C: Methodology and Measurement	301	(18)
Notes	319	(32)
References	351	(8)
Name Index	359	(2)
Subject Index	361