Lange reports on faculty diversity

Transition and planning marked the first year of the new Faculty Diversity Initiative, Provost Peter Lange reported at the Academic Council meeting Thursday.

Lange was careful to emphasize that despite the 2003 conclusion of the Black Faculty Initiative, the University continues to focus on recruiting and retaining black faculty members in its diversity efforts.

“We are continuing to push, and we are continuing to make progress in all of our diversity goals and especially in the area of African Americans,” Lange said.

Duke’s diversity achievements of the last few years include the Pratt School of Engineering’s successful efforts to hire more women and strong retention rates among black hires. Still, continued under-representation of Hispanics and Latinos, blacks and women among the faculty remains a challenge.

One particular area of concern is the Nicholas School of the Environment, which still has no black faculty members. Last year, two attempts at hiring black professors there fell through, and Lange said continued efforts to bring in black faculty are now underway.

April Brown, chair of the Faculty Diversity Standing Committee, emphasized the importance of working at the departmental level to improve diversity.

“It’s really the department that provides the climate, the resources and the first level of opportunities for the faculty,” said Brown, who is also chair of the electrical and computer engineering department.

Brown also spoke to the council about a faculty climate survey planned for February. She said the 21-page survey, which every faculty member will receive, is intended to help the University increase retention and better accomplish its diversity goals.

Brown explained that the survey, which the committee had adapted from one given to faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had garnered a 75 percent response rate there.

“It is imperfect, but it’s going to give us good data,” Brown said.

Wednesday’s meeting ended with a report on the challenges facing the library system. Deborah Jakubs briefly addressed the council for the first time since her appointment as vice provost for library affairs and Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian.

“The library doesn’t exist and function in a vacuum,” Jakubs said. “Right now, the pressures on us are increasing, and it’s more important than ever for us to stay in touch with the faculty.”

Peter Feaver, chair of the library council and professor of political science, said the library’s latest external review had been very positive, but he was less enthusiastic about the library’s financial situation.

Inflation of the prices of library materials, especially the rising costs of subscriptions to online journal databases, have meant that the University’s libraries have accumulated a $3 million shortage—relative to their former purchasing power—over the past 10 years.

“These databases greatly facilitate our research,” Feaver said, “but it comes at a high cost.”

Libraries at peer institutions have received greater funding increases in recent years, Feaver said. Much of the $40 million in capital that Duke’s libraries raised in the last campaign went to building the new Bostock Library expansion to Perkins Library, and he warned that faculty will certainly notice the upcoming budget cuts.

“We wanted to start the discussion now, before we got overwhelmed by complaints,” Feaver said.

In other business:

After months of discussion among the faculty, a resolution to endorse the revisions to the Harassment Policy carried unanimously.