Although Duke's efforts to recruit and retain diverse faculty members are mostly on track, they still lag in some academic fields such as the natural sciences, Provost Peter Lange said at the Academic Council meeting Thursday.
Lange, in his biannual Faculty Diversity Initiative update to the council, said one reason for persistently low numbers of minorities and women in specific fields-particularly the natural sciences-is the relatively small number of minority and women in the pools of hirees the University must compete within for those faculty.
"We are one of the best universities in the country. We should be able to recruit anyone we want, or at least make a good run at them," he said. "So simply saying, 'The pool is really small and that's why we have none of X or none of Y' is not an appropriate response."
The Faculty Diversity Initiative-which has been in place since the completion of the Black Faculty Strategic Initiative in 2003-focuses on recruiting and retaining minority and female faculty in fields where they are underrepresented. Although the more recent initiative has no numerical goals, Lange said it has been an effective push for diversifying faculty.
Lange reviewed data illustrating the University's progress toward its racial and gender diversity goals by humanities, natural sciences and school as compared to the other Consortium on Financing Higher Education universities averages.
"Numbers can only begin our understanding of the ways which we are building a diverse community and an inclusive community here at Duke," Lange said. "The numbers tell a necessary but only a part of the story.... We have accomplished much and we still have much to do."
The University is continuing to make progress on its original 10 Point Plan designed to provide leadership, mentoring, funding and self-scrutiny to promote retention of current faculty and strategic hiring, Lange said.
He also addressed the question of faculty turnover in light of the current economic climate. He said that it is likely faculty hiring will slow down in the next few years due to disincentives to retirement from the external market, disincentives to hiring from other schools because of budget constraints and tighter resources at Duke.
"If you put those three factors together, it's clear that we're going to have real pressures on our ability to do what I would call faculty replacement," Lange said.
In other business:
Nancy Allen, vice provost for faculty diversity and faculty development, said funds from the Alfred P. Sloan Award for Faculty Career Flexibility are being used to help faculty take advantage of parental leave and tenure clock stoppage. The University was one of five research universities to receive the $25,000 award in 2006 from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Allen noted that educating current faculty and leadership as well as monitoring existing programs are key focuses.
In response to recent information technology problems across the University, the body also heard a presentation about the Information Technology Advisory Council. ITAC Chair Terry Oas, associate professor of biochemistry and chemistry, told the council about ITAC's role in the University as a communication tool for faculty and students to voice complaints to higher administration.
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