Campus Opinion: Diversity Needed, Execution Far-Fetched
By Grace Elletson
After a series of events reported by The Ithacan about racial tensions at Ithaca College*, administration is trying to address these conflicts by installing new guidelines for recruiting faculty and staff of diverse racial backgrounds.
The new procedures include training on inclusive search procedures for search committee chairs, diversifying search committees,including a faculty member from outside the unit that is conducting the search and approving lists of semi-finalists and finalists in searches to ensure that candidates from underrepresented backgrounds are included in the finalist pool.
Still, students and faculty alike are concerned about the lack of racial representation and if these guidelines will actually fix the problem.
John Romanelli, freshman, said that creating a diverse environment where people can learn is essential to a well-rounded education.
“The lack of diversity is a problem and it’s an issue we need to address moving forward,” Romanelli said.
While Romanelli agrees that the guidelines for search procedures might help diversify the school, nothing the school does now will immediately fix the issue.
“First, people need to stop being racist,” he said. Romanelli attributes the gap to social construct. He said he doesn’t want the procedure to turn people of color into a novelty “to fill a quota as the token ‘professor of color.’”
Michele Lenhart, director of Student Leadership and Involvement, said that a crucial part of having a diverse faculty and staff is being able to connect with students culturally.
“Increasing the number of faculty and staff, who represent culture groups other than the majority, will increase the number of perspectives students get to learn from,” Lenhart said.
Validating Lanhart’s views, a study conducted by the American Council on Education and the American Association of University of Professors**, found that two-thirds of faculty members evaluated think that students benefit from learning in a racially and ethnically diverse environment. Also, more than 40 percent think that diversity helps develop critical thinking and leadership skills.
However, Chip Gagnon, professor in the Department of Politics, said that he thinks this need for diversity caters to the idea of “token” professors and expanding cultural perspective merely for students who are white — rather than for the purpose of social justice for minorities.
“The argument for diversity objectifies faculty/students of color as ‘enriching’ for the benefit of white students,” Gagnon said. In an article he wrote for Buzzsaw magazine in 2005***, he outlines contrasting worlds that whites and minorities live in.
“In the US, black students experience living in a white world every day of their lives, even if they go to black-majority schools or live in black-majority neighborhoods. The same cannot be said for most whites, who tend to live in overwhelmingly white environments,” Gagnon wrote in his article “Marketing or Justice? Diversity, Justice and the Academy.”
He said the reason why minorities are underrepresented in higher education positions, links back to the opportunities people of color are given in their public education system. He said minorities have very low graduation rates due to the lack of funding given to schools, which is based upon property taxes. In the 2012-2013 school year, whites had an 86 percent graduation rate, hispanics had a 75 percent rate, and blacks had a 70 percent rate,**** according to the Department of Education.
“This means fewer people of color go into graduate school and get PhDs, which mean there is a limited number of applicants of color, and given that all colleges have a diversity goal, they are basically competing for a limited pool,” Gagnon said.
Gagnon and Lenhart both said they couldn’t speak to the inclusivity of racial culture among faculty and staff because they are limited to their own departments.
Freshmen Maribel Bermudez and Lexy Arter, both students of color, agreed that at least among students, there is no racial exclusion on campus that they’re aware of.
“I grew up in two different cultures, so I feel comfortable with everyone,” Arter said, who is biracial.
Bermudez, who is predominately of spanish heritage, said that most of the people she has met are indifferent to race.
“People here look at who you are as a person, not your race,” Bermudez said.
Bermudez said that she understands that being able to have a professor to connect with culturally is important for some people, but for her, she said she’s likely to connect to anyone who is a good teacher.
“I’m more likely to connect with a teacher who has similar ideals as me, if that connection comes from a cultural background, that’s great,” Bermudez said.