An Initiative to Enhance Faculty Diversity within the Faculty of Arts and Science

To:       Members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences
From:  Richard C. Levin and Andrew D. Hamilton
Re:       An Initiative to Enhance Faculty Diversity within the              Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Yale University has long been committed to increasing the diversity of its faculty in all parts of the institution, recognizing the scholarly and intellectual importance of diversity to both its teaching and research missions. To address an important and very visible part of this commitment, in 1984 the University set the goal of doubling the number of tenured women in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. We achieved this goal within 6 years. Appreciating the need to continue and accelerate this process, in 1999 then-Provost Alison Richard and President Richard Levin urged the faculty to search as broadly as possible, affirming that financial resources would not be a barrier in the recruitment of a more diverse faculty to the University. These efforts have produced evident results. Between 1999/2000 and 2004/5, there has been a 10% increase in total ladder faculty. The number of minority faculty members in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences has increased by 30% in this period, and the number of women faculty members has increased by 43% overall and 113% in the sciences.

These substantial percentage increases are a credible achievement, but we recognize that we must do more. To ensure the continuation of this progress toward the goal of building an Arts and Sciences faculty whose diversity will contribute to the fullest realization of the University's educational mission, we will reengage and reenergize this effort. With this as our goal we state the following:

We explicitly reaffirm the 1999 commitment that resources will not be an impediment to hiring an appropriately diverse faculty. Once again, we encourage the faculty to cast a wide net in the search for outstanding scholars who will bring intellectual richness to the University and who will expand the diversity of the faculty. When departments identify and bring forward outstanding minority scholars or women scholars in fields in which they are underrepresented, we will continue to ensure that the resources necessary for their hiring are made available.

To accelerate our progress, Yale's new approach to this goal will be more comprehensive than in the past. In addition to increasing the current diversity of our faculty, we will focus increased attention on training faculty members of the future. Improving the diversity of the faculty significantly is impossible unless there is increased diversity in the available Ph.D. and postdoctoral training tracks. Yale's achievements in this part of the process will have the added benefit of further enhancing the competitiveness of our graduate and postdoctoral populations. A coordinated Diversity Recruitment Program for Graduate School admissions has been initiated, and it will be extended to postdoctoral recruitment. Professor Kim Bottomly, the newly appointed Deputy Provost for Science, Technology, and Faculty Development, will work with the Deans of Yale College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to facilitate a comprehensive effort at all three levels of recruitment: graduate, postdoctoral, and faculty.

We set for ourselves several 7-year targets. We will focus with particular intensity on those areas of scholarship within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences where faculty diversity still lags and set demanding but realistic goals for departments. First, we will set a goal of substantially increasing the hiring of minority faculty. We believe the addition of at least 30 new minority scholars over 7 years, which represents a 34% increase in the number of minority faculty, is an attainable goal. Second, we will set a goal of increasing by the same number women faculty in fields in which they are currently underrepresented. We believe the addition of at least 30 new women faculty to those departments, representing a 20% increase in women faculty overall and an 83% increase in women faculty in departments in which they are underrepresented, is also an attainable goal. These goals take into consideration discipline-specific information on graduating Ph.D. availability for the past 10 years. This effort will be complemented by a focused effort to increase the diversity of future faculty members in the Ph.D. and postdoctoral training ranks, increases that will benefit both Yale and other research institutions in their future recruiting efforts.

To accomplish these goals, we are adding several new strategies for increasing and maintaining a diverse community:

Deputy Provost Bottomly will convene a Yale Committee on Faculty Diversity to provide advice on existing diversity strategies, to formulate new diversity initiatives, and to facilitate communication with the broader community. She will work with the Deans of Yale College and the Graduate School to implement new initiatives.

We will implement proactive recruitment efforts by departments to identify and recruit outstanding underrepresented faculty.

i. To overcome unintended search barriers, the Yale Committee on Diversity will work with the newly appointed Committee studying appointments and promotion processes chaired by the Deans of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to evaluate and revise search procedures.

ii. We will encourage the identification and hiring of outstanding minority scholars and women scholars underrepresented in their fields and reaffirm that the necessary resources for their hiring will be made available. In addition we will promote cluster hiring and interdisciplinary cooperation.

iii. We will require that each search committee designate a "diversity representative" who will be responsible for ensuring a broad and effective ladder faculty search and who will be held accountable for the outcome of the recruitment and its impact on the diversity of the department.

iv. The Graduate School will actively expand its efforts on diversity admissions in all departments and programs. Every department will be required to appoint a "diversity representative" to seek applicants who will expand the diversity of the department and Graduate School. We will expand its summer and academic year programs to help recruit minorities and women to graduate study.

v. New diversity efforts for postdoctoral trainees will focus on a new initiative to recruit graduating Ph.D.s in science to train in research laboratories at Yale. This recruitment will be part of a larger program to develop the careers of postdoctoral trainees.

Career development of junior faculty members, graduate students, and postdoctoral trainees is an important part of our mission. We will reinforce and expand the efforts initiated last year to establish department-based mentoring for all untenured faculty and to provide mentorship for graduate students and postdoctoral trainees. Retention of faculty can be enhanced by attention to their career development. Proactive faculty retention efforts will be applied to all faculty, leading to better departmental climate and faculty productivity and satisfaction.

Work/Life policies that support diversity efforts at all levels will continue to be enhanced. A Work/Life Advisory Committee with members from across the University community has recently been appointed to review existing policies and recommend policies, procedures, and programs that support individuals in balancing the demands of work, family, and personal life.

The success of new strategies for increasing diversity will be assessed each year by the new Committee on Diversity under the direction of Deputy Provost Bottomly, using data provided by the Office of Institutional Research on new hires and promotions. If the goals are not being met, we will make strategic modifications to our initiative to better achieve the goals.

The excellence and intellectual vigor of the University depends on the contributions of a talented and diverse University community. We will continue our efforts to achieve this, using an approach that includes the training of faculty members of the future that will benefit not only Yale but other research institutions. It must be recognized, of course, that resources, programs, and reports alone are not sufficient to meet the goals we have set. Success will require the active cooperation of all members of the faculty, and especially chairs of departments and chairs of search committees. Only members of the faculty can identify, vote to hire, and recruit other faculty members to Yale. With the active good will of the faculty and a firm commitment from the administration, we will accomplish our ends, to the lasting improvement of Yale.