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Race and Ethnicity in the American Professoriate

 

UCLA STUDY SHOWS NATION'S COLLEGE FACULTY OF COLOR STILL LOW IN NUMBER, STILL OCCUPY LOWER TIERS

Release date: June 16, 1997

A new UCLA study shows that higher education in the United States falls short in its faculty diversification efforts. The study's authors found that while faculty of color are more likely than their white colleagues to meet public expectations for college instruction, their numbers still are very small and, on average, their positions fall in the lowest ranks of academia.

"It is disheartening that higher education has not done a better job in recruiting and sustaining a more diverse group of people for its faculty ranks," said education Professor Helen Astin, lead author of the study, "especially when faculty of color have shown greater commitment to what the public says it wants from its colleges: more attention to undergraduate education and greater service to the community."

The study is the first nationwide look at the status of ethnic-minority college and university faculty. Astin and three associates used data from a 1995-'96 survey conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. Of the 33,986 faculty respondents at 384 two- and four-year institutions, only 8.7 percent were from underrepresented racial/ethnic populations.

The study showed that faculty of color tend to be younger and more often occupy the lower-ranking, non-tenured academic positions. This is demonstrated most clearly when comparing white and Latino/a faculty. About 17 percent of all white faculty hold ranks lower than assistant professor, while about 32 percent of all Latino/a faculty occupy the lowest academic ranks.

These differences are consistent with the distribution of faculty across institutions. Faculty of color, with the exception of Asian-American faculty, are much more likely than white faculty to work at two-year colleges, where nearly 40 percent of faculty hold non-tenure track positions.

And yet, Astin's study showed that faculty of color are more likely than their white colleagues to prepare students for responsible citizenship, and are more likely to develop students' moral character and instill in them a commitment to social change and community service.

"It appears that faculty of color are consistently more likely than white faculty to be motivated in their careers by the opportunity to influence social values and social change," said education graduate student Christine Cress, research analyst and co-author of the report. "These values are manifested in the faculty's commitment to community service and in their goals for undergraduates."

In addition, faculty of color are more likely to promote racial understanding than are their white colleagues. While more than half of white faculty agree that helping to promote racial understanding is an essential or very important life goal, a full 77 percent of faculty of color report this to be true, making it the second most important life goal to faculty of color, after developing a meaningful philosophy of life.

Faculty of color report more job-related stress than their white colleagues. "Compared to white faculty," said graduate student Anthony Lising Antonio, research analyst and co-author of the study, "faculty of color report higher levels of stress related to review, promotion and the tenure process, research and publishing demands, and most significantly, subtle discrimination."

The study reports that faculty of color are more than twice as likely as white faculty (49 percent versus 21 percent) to identify subtle discrimination as a source of stress.

"There are many forms of subtle discrimination, from having others see you as an 'affirmative action case,' thereby leaving your qualifications open to question, to not having your scholarly work considered good enough because of the topics you choose or where it is published," Astin explained.

And faculty of color say they are less satisfied with nearly every aspect of their jobs than their white colleagues, especially in the areas of autonomy and independence, job security and the opportunity to develop new ideas. The study found that American Indians report the lowest overall level of job satisfaction, followed by Asian Americans and African Americans. Latino/a and white faculty report the highest levels of job satisfaction, with 75 percent and 77 percent, respectively, saying they're satisfied overall.

Across all ranks, Asian-American faculty tend to report the highest salaries. "This is consistent with the disproportionate concentration of Asian Americans in the sciences and in universities, where salaries tend to run higher," the study said. Asian Americans also are more likely to hold Ph.D. degrees than other ethnic groups.

The study found that American-Indian faculty salaries are consistently among the lowest. These faculty members are heavily concentrated in two-year colleges and are the group least likely to hold Ph.D.s.

African-American faculty are heavily concentrated in education and the social sciences and include a higher proportion of women than any other group. They are the most likely to say they have been victims of subtle discrimination and to assign a high priority to personal goals of promoting racial understanding.

Latino/a faculty tend to be disproportionately concentrated in two-year colleges and in the lower academic ranks. Along with African-American faculty, they are more likely than other groups to say they chose an academic career because it gives them an opportunity to effect social change.

A major problem facing higher education, said Astin, is too few people of color are earning doctorate degrees, a job qualification required by the more elite universities. It's incumbent upon higher education, she said, to encourage young people of color to pursue academic careers and support them in that endeavor.


-UCLA-

Editors Note: Copies of the report, "Race and Ethnicity in the American Professoriate, 1995-96" by Helen S. Astin, Anthony Lising Antonio, Christine M. Cress and Alexander W. Astin, are available for $25 (plus $4.79 for shipping) from the Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, 3005 Moore Hall, Box 951521, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1521.

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