Goal 1: Increasing Faculty Diversity and Inclusion | About DEPTH

Steps to Achieving Faculty Diversity and Inclusion

1. Set and align goals for diversity and inclusion as a department:

Discuss long-term goals related to diversity and inclusion in hiring.
Assess past successes and failures with diversity goals, and use that info to inform practice.
Discuss ways that recruitment and selection processes can be more inclusive.
Prepare to begin in early spring.

Resources: Assessing past diversity successes and failures checklist⁹; Recommended timeline; Sample timetable with template

Something to Consider

Increasing the representation of women and underrepresented minorities in an applicant pool can help reduce the manifestation of unintended biases. For example, gender assumptions are more likely to negatively influence evaluations of women in male-dominated fields if a candidate pool is less than 25% female¹⁰

2. Elect an inclusive search committee and implement strategies to encourage multiple opinions:

Select committee members with a variety of skills, perspectives, backgrounds, and resources who also welcome diverse perspectives.
Select members who are willing to disagree with the majority.
Invite dean to appoint a diversity advocate (DA) to serve on the committee, or consider members outside the department to increase inclusivity.
Engage in brain-storming and open discussions.
Ensure everyone has a chance to speak (e.g., use a talking-stick).
Appoint a contrarian to question group decisions (rotate who does this each meeting).
Plan to openly discuss beliefs about factors that influence faculty diversity.

Resources: FAM 642.4

Something to Consider

Myth: Diversity as a goal distracts from finding exceptional candidates.
Reality: A focus on diversity enhances the likelihood of finding an exceptional candidate. Diversifying the candidate pool increases the number of promising applicants, promotes a fair assessment of all candidates, and leads to the selection of a strong person for the position.

Myth: URMs and women are too few in number, high in demand, and hard to retain.
Reality: Women and URMs are offered academic positions at a much lower rate than their presence in the pool of available candidates. Institutions are not engaged in bidding wars to recruit and retain underrepresented scholars. Faculty of color do not shift jobs faster than Whites.

Myth: Qualified URMs choose lucrative positions in government or industry.
Reality: Minority and women PhDs are no more or less likely to work outside academe than other PhDs.

Myth: White, Asian, and male candidates are now at a disadvantage.
Reality: In 2018-2019, 6 CSUSB departments had applicant pools in which WR (White and Asian) male applicants were underrepresented by 5% or more relative to their national availability; in contrast, URM and WR women were similarly underrepresented in 11 and 8 departments, respectively (source).

3. Develop a broad and active recruitment plan:

Set the goal of attracting a large and diverse pool of applicants for the current search.
Include all department faculty in recruitment processes (e.g., solicit ideas on how and where to recruit; invite faculty to share ads or solicit potential applicant names from personal networks or at conference venues).
Include active outreach recruitment strategies and plan to advertise broadly (e.g., post in field-specific and diversity-targeted publications¹¹, share with discipline-specific and demographic-specific professional societies, and post on social media outlets such as Twitter).
Prepare a brief, low-cost advertisement to advertise in multiple publications with a link to the full job description on department’s website.
Complete FAD’s Recruitment Plan as a collaborative, living document with input from the search committee, department chair, and other department members.
Seek feedback from FAD regarding the likely effectiveness of the recruitment plan.

Resources: FAD guide to recruitment and hiring; FAD recruitment plan; List of discipline-specific and diversity-targeted publications; Conducting a broad and active search checklist; Sample outreach email

4. Implement and monitor the recruitment plan:

Designate person/s responsible for ensuring the completion of each activity and strategy outlined in recruitment plan.
Establish benchmarks to assess progress towards both process and outcome goals.
Designate a person to assess progress towards benchmarks during the recruitment process.
Monitor success at achieving benchmarks and adapt plan to achieve unmet benchmarks

Something to Consider

Using blanket EOP statements alone can discourage women and minority applications¹². Members of underrepresented groups avoid environments in which they are perceived as regulatory or symbolic hires. To convey a sincere commitment to diversity, include a statement about the department’s valuing of diversity and highlight qualifications that emphasize commitment to diversity (e.g., “demonstrated commitment to excellence in teaching and mentoring a diverse student population and to working effectively with diverse faculty, staff and students across a wide range of disciplines”).

5. Create an inclusive advertisement:

Define the position in the widest possible terms consistent with the department’s needs.
Define specialization as open or as general as possible and list related sub-areas of discipline or invite applicants from related disciplines when possible.
Include only a minimal number of required qualifications and differentiate clearly between required and preferred qualifications¹³.
Use words such as “should” instead of words like “must”.
Communicate department’s commitment to and diversity¹⁴ and inclusion of all people¹⁵ to complement commitment stated in FAD’s contributions to the advertisement.
Critically analyze the job description and qualifications, making sure they are geared toward inclusiveness and do not needlessly limit the pool of applicants. Discuss the effect each job criterion will have on the applicant pool, and whether that effect is genuinely justified.

Resources: Required versus preferred qualifications; Avoiding masculine language tips; Gender language decoder

Something to Consider

To increase the percentage of women applying for positions in male-dominated fields (e.g., STEM), consider the language you use in job ads. If stereotypically masculine terminology is used to describe the position or qualifications (e.g., competitive, ambitious, assertive), women are less interested in applying for the job¹⁶. When more gender neutral language (e.g., accomplished, committed, successful) is used, women are more likely to apply and men’s job intent to apply is unaffected. Use the gender language decoder to assess your job advertisement.