UC commits $7M annually to increase faculty diversity

 

POSTED ON Oct 30, 2018

 

The University of California has committed more than $7 million annually to expand existing programs, to increase faculty diversity as well as create new ones that help ensure students on all 10 UC campuses benefit from a faculty that better reflects California’s diversity.

According to the university press release, in the past year, 44.1 percent of new hires were women and 17.1 percent were from underrepresented groups. The percentage of women faculty has increased steadily over time and women now account for one in three ladder-rank faculty.

The gender and racial/ethnic makeup of faculty vary by discipline, however. Both women and racial minorities are more heavily represented in the non-science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines.

UC President Janet Napolitano said that while the university has made significant progress in hiring and retaining faculty from underrepresented groups, including women, but there was much more work to be done.

“We know that students’ academic performance and career aspirations are enhanced when faculty of similar backgrounds serve as role models,” Napolitano said during the UC Board of Regents meeting at UCLA.

“Moreover, teaching, research, innovation, and service thrive when all members of our community are welcomed and supported. That’s what we want at UC.”

Napolitano said the university will allocate a total of up to $7.1 million a year to support programs that have been shown to improve faculty diversity — including those that strengthen the pipeline of graduate students who plan a career in academia — as well as new efforts based on best practices.

Several such programs have shown strong results thanks to $2 million in state funding for each of the past three fiscal years.

“We project accelerated growth in the number of ladder-rank faculty who will join UC in the next decade, in large part to educate our growing student enrollment,” said UC Provost Michael Brown. “We need to seize this opportunity to make progress on the efforts to increase faculty diversity.”