A Disconnect in Diversity Recruitment in Higher Education

This is part one of a three-part series, each one looking at a different form of diversity. Here I look at structural diversity, which “refers to the proportion of diverse individuals in a given setting.” In this case, the setting is higher education, and the individuals are students and faculty. In another article, I discuss representation as part of interactional diversity. And the third article covers curricular diversity by focusing on how to add diversity in course materials.

Much has been written about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in higher education, including here on HigherEdJobs.com. For years, colleges and universities have been adding course requirements, writing diversity statements, creating offices for DEI, and promoting these efforts to prospective students and other stakeholders. According to the Association of Psychological Sciences, “most universities either frame the benefits of diversity from a moral perspective (e.g., increasing fairness and justice) or from an instrumental perspective (e.g., broadening horizons).” The former suggests that higher education needs to do what’s right and fix injustice and unfairness that have existed for centuries. The latter suggests, with much evidence, that diversity improves student learning. I argue that there is a third reason, that is much less altruistic and marketable, yet still has to do with marketing. That reason is competition for students.

The Perfect Storm

For years a perfect storm has been brewing. For starters, it has been often reported that the United States will soon have a “minority majority.” The U.S. Census Bureau published a report in 2015 predicting that “by 2044, more than half of all Americans are projected to belong to a minority group (any group other than non-Hispanic White alone).”

The second part of the storm is the decline in the number of 18-year-olds, leading to an “enrollment cliff.” Since tuition is the primary source of funding for most institutions, enrollment levels need to be maintained in order to avoid terminating programs and/or employees. The reduction in the number of prospective students means colleges and universities are increasing their efforts to be competitive in the market for students.

Finally, studies have shown that students want and benefit from attending universities with more diverse study bodies. Bai, Ramos, and Fiske reported that students benefit from more “ethnically diverse colleges” which enriches their college experience and “better prepares them for life and work in 21^st century America.”

This combination of reduced numbers of prospective students, those students being more diverse, and students wanting more diversity means colleges and universities need to adjust to be more appealing to diverse students. Thus, at the most basic level, DEI initiatives on campuses are a means to be more attractive to prospective students.

Need for a Cultural Change

Just having more diversity is not enough to achieve either the moral or instrumental perspective for increasing diversity. This is clear from research in business. For example, Harvard Business Review reports that having more women on boards of directors doesn’t directly improve performance alone. The culture of the board needs to change too. Likewise in higher education, just having a more diverse student body is not enough — the culture of the institution needs to change. Chief Diversity Officers suggest that part of what is needed to change is for universities to integrate DEI strategy into their “stated goals, with clear objectives, metrics, and accountability.” This would mean that universities would need to not just frame DEI in a moral and/or instrumental perspective as they have been doing, but codify and implement it. As they say in management, “what gets measured gets managed.” Without metrics, there is little accountability to follow through on statements about diversity and truly implement them. And it’s clear that “doubts remain about whether they will succeed” as, for example, data on demographics in science and engineering graduates from the National Science Foundation shows.

One of the reasons why they may not succeed is that while universities are increasing recruitment of diverse students, they are less successful at recruiting and retaining diverse faculty. Having diverse faculty is important to helping diverse students feel “belonging” which is defined “as a concept of people’s connectedness and mattering at the organizations or institutions where they work, study or are otherwise involved.” Some universities recognize this and are launching efforts to increase diversity in faculty, such as University of Michigan’s recent initiative to hire “at least 20 new tenure-track faculty with scholarly expertise in racial inequality and structural racism.”

The American Council on Education suggests three areas where institutions need change in order to improve faculty diversity: “1) attractiveness of faculty positions; 2) hiring, tenure, and promotion processes; and 3) departmental and campus climates for faculty of color.” But data shows that while universities say they want diversity in faculty and recruit for it, they frequently deny tenure to under-represented faculty. This is one of the ways universities demonstrate that their real reason for diversity initiatives is for marketing to prospective students. When universities truly embrace the idea that it is the right thing to do (moral) and/or because it improves learning (instrumental), they need to support efforts to not just recruit, but also retain diverse faculty. That includes ensuring that faculty hires are tenure-track and that the tenure process is updated to enable more diverse faculty to achieve tenure.

Programs to Increase Diverse Faculty

One of the longstanding problems in recruiting diverse faculty is the pipeline. The good news is that the pipeline problem is well-recognized and there are efforts to address it. Below are just a few examples. If you know of or are a part of an organization helping to increase the diversity of Ph.D. students, please share it in the comments.

• The PhD Project has been working to increase the diversity of PhDs in business since 1994. Since their founding, they have “more than quintupled the number of historically underrepresented business professors in the U.S., from 294 in 1994 to over 1,400 today.” Yet black, latine, and multiracial faculty are still underrepresented compared to the U.S. population.
• Regional organizations have also made efforts to improve diversity in Ph.D. programs. Also starting in 1994, the Southern Regional Education Board, along with the New England Board of Higher Education, and the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, started the Compact for Faculty Diversity.
• In the sciences, national governmental organizations have created programs to increase diversity. The National Institute of Health launched the Initiative for Maximizing Student Development to diversify the pool of scientists earning a Ph.D., and the National Science Foundation has an initiative to broaden participation in STEM.