Recommendation 2: Increase the number of BIPOC and other underrepresented groups of faculty at Trinity. Rationale: If Trinity University is serious about their commitment to faculty diversity, and if the university wants to move beyond empty rhetoric to real action and progress that changes statistics and transforms the institutional culture, it must make a concerted effort to educate and hold accountable everyone who serves on the search committee. As Turner (2002) contends, “a solid foundation for campus faculty diversity can be laid by search committee processes—processes which not only reflect the larger institutional commitment to diversity but which, also, serves as occasions for serious campus reflection on the barriers to recruitment and retention of faculty of color,” (p. 28) and other underrepresented groups. Since faculty both educate and serve as mentors to Trinity students as well as serve as mentors for other faculty, any efforts to create, support, and retain a diverse faculty can go a long way toward improving the campus climate by broadening the range of what is taught in the classroom and by enriching the experiences of all students, faculty and staff. These efforts should begin with the recognition that past hiring practices—including practices that have given preference to degrees from specific schools and Trinity alums—may have excluded well-qualified candidates whose background or identity marked them as different from the dominant department or campus culture. In 2018, Academic Affairs created “Expectations for Conducting Fair, Equitable and Lawful Faculty Searches at Trinity University,” a document that outlines a process that academic departments are required to follow in an effort to equitably and legally recruit and hire diverse faculty on the tenure track. The extent to which these guidelines are being followed, however, is inconsistent. Many faculty have not unlearned to employ equitable processes as part of the search committees and many continue to consciously or unconsciously recruit and hire candidates simply because they feel comfortable with them and may have had a shared experience. It is therefore incumbent upon Academic Affairs to assess whether the guidelines as currently written effectively achieve Trinity’s diversity and inclusion goals. Academic Affairs should also create similar guidelines for the hiring of contingent faculty, a category of faculty not currently covered by the document. Stakeholders: Faculty, Staff, Students, Alumni, Board of Trustees Recommended Actions
Performance Indicators
Responsible Parties
Direct Institutional Research and Effectiveness to gather, analyze, and disseminate data regarding the demographic composition of the faculty in each academic department of the University.
Demographic report is completed and provided to the VPAA.
Vice President for Academic Affairs, Executive Director of Institutional Research and Effectiveness
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