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Columbia Dedicates $15M to Accelerate Ongoing Efforts to Diversify Faculty: Funds to Be Used in Arts and Sciences
New York, August 3: Columbia University today announced the dedication of $15 million to jump start a new recruitment campaign and to accelerate other ongoing efforts to diversify its faculty. The University Trustees, at their June meeting, unanimously approved the new
funding commitment.
The University seeks to add between 15 and 20 outstanding women and
minority scholars to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences over the next
three to five years. It also will enhance efforts underway to change the
process and culture surrounding faculty searches, recruitment, hiring,
retention and promotion.
"These funds allow us to bring on board a critical cluster of new talent
in the Arts and Sciences that in turn may help us recruit other scholars
from underrepresented groups," said Jean Howard, who was appointed
Columbia's vice provost for diversity initiatives in September 2004.
"But," she cautions, "the investment in and of itself is not sufficient
to bring about the fundamental and far-reaching changes we are committed
to make. Those will take time and a continuous University-wide effort."
"Building a diverse university community," said Lee C. Bollinger, president of Columbia "requires sustained commitment, concerted effort and the attention of us all. With this investment we are reaffirming Columbia University's commitment to our core values of inclusion and academic excellence."
The added investment and its use stem from the work of a faculty committee that advised the vice provost for diversity on key ways to
step up efforts to achieve a more diverse community of scholars.
In response to their recommendations, the investment will significantly
strengthen a coordinated set of initiatives that, among other things,
improve the faculty hiring process to more successfully identify and
recruit outstanding scholars from historically under represented groups;
address the work-life issues of an increasingly diverse faculty; the
acute problem of the dearth of women and minority faculty in natural
sciences and engineering; and extend the University's dialogue in this
important area.
Improving the Search, Selection and Recruitment Process:
The new resources will help underwrite promising efforts in various
departments to widen the pools from which search committees select
faculty; lengthen search time and expand recruitment efforts; experiment
with strategies such as cluster hiring and coordinated appointments;
create dual career and partner placement policies; undertake more
interdisciplinary hiring; centrally organize information about how to
access existing networks of outstanding minority and women candidates;
and sponsor workshops on issues relevant to successful identification
and recruitment of outstanding candidates.
Meeting the Work-Life Needs of Faculty:
Recognizing the importance of child care for recruiting and retaining
outstanding faculty, the University has begun a needs assessment and
feasibility study for Morningside and uptown campuses in regard to
child-care. The assessment is being conducted by the Bright Horizons
Child Care Corporation, which manages Columbia's Lamont Doherty Child
Care Center and provides child-care services to other leading
universities, such as MIT, Yale, Duke and Princeton. The report is
expected in January 2006.
Targeting the Specific Needs of Natural Sciences and Engineering:
For historical reasons, women and minorities continue to be
under-represented in some fields. The problem is particularly pronounced
in the natural sciences and engineering. The vice provost for diversity,
working with the New York Academy of Sciences, is establishing a
consortium of area universities, medical schools and industries with a
view toward creating, among other options, a high-end job bank for
science positions in the New York area. This fall, the consortium will
hold its second meeting, exchanging information about initiatives at
peer schools; discussing strategies for building pipelines to facilitate
the careers of women and minorities in academic science; and examining
ways to respond to dual career problems as they arise in the sciences.
Encouraging Pursuit of Scientific Careers:
In addition, the vice provost's Task Force on Diversity in Science and
Engineering has been tasked with finding ways to strengthen the pipeline
bringing women and minority students into the University's
undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral programs. The committee will
work in conjunction with the National Science Foundation's ADVANCE
program in the Environmental Sciences and with Columbia's Presidential
Advisory Committee on Diversity Initiatives to build on, refine or
modify successful initiatives undertaken by those groups. A series of
working papers over the next 18 months will detail new steps to enhance
diversity efforts in the fields of science and engineering.
Deepening and Extending the University Dialogue:
The investment also allows for continued expansion of
University-sponsored events on diversity matters. Last year's guest
speakers included Princeton President Shirley Tilghman, who spoke about
the hurdles of recruiting and retaining women in science; MIT Biology
Professor Nancy Hopkins, who described the institutional transformation
around gender issues that occurred at MIT; and Georgetown University Law
Professor Chuck Lawrence, who spoke about the continuing need for
affirmative action.
Moving Forward:
In the coming academic year, the Presidential Advisory Committee on
Diversity Initiatives will continue to maintain the accelerated
momentum. It will:
- work closely with the provost and a range of departments and
centers in the Arts and Sciences to oversee the new investment;
- extend the diversity committee's work into the professional schools
- undertake information sessions for search committees starting in
the fall designed to eliminate unconscious bias against diversity
candidates, and to outline best practices for successful searches;
- work with ADVANCE to prepare appropriate materials and continue
to sponsor events designed to extend the University conversation on
diversity matters;
- encourage salary equity studies throughout the University; and
- work with the Office of Institutional Research to synchronize
data collection for the Office of Equal Opportunity and other relevant
offices and committees.
"If we are successful with this multi-pronged approach at Columbia,"
says Howard, "The University will be a better, more intellectually
vibrant community. And, just as important, the academy as a whole will
benefit enormously."
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