WASHINGTON — Colleges and universities looking for advice on best practices for recruiting and retaining faculty of color, got candid advice here Thursday from three Black scholars offering tips based on their own experiences navigating the academy.
In the blunt, oft times humorous exchanges with colleagues from across the country gathered for the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the scholars cordially disagreed on some strategic advice for their peers.
By the same token they were in agreement in their advice that institutions need to look and be receptive to faculty prospects who are not cookie cutter versions of existing faculty, that recruiting needs to be sincere not just hiring done to fill a quota and leaders of an institution should work at ensuring the college or university has a cultural landscape and environment that is understanding and receptive to the ordinary needs of faculty of color.
“All colleges look at everybody the same…,” said Dr. Ivory Toldson, deputy director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), responding to a question about the “biggest” mistake colleges make in trying to recruit Black faculty. “They (the faculty recruiters) may miss certain things, a lot of those holistic factors. You have to be a lot broader in your scope.”
Purdue University’s Dr. Monica F. Cox, an associate professor of engineering education, amplified Toldson’s advice, telling the diverse audience, “Folks have to realize this person’s (the prospect’s) past may be different from what you experienced before.”
Cox, a Spelman College graduate with graduate degrees from the University of Alabama and Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, said faculty recruiters need to educate themselves about prospects, adding later in the discussion, successful recruiting is more than “words on paper. It’s a relationship, showing interest,” she said, likening recruiting to a courtship.
