WASHINGTON ― As race relations in the U.S. continue to be strained over fatal police shootings of Black men, those who work in higher education should not see themselves as immune from the same kind of unconscious bias that many believe is a factor in those shootings, a higher education leader told conference attendees this week in Washington.
“It seems like hardly a week goes by without another police shooting of a Black male, and we certainly see the systemic unconscious bias that’s present in that sphere,” said Jacqueline Bichsel, director of research at the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, or CUPA-HR.
“Unconscious bias is present in a lot of realms,” Bichsel said. “I think sometimes in higher education we think we are immune to that bias because we’re more progressive in higher education.”
But Bichsel presented data that show minorities and women are underrepresented or underpaid in relation to their White and male peers, respectively.
For instance, she presented data that show women earn 77 cents for every dollar that males earn in executive positions in higher education.
She rebuffed the various explanations that have been put forth as to why—from women lack advanced degrees to women are less likely to demand higher pay.
“There’s just one conclusion I can reach from this and that is we pay men and women differently,” Bichsel said. “And the pay gap is real.”
