Senate Diversity Memorandum to President Jenifer
MEMORANDUM
DATE: March 7, 1995
TO: Dr. Franklyn Jenifer
FROM: The Academic Senate
The Academic Senate affirms that an ideal of excellence
includes diversity among the faculty along with the more
traditional measures of scholarship and teaching quality. We
believe faculty diversity is consistent with a long-held and
ancient ideal of universality in institutions of higher
learning. We therefore encourage the administration in its
efforts to increase faculty diversity. In conjunction with
these efforts, we ask the administration to consider some or
all of the following suggestions which would help us to
recruit and retain a diversity of faculty at UT-Dallas:
1.Set up a central facility to support Affirmative Action at
UT-Dallas. There are a number of ways that such a facility
could assist faculty search committees. For example, it
could:
a. Provide guidance to search committee chairs in
University affirmative action policies and procedures.
b. Provide search committees with availability data
relevant to the search.
c. Collect search committee data on applicant pools.
d. Set aside funds for expanding recruiting efforts if a
pool does not meet expectations.
e. Develop a centralized data bank, accessible by
schools, departments, or, units, for placement of advertisements
in publications geared toward female and minority professionals
and their needs.
2. Take out institutional memberships in female and minority
higher education professional organizations. The
opportunities for hiring offered by these organizations could
then be communicated to ad hoc committees.
3. Develop a Target of Opportunity Hiring Program and set
aside University resources for this purpose. Such a program
might include, for example, policies and procedures for
recruiting and hiring under this program, and a faculty
committee in each school that would be charged with
identifying candidates. This could include resources for a
"fast track" process for recruiting opportunity candidates,
so that faculty can make informal, on-the-spot invitations to
visit the campus. It might also involve placing standing
advertisements for outstanding candidates.
4. Encourage/allow job advertisements that communicate that
we are flexible in our (disciplinary or specialization)
requirements so that we can consider as many excellent female
and minority candidates as may apply. Advertize more of our
positions "rank open" so that we have the opportunity to
evaluate applications of senior level women and minorities.
Senior level hires may become more stable members of the
faculty than junior level hires.
5. Develop on-campus child care. Alternatively, work with
our corporate neighbors to develop cost-sharing child care
and preschool arrangements, or co-sponsorship of existing
agencies and schools.
6. Make funds available to faculty for recruiting trips when
these are especially likely to yield female and minority
candidates.
7. Increase/expand our efforts to help candidates' partners
find work, either through making positions available
ourselves or through establishing a network of contacts in
the community. Offer split positions either on campus or
with companies in the community in order to accommodate dual-
career couples.
8. Enhance initial offers of salary and start-up support, or
guarantee summer salary to insure competitiveness.
9. Initiate efforts to develop early hiring incentives and
programs.
10. Initiate efforts to develop policies and procedures for
retaining faculty once hired (for example, develop
flexibility in accomodating changes in faculty interests).
Establish a general policy of taking advantage of
opportunities to retain female and minority faculty when
those opportunities present themselves.
Establish a review process to evaluate retention rates among
women and minority faculty members, and identify problems
that need to be addressed. Undertake periodic reviews of
promotion and salaries to ensure equal treatment for female
and minority faculty members