Faculty talks diversity

By Allie Blood

Published Sept. 14, 2007

Representatives from the Chancellor's Diversity Initiative presented MU's annual diversity report to the Faculty Council on Thursday. Interim Chief Diversity Officer Roger Worthington said the initiative aims to increase minority faculty recruitment, but council members said the university was not competitive enough.

The initiative representatives presented an annual report on its progress, and a handout, called MizzouDiversity, showed the current state of diversity among the staff and student population. According to the handout, the percent of minority on staff has not significantly changed during the last decade.

"We have a serious problem in terms of faculty diversity in terms of the 10 year trend," Worthington said.

Faculty Council members suggested low salaries are discouraging a diverse faculty.

"Is it a serious problem or an unfortunate reality?" professor Steve Neal said. "There are a finite number of, say, women professors in engineering, and they can go anywhere they want, they're golden."

He said Chancellor Brady Deaton's Compete Missouri program, aimed at increasing faculty salaries, would aid in attracting more desirable professors. The program would save $7 million a year by 2008 through generating new revenue and cutting costs. The program's goal is to make MU's faculty salaries more competitive.

Worthington said the Chancellor's Diversity Initiative would launch an advertisement in The Chronicle of Higher Education on Sept. 28 to attract a more diverse faculty by highlighting the university's diversity programs.

Worthington said he couldn't produce statistics comparing MU's diversity to other major institutions, but the most important statistics to consider were those that measured MU's progress.

"If we are constantly comparing ourselves to peers, we will become average, but if we set aspirational goals, we can become leaders," Worthington said.

The annual report included a three-page list of fiscal year 2007 accomplishments and a one-page list of planned activities for the 2008 fiscal year.

The report states that plans for the coming fiscal year include opening an "Equity Office" to receive and respond to discrimination and harassment complaints and implement an online reporting system.

Worthington said the accomplishments from last year include providing funding to students and faculty to sponsor events and attend leadership conventions. He said the initiative also promoted events that promote diversity.

"The major job we have this year is to engage different peoples together," Programming and Professional Development Director Noor Azizan-Gardner said.

Also at the meeting, associate professor Wilson Watt provided a report about the Intercampus Faculty Council. He said faculty members at other campuses do not support the proposal to drop the hyphen and "Columbia" from MU's official name, University of Missouri-Columbia.

"It has become clear that if we are going to do this, we are going to have to do this ourselves." Watt said.