RECRUITMENT OF MINORITY FACULTY TO RURAL U.S. COLLEGE CAMPUSES: A STUDY OF SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES IN USE
Degree type
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Higher Education
Subject
Faculty
Hiring
Inclusion
Recruitment
Rural
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Abstract
The United States has become increasingly diverse, but the American professoriate has not kept pace. Nationwide, nearly three quarters of all college faculty are White. That figure is even higher in rural institutions, where minority faculty comprise only 15% of the total. This is problematic because research has shown that students of all races learn best in diverse environments and that minority students especially benefit from seeing minority representation among college faculty. Although ample research exists to unearth potential causes for the disparity in faculty diversity, particularly on rural college campuses, very little literature exists to capture strategies being utilized to correct it. This study cataloged more than three dozen strategies being employed at six rural U.S. institutions that have achieved a ratio of minority faculty that meets or exceeds the national average for rural colleges and universities. In general, these initiatives fell into three areas: increasing the size and diversity of candidate pools, ensuring equitable search processes, and creating a culture that would appeal to a diverse group of candidates and encourage them to stay once they were hired. This analysis also focused on the forces that motivated the changes at these six campuses, the ways presidential prioritization galvanized the initiatives, what can be learned from the various strategies used, and how the effectiveness of the strategies has been assessed.