Annual Report on Diversity

The faculty diversity initiative is now in its second year. The initiative began on January 1, 2007, as a result of the October 2006 Report of the Task Force on Faculty Diversity and Inclusiveness. The Task Force Report defined two primary goals: to increase the diversity of the faculty and to create a more welcoming community for the faculty. In the 2007–08 academic year, 29.5 percent of our faculty were female, compared to 28.6 percent in our baseline year (at the start of the faculty diversity initiative), 2006–07. The proportion of faculty who identified themselves as a member of an underrepresented minority group 2 was 2.8 percent in 2007–08. That percentage was 2.6 in 2006–07, our baseline year. This represents an increase from 37 underrepresented minority faculty members in fall 2006 to 41 in fall 2007.

Structure of the Faculty Diversity Initiative

The primary element of the University-wide faculty diversity initiative structure is the committee of faculty diversity officers from all of the schools of the University chaired by Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity Lynne Davidson. The role of the faculty diversity officers committee is to advise the vice provost on those diversity programs that are best implemented at the University, rather than the school, level. This group also serves as an important information-sharing body, so that lessons learned at the school level can be shared with the diversity officers in the other schools.

A second component of the University-wide faculty diversity structure is the Panel of Advisors, led by Frederick Jefferson, professor emeritus of the Warner School of Education. This group is made up of individuals with expertise on diversity matters in the corporate sector, where diversity initiatives are much better established.

In the past year, the faculty diversity initiative was formalized at the school level. In Arts, Sciences, and Engineering, a faculty diversity committee appointed by Dean Peter Lennie in late 2006 had broad responsibility for understanding best practices for recruiting and retaining faculty and for making these practices widely known, for developing guidelines to make faculty searches maximally inclusive and attractive, and for developing support mechanisms to help retain faculty. The committee made multiple recommendations in fall 2007.

The academic deans of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering recognized that progress will be most rapid if they facilitated the activity, and they now have assumed responsibility for this. To provide additional expertise, Dean Lennie appointed Beth Olivares, director of the McNair Program and the Kearns Center, as Assistant Dean for Diversity Initiatives.

This year, the Eastman School formed the Eastman Diversity Committee. This began as a faculty committee and now includes members of the Eastman School administration, including the dean, the senior executive associate dean, and the assistant dean for student life. The committee is divided into five subcommittees for future-focused work: faculty diversity, (national) student recruitment and diversity, curricular initiatives, events, and community engagement. The committee meets twice monthly, often with guest consultants who have helped to inform them about ongoing initiatives. Among other first-year projects, the committee has written a strategic plan with their vision for the future work of the group.

The Warner School established its Diversity and Inclusion Committee in fall 2007. The committee has focused its efforts this year on raising faculty members’ awareness of issues of diversity and inclusion regarding faculty hires but has begun to expand its work to address these issues with staff and students as well.

In the School of Nursing, The Dean’s Advisory Council for Diversity and Inclusiveness (DACDI) is charged with the guidance and implementation of diversity and inclusiveness initiatives. This council is a group of 10, representing different constituencies of the SON community, including administration, clinical track faculty, academic track faculty, staff, and doctoral students.

Faculty Recruitment

The primary goals of the faculty diversity initiative are to build a more diverse faculty applicant pool and to increase our success rate for hiring such candidates.

Special Opportunities Fund

The goal of this Fund (www.rochester.edu/diversity/faculty/fund) is to assist deans and department chairs in the recruitment or retention of specific faculty candidates who will contribute to the diversity of the faculty and who might otherwise not be recruited successfully because of intense competition. There will be $500,000 available in the Fund for FY 2009 (compared to $400,000 in FY 2008). As of this writing, more than one-half of the Fund has been committed for FY 09. At this point last year, we had confirmed that the Special Opportunities Fund would support five new hires for FY 08 (in addition to the continuation of support for hires from previous years). The 2007–08 Special Opportunities Fund ultimately supported nine new hires. We currently have one confirmed new hire for 2008–09 and five others in the pipeline. We also have nine continuing commitments for FY 09.

Building the Applicant Pool

Building a diverse applicant pool requires a great deal of focused effort. The Office for Faculty Development and Diversity assisted the schools with this process by distributing to each dean and department chair in the fall a package of information that included data on recent doctoral graduates in the relevant academic discipline by race and gender, a snapshot of that department by race and gender, a list of Web-based journals and email listservs that have high minority readership and are appropriate venues for job ad placements, some sample job ads that go beyond the standard “equal opportunity employer” statement, a brief description of best practices in forming a diversity-friendly faculty search committee, a memorandum describing the University’s legal framework for diversity, and a copy of JoAnn Moody’s Rising Above Cognitive Errors: Guidelines for Search, Tenure Review, and Other Evaluation Committees.

To further assist in this process, beginning in FY 09, the Office for Faculty Development and Diversity is making recruitment grants available to encourage faculty, as part of their recruitment process, to attend academic conferences, symposia, and other professional association meetings that have large underrepresented faculty audiences. Faculty may request up to $1,500 to support travel and conference fees.

Among other initiatives, the Office of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Sciences and Engineering has provided guidance (both in documents and briefings) on how positions should be advertised and searches managed, and it has monitored searches more aggressively.

At the Eastman School of Music, recruitment efforts will be expanded now that the School has joined the Center for Black Music Research (CBMR, www.colum.edu/cbmr/) as an institutional member. The school advertises all of their faculty openings on the CBMR Web site and has sent a member of the Diversity Committee to its annual national meeting.

In the School of Medicine and Dentistry (SMD), approaches to broaden faculty searches and hiring have been reviewed with Medical Center department chairs. Data collection regarding search committee processes is being more closely monitored. Recognizing the need to expand the pool of qualified future faculty, SMD is investing in efforts to develop a pipeline of faculty from the student body and postdoctoral training programs. The school encourages participation in faculty development activities by the membership of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA, an organization for medical students of color) in order to foster an interest in academic medicine among the students. A visiting elective program has been designed and will be implemented for the next academic year to encourage minority students from any U.S. medical school to spend a month in Rochester during the fourth year to encourage greater numbers of minority applicants to SMD’s residency programs. This program was well-received at the SNMA national convention in New York City.

Throughout much of the University, we have implemented new applicant data collection procedures, a process piloted last year by the College. Now, applicants for faculty jobs in the College, Warner, Simon, and Eastman receive an e-mail from the department or school that directs them to a Web site. On the Web site, applicants are asked for their gender and race/ethnicity. The data submission is not associated with the name of the applicant—only with a particular job search. The information collected from this process will help us learn more about the diversity of our applicant pools, and how they change over time.

Recruitment Packets

Over the winter and spring, the Office for Faculty Development and Diversity created a faculty recruitment packet, which is continuously updated with current information. In the early days of the faculty diversity initiative, we learned from department chairs that they need materials to give to faculty job candidates that would highlight cultural resources in the Rochester community. It is unrealistic to expect each department chair to know about the great variety of cultural resources in the community. Deans and department chairs also requested materials for potential faculty members about our “family-friendly” policies.

The faculty recruitment packet now includes our new brochure that describes our family-friendly policies, the UR Home Mortgage Program pamphlet, the latest issues of Currents, Rochester Review, and Faculty Development News, the New Faculty First-Year program calendar, the Memorial Art Gallery brochure, a copy of the University’s diversity advertisement that appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Greater Rochester Cultural Directory, the “Exploring Rochester” brochure, the “Visit Rochester” brochure, a list of local public and private schools, “Rochester’s African-American Heritage” brochure, and the Baobab Cultural Center brochure.

To date, department chairs have requested approximately 300 packets to help with recruitment efforts—a measure of strong interest and usage of this resource.

Training

In July, deans, associate deans, and diversity officers from every school in the University participated in a two-day training workshop with JoAnn Moody, a national expert on faculty diversity. The workshop included sessions on issues such as recognizing and eliminating unconscious bias in the evaluation of CVs, asking appropriate interview questions, and mentoring of “solo” faculty (i.e., situations in which an individual is the only woman or only person of color on the faculty in a particular department).

The Office of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Sciences and Engineering then implemented a faculty search training process that involved every faculty search committee chair and every department chair that had a search during this recruitment season.

The Eastman Diversity Committee held a training session with the chairs of all faculty search committees at Eastman in the fall.

The Warner School’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee conducted three sessions for faculty during fall 2007 that focused on issues of diversity and inclusion in hiring new faculty. Throughout the search process this year, Warner’s faculty diversity officer has served as the resource for search committees regarding issues of diversity and inclusion, including reading all applicants’ files, attending search committee meetings, discussing the background of those considered for an invitation to interview, and fielding related questions.

Building Community/Faculty Retention

Our ability to retain faculty depends upon two critical factors: creating effective faculty development programs and providing a warm and welcoming environment.

Faculty Development

The responsibility for faculty development remains essentially at the school and department levels.

The School of Medicine and Dentistry has an extensive array of faculty development programs—some old, some new, and others still in the planning stage. Examples include

• The Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). The CTSI (www.urmc.rochester.edu/ctsi/) includes education, training, and faculty development programs. Dr. Denham Ward, associate dean for faculty development, heads the mentor development core, which helps support and maintain the availability of quality research mentors. Activities have included mentoring workshops and oversight of the mentor/mentee pairs to help ensure that there is adequate progress toward completion of the individual’s research career development plan. A Web-based curriculum on mentoring is in the planning stages and will be an important faculty development resource for the entire Medical Center.
• Monthly seminars. Monthly faculty development seminars have been well attended and evaluations have been overwhelmingly positive.
• Participation in national programs. Opportunities for participation in national faculty development and leadership programs for women have been promoted, allowing for in-depth exploration of specific aspects of faculty development and for networking with medical faculty from institutions across the country through the Association of American Medical Colleges, NIH, and the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine Program at Drexel University. These competitive programs have selected five women faculty from our institution for academic medicine leadership development.

At the Warner School, retention efforts that focus specifically on scholars of color are in the beginning stages. As part of these efforts, Warner offers the guidance and mentoring of Frederick Jefferson, professor emeritus, to junior faculty; holds discussions of faculty professional development literature that demonstrate that course evaluations and evaluations of research agendas for scholars of color are often harsh and inequitable compared to those of their white colleagues; and disseminates articles focused on such issues to tenured faculty who will be evaluating tenure and promotion cases of Warner’s faculty of color in the upcoming academic year.

In the School of Nursing, every faculty member is assigned a mentor, and is evaluated every year. The academic and clinical track committees in charge of supervising promotion proceedings guide the faculty candidates through the promotion process.

Arts, Sciences, and Engineering joined the Northeast Consortium for Faculty Diversity, and accepted applications for a Visiting Dissertation Scholarship. In April, we made two offers, which were accepted, and we will be hosting a dissertation scholar in both the Department of History and the Department of Political Science in the 2008–2009 academic year.

Conversations and Celebrations

A welcoming and inclusive community is best achieved through continuous conversation about the relevant issues. Ideally, these conversations occur at all levels of the organization. University-wide conversations and celebrations this year included

• President’s Cabinet Retreat. In August 2007, the Provost led one such half-day conversation as a diversity workshop with the President’s Cabinet.
• Frederick Douglass International Underground Railroad Conference. The University cosponsored the September 2007 Frederick Douglass International Underground Railroad Conference, at which author and radio and television correspondent Juan Williams was a keynote speaker.
• Diversity Forum. In November, the Office for Faculty Development and Diversity cosponsored our first University-wide diversity forum, which included members of the College, Simon School, and University Advancement.
• Celebration of Faculty Diversity. In March 2008, the University held its second annual Celebration of Faculty Diversity; this time with guest speaker Ursula Burns, president of the Xerox Corporation, and member of the University of Rochester Board of Trustees.

Communicating about the Program

We continue to expand our diversity Web page, www.rochester.edu/diversity/, creating a new events calendar, posting more news items, and adding more helpful links. Since January 2007, we have added 22 content pages to the site. We had 9,501 hits to the diversity Web site in January 2008, up from 3,608 hits in January 2007. There were 77,046 Web hits in all of 2007.

The job of recruiting a diverse faculty is bolstered when potential faculty appreciate how serious we are about becoming a more diverse and inclusive community. In order to further increase our presence beyond the University community, in the fall, we placed a color ad in the annual Diversity Issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Office for Faculty Development and Diversity continues to distribute the new Faculty Development News to faculty University-wide three times per year. The newsletter is accessible to all who visit our Web site as well.

Faculty First-Year Program and Faculty Early Career Program

The 2007–08 academic year was the inaugural year for the Faculty First-Year Program and the Faculty Early Career Program (www.rochester.edu/diversity/faculty/orientation.html). The goal of the two programs is to provide opportunities for recently hired faculty from all departments to make meaningful connections across the schools of the University. The audience is therefore inherently multidisciplinary and diverse. The programs welcomed new and early career faculty into the campus community by promoting a high level of interaction among participants; creating mechanisms to support informal discussions about issues of teaching and learning; helping new faculty identify institutional resources that will assist with grant writing, publishing, tenure, and promotion; providing a common social ground for stimulating scholarly exchange; and discussing the balance between professional and personal life.

Networking and Partnerships

One way to create a welcoming environment for faculty is to provide opportunities for meetings with other faculty and University senior leadership that they might not otherwise engage.

Interviews of minority faculty in the School of Medicine and Dentistry suggested a need for greater sense of community and a need for recognition or appreciation of faculty contributions. Faculty receptions were held to allow faculty to meet and network. A fall reception included medical school faculty, residents, and fellows, along with members of the administration. Monthly calendars now are sent to faculty in the school featuring a sampling of various cultural events at the University and in the City of Rochester.

Climate Studies

The 2006 Task Force Report recommends that each school consider conducting a formal analysis of the cultural climate within the school. The schools continue to be at various stages in that process. The Office for Faculty Development and Diversity has determined that one relatively simple way to measure climate University-wide is through exit surveys. We are examining various surveys and processes employed at other institutions and are in the process of determining what will work best here. We intend to have a decision before the end of this academic year so that the survey can be implemented for the faculty who leave this year. We recognize, however, that gathering information about our climate only from those who have left the University will give us an incomplete picture; therefore, we continue to rely on the schools to contribute to this process.

The School of Nursing conducts a diversity environment survey every year with faculty and staff. (This year’s survey is still being analyzed.)

As of September 2007, 6.1 percent of the professional administrative supervisory staff were identified as a member of an underrepresented group (Black, American Indian, Pacific Islander, or Hispanic). This is up from 5.1 percent in September 2006.

Professional Administrative Supervisory (PAS) Grade 50+ Recruitment Initiative

We continue to create a pipeline program that establishes a diverse professional workforce for today and the future. This initiative is the cornerstone for increasing the diversity of our professional staff.

The Healthcare and Technology Youth Apprenticeship Program (HTYAP)

The main goal of HTYAP is to provide high school students who have an interest in health care and its related technologies the opportunity for realworld work experience. Ultimately, we want students to consider attending the University of Rochester and to seek employment at the University after graduation.

The students work in 10–12 week rotations in various units within the University of Rochester Medical Center including the Center for Community Health, Office of Mental Health Promotion (Psychiatry), Department of Pharmacy, Information Systems, and Clinical Pathology. There are currently four students in the pilot program. The program will grow to 12 students in September 2008.

Affinity Groups

The Office of Human Resources—Multicultural Affairs and Inclusion continues to support the activities of the African-American Network, the Latino Professional Alliance and the Pride Alliance. The office also is working with staff to develop two additional affinity groups for the Native American and Asian populations.

Inclusion Activities

Inclusion activities are in place to deepen the diversity efforts and provide opportunities for staff development, training, and other activities throughout the University.

Support to various department and units for diversity sensitivity and educational programs continues as an important aspect of embedding diversity and inclusion activities into the workplace. Examples include piloting of a diversity book reading group, facilitating discussions of films and documentaries that have diversity themes, and developing training, as requested, to various units.

Two University units (University IT and College Admissions and Financial Aid) have agreed to explore ways to increase their commitment to diversity and inclusion by participating in a leadership and organizational change initiative that will have a direct tie-in to their strategic plans. Each of these organizations has enlisted the consultant services of the Warner School’s Warner Center for Professional Development and Education Reform to help with these initiatives. Both projects are being led by Frederick Jefferson who has assembled an interdisciplinary consultation team of faculty, University HR professionals, Warner School doctoral students, and a private executive coaching firm to implement this groundbreaking effort.

The Office of Human Resources develops policies, procedures, and guidelines that support a welcoming community. For example, policies and procedures related to the Family and Medical Leave Act and bereavement leave are being updated to include domestic partners. Guidelines for gender transition were created in September 2007 to address and support the responsibilities of the Office of Human Resources’ managers and staff when a staff member is going through a gender transition while in the workplace.

At the University of Rochester, student diversity initiatives are school-based. Data shows student gender and race/ethnicity for the entire University. Data shows school-specific data for 2001, 2006, and 2007. In the fall of 2007, 50.3 percent of our overall student population were women, 7.6 percent were underrepresented minorities (African American, Hispanic, or Native American), 8.1 percent were Asian or Pacific Islander, and 13.1 percent of our students were not identified by race or ethnicity.

The College

During the summer of 2007, the dean of the College established a working group of senior staff to examine what the school could do to help strengthen diversity and their support for minority students. The group made several recommendations, including that the College work to attract more students from the RCSD, and develop stronger advising and support mechanisms for sophomores. The College already has taken several steps this year, most notably the Rochester Promise program, which will provide admitted students from the RCSD with $25,000 scholarships each year for up to four years. The College also will waive its application processing fee for all students from Rochester public schools. The College estimates that at least 40 students a year who might otherwise have considered a degree from the University of Rochester out of their financial reach will take advantage of this scholarship.

With the help of outside consultants, the College Diversity Roundtable this spring undertook a campus climate assessment (the first since 1982) that asked undergraduates broad-ranging questions intended to capture the quality of their experience on campus. Just over 30 percent of students responded. The results are being analyzed.

The McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program (www.rochester.edu/college/McNair-Program/) and the David T. Kearns Center for Leadership and Diversity in Science and Engineering (www.rochester.edu/college/kearns/) continue to do outstanding work. The objective of the McNair Program is to increase the numbers of low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented minority undergraduates who pursue doctoral degrees. Of 20 college students who attended this year’s National Conference for Undergraduate Research, nine were McNair Scholars.

The mission of the Kearns Center is to expand the pool of individuals who pursue undergraduate and graduate careers in the sciences and engineering. In October 2007, the Kearns Center was awarded two major grants by the U.S. Department of Education, for a total of $2 million, to fund the Upward Bound program, which prepares local low-income, potentially first-generation high school students for college. One grant funds a program for students at Thomas Jefferson High School and the other is for math and science enthusiasts across the RCSD.

The Early Connection Opportunity Program, administered by the Office of Minority Student Affairs, was expanded from three to four weeks. This summer program is designed to teach a group of low-income, minority, and first-generation college students about the attitudes, skills, and social connections needed for success in the College.

Eastman School of Music

Eastman recruits qualified African-American and Latino students through national advertising, recruitment fairs, regional auditions across the U.S., visits to urban schools and community music groups, the William Warfield Partnership, a summer music camp for high school students, and other means.

Eastman’s Pathways Program (http://esm.rochester.edu/community/pathways/) provides students in the RCSD with private and ensemble lessons, as well as music theory and history classes, with scholarship support. Almost 100 percent of Pathways students who have completed the program have gone on to college. Many have pursued a music career, and many more have continued with some aspect of music study during their higher education. The program provides collegiate scholarships to those who qualify for Eastman collegiate admission. These scholarships are not race-preferential, but they target an urban population that is roughly three-quarters minority. Other scholarships with a preference for funding African-American or economically disadvantaged urban students include the Carl Lewis Deavenport Scholarship, which provides support for either vocal or instrumental African-American students; the William Warfield Scholarship, which provides support for an African-American student who has talent, financial need, and a 3.0 grade point average; the Links Scholarship, which provides support for an African-American student through The Links Association, Inc. (Rochester Chapter); and the William Randolph Hearst Scholarship, which provides support for undergraduate students with financial need who graduated from urban public high schools.

The Eastman School 17 Urban String Partnership is in its 10th year. This collaboration between Enrico Fermi Elementary School (School 17) in the RCSD and the Eastman String Music Education Department brings free private instruction to many of the 60 third- through sixth-grade students who are in the string program at School 17 (84 percent of the students at School 17 are African American or Latino).

Eastman’s Secondary String Methods course is taught largely in the field at the RCSD School of the Arts (68 percent of the students at the School of the Arts are African American or Latino). This provides future string teachers with an active model of urban teaching as they observe both the classroom teacher and an Eastman faculty member teaching example lessons.

School of Medicine and Dentistry

“Ready, Set, Go to College” is a program that was created through a partnership between the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry Center for Advocacy, Community Health, Education and Diversity (CACHED) and the RCSD in 2006, aiming specifically to increase the number of high school seniors applying to college. During this initial pilot phase, the project has worked exclusively with James Monroe High School, which will be graduating its first class of seniors this year. There are 111 seniors in the Monroe High School Class of 2008. Of those, 87 applied to at least one college (78 percent), and 57 of these applied to at least one fouryear college (51 percent).

School of Nursing

The Nurses Sharing Tremendous and Extraordinary Possibilities (NxSTEP) program established many cultural enhancement and inclusiveness programs for the students in the School of Nursing in the last academic year. This programming included many “Inclusiveness in Nursing” forums, which are designed to discuss, support, and illuminate opportunities and challenges in creating an inclusive environment in nursing. The School of Nursing also held a “Men in Nursing” program in the fall of 2007.

Simon School of Business

According to the October 23, 2006, issue of BusinessWeek, which looked at top-tier M.B.A. programs, the Simon School has one of the highest percentages of underrepresented minorities in their incoming domestic M.B.A. student population. Simon also has one of the highest percentages of international students. Approximately 36 percent of Simon’s enrollment is comprised of students representing more than 35 different countries, including Brazil, Germany, Thailand, India, Japan, Taiwan, Colombia, and Russia. The school places a strong emphasis on diversity within the student experience, including geographic background, culture, gender, race, ethnicity, academic background, work experience, and personal perspective.

Simon offers a variety of student-run organizations that share the common goal of promoting unity among the school’s diverse student body (www.simon.rochester.edu/why-choose-simon/diversity-atsimon/index.aspx). These clubs include the Latin American Student Organization of Simon (L.A.S.O.S.), the Simon Association of Women M.B.A.s, Simon National Black M.B.A. Association, and Simon United. Simon United’s goals are to encourage Simon students to further their cultural awareness and attain a sense of tolerance and understanding; to foster unity within their diverse community and the greater global society; to help members appreciate and understand each other and our society’s diversity; and recognize unfairness if it exists and take personal leadership in confronting bias.

Warner School of Education

Student demographic diversity is increasing at Warner. The school also has increased the number of deaf and international students in the Warner community over the last several years. One course, American Education and Linguistic Practices, was developed and offered this year to support international students, specifically those whose first language is other than English, in their transition to graduate studies and scholarly activity conducted in English.

I am convinced that progress with respect to diversity and inclusiveness, like so much else at a large research University, does not occur instantly or quickly, but because of community support and consistent efforts over time. I have been pleased by the extent to which our University’s commitment to diversity and inclusiveness now has been institutionalized throughout the University and by the number of new initiatives that have begun. This report is possible because those involved in the faculty, staff, and student diversity initiatives, including the deans, have made the effort to assess and take responsibility for those initiatives.

Let me express my particular gratitude for these efforts to Lynne Davidson, vice provost for faculty development and diversity; Maggie Cassie, assistant provost for faculty development and diversity; Stan Byrd, human resources manager of multicultural affairs and inclusion; the deans and faculty diversity officers and committees in each school; Provost Ralph Kuncl; and Senior Vice President for Health Sciences Brad Berk. I am looking forward to further progress next year. I remain unalterably committed to continuing those programs that are successful in addressing the diversity of the University community and to making our community a more welcoming one.