“I am an invisible man […] I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids—and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.” —Ralph Ellison (Invisible Man)
Hey there, welcome to Soap Box. I was planning on having the first issue be a cute introduction to the series, but let’s just get right into it.
On January 29, President Nariman Farvardin released the “Strategic Plan report of progress for Year 7.” Lots of stuff, but this is the lone sentence that caught my eye:
“This year, 3% of the full-time faculty are underrepresented minorities, increase from 2.1% in AY 2018-19.”
Excuse me while I go cackle for a moment.
Before we get into the actual percentage, let’s talk about the percentage change. A .9% change? I thought, “What is that? Like one person?” I was dead wrong. It was two. Two underrepresented, full-time faculty members were hired out of 24 new hires in all of AY 2019-20.
And now, let’s talk about the percentage itself. Out of 305 full-time faculty members (as of Fall 2019), 9 are underrepresented.
9.
Goal C3 in this almighty strategic plan says this:
“Compared to our 2011 baseline, our faculty will increasingly reflect greater diversity from multiple perspectives, including gender and ethnicity […] In addition, we will aim to increase the number of underrepresented minority faculty in our full-time tenure and non-tenure stream faculty by at least two-thirds from the Fall 2016 baseline of nine.”
Three years here, and I have only ever met one Black professor: at a video shoot for the Stevens School of Business. I’ll never have a class with him, (he was a Graduate professor) but in that moment, I was shocked.
“Black professors exist here?”
Imagine having to ask yourself that on the flip-side of the coin.
I find it pretty insane (and kind of funny) that we only have 9 underrepresented faculty members here. I thought it was already bad in terms of student representation, but apparently it gets worse. I am sure most minority students here can tell you that the classroom can quickly feel like the most oppressive space on campus. You’re locked in a room with peers who look nothing like you, and the rules of the classroom are governed by the Professor. And that Professor is a man. That Professor is white. And his icebreaker for the class is “Who here goes to Church?”
The amount of horror stories I have heard from friends about their professors and their subsequent bigotry is ridiculous. Today was the first time I had to drop a course because I was afraid my identity would get in the way of me passing it. Though switching out was made easy, it put a sick feeling in my stomach to choose between my pride and an A. Sadly, I had to choose the A (it’s 4.0 season baby!).
It’s Year 7 of this strategic plan. Stevens, what are you doing to make our campus as inclusive and diverse as you proclaim it to be? You say you aimed to increase the number of faculty by two-thirds from the 9 we had in Fall 2016; why have we stayed at 9 for three years?
From AY 16-17 to AY 18-19, the percent of underrepresented, full-time faculty dropped by .7% to a total 2.1%. While it may look good on paper to have bounced back in one year, 3% ain’t gonna cut it for me. 9 underrepresented faculty members ain’t gonna cut it for me.
Outside of all of the other initiatives here you have for equity, we’re all here for one thing: an education. An education that is being harmed because we choose to remain in the status quo. It is the responsibility of Stevens to take command and hire more marginalized folks so that we can change our mindsets where they’re taking shape most. If that’s not reason enough, we can get technical and discuss how we’re learning on property created by slavery. Think of this as reparations — I know my pockets are hungry.
Be First to Comment