The following sections are summaries of the associated articles,
which can be accessed by clicking the links in the title of each section.
which can be accessed by clicking the links in the title of each section.
Sharing Diversity Work
Article: Sharing Diversity Work: Notes for White Faculty
Author: Jessica Welburn Paige
Key Points: This article discusses steps for faculty who are not members of underrepresented minority (URM) groups to help "do the work" and become more engaged in DEI efforts.
Author: Jessica Welburn Paige
Key Points: This article discusses steps for faculty who are not members of underrepresented minority (URM) groups to help "do the work" and become more engaged in DEI efforts.
- Diversity your personal networks to engage with different audiences and to help create more connections.
URM faculty cannot be the only ones to bring the "minority voice" to the table for seminar talks and student recruitment. Take the time to learn about work of URM groups in your field. Attend panels at conferences geared for URM groups to learn about the work of students and faculty members you can recruit or make connections with. By making these connections, it becomes readily apparent that while there are fewer scholars from diverse backgrounds, there are plenty to diversity the speaker series or job applicant pool. - Diversity is an asset.
Diversity improves the quality of the university through representing the population as a whole. Diversity is a way to foster the growth of traditionally marginalized groups in scholarship and innovative research. - View your campus differently, especially if you are tenured.
URM students often ask URM faculty to be on panels or advise projects because they are looking for a similar background. Other times, it is because URM faculty are visible. As a non-URM faculty member, attend events hosted by URM students in their spaces. Make connections with these students which will, in turn, improve recruitment and retention efforts for students and faculty alike. - Treat DEI efforts with the same urgency as other institutional issues.
A lack of diversity has a lasting impact on campuses. If the final lists for job candidates, admitted students, or campus speakers contains no scholars from URM groups, speak up. Act with urgency to ensure your campus becomes diverse to remain a competitive leader.
Invisible Labor
Article: What Is Faculty Diversity Worth to a University?
Author: Patricia A. Matthew
Key Points: This article discusses the burden of the "invisible labor" URM faculty experience. This article is particularly focused on racial diversity, but this holds for all areas of diversity, including ability and gender.
Author: Patricia A. Matthew
Key Points: This article discusses the burden of the "invisible labor" URM faculty experience. This article is particularly focused on racial diversity, but this holds for all areas of diversity, including ability and gender.
- URM faculty, when hired, are often expected to occupy a set of roles: mentors, inspirations, guides, and in particular, "to be the racial conscience of their institutions while not ruffling too many of the wrong feathers." This work in called "invisible labor" because institutions don't value it with the same currency as used in retainment decisions (such as reappointment and tenure).
- URM faculty, especially early in their careers, are advised to "lay low" and get tenure before speaking up and speaking out. This is both from a work-with-the-currency model to achieve reappointment, but to also avoid pitfalls such as course evaluations that are biased against URM faculty.
- Invisible labor is hard. It takes away from time spent on university currency and it can be emotionally draining, but it can also keep you grounded and mindful of the role a faculty member can play as students on two sides of the color spectrum can learn to understand each other.
- In today's climate, not only do URM faculty typically take on more service than their male or white counterparts, students look to URM faculty as support and interveners with administration. URM faculty feel vulnerable in their classrooms and their departments. In particular:
- "All too often, when deans, provosts, and presidents call for panels, workshops, and university discussions, there’s a faculty member of color who has to wrestle with how to contribute (or with whether or not they want to) while still doing the work their colleagues get to do without the same burden. "
Diversity Fatigue
Article: Diversity Fatigue is Real
Author: Mariam B. Lam
Key Points: Diversity fatigue--the feeling that DEI efforts are all talk and no action--often affects persons who are most committed to diversity work. Feelings that DEI work is checking a politically-correct box are pervasive, and DEI individuals often feel the unseen labor of championing for their own existence. In particular, "[m]eaningful diversity work cannot be seen as something that is supplemental or remedial, or touted only in times of crisis or promotion. Diversity is not philanthropy. For diversity work to thrive, it needs to be part of everyday life on campus — for everybody."
Material adapted from https://www.chronicle.com/article/Diversity-Fatigue-Is-Real/244564
Author: Mariam B. Lam
Key Points: Diversity fatigue--the feeling that DEI efforts are all talk and no action--often affects persons who are most committed to diversity work. Feelings that DEI work is checking a politically-correct box are pervasive, and DEI individuals often feel the unseen labor of championing for their own existence. In particular, "[m]eaningful diversity work cannot be seen as something that is supplemental or remedial, or touted only in times of crisis or promotion. Diversity is not philanthropy. For diversity work to thrive, it needs to be part of everyday life on campus — for everybody."
Material adapted from https://www.chronicle.com/article/Diversity-Fatigue-Is-Real/244564
