The University of Colorado’s examination of tenure could end up knocking down barriers some say keep minorities and women out of the tenured ranks, CU leaders said Tuesday.
The university will consider policies in the coming months to increase the number of women and minority faculty who have tenure, a lifetime employment protection awarded after several years of review. Both groups are underrepresented at universities in Colorado and across the country.
One suggestion arising from Monday’s release of a report on tenure is for academic departments to change research criteria to accommodate minority faculty who do community and ethnic-based research, which often is published in lesser-known journals.
Another idea is to allow some faculty to shift their workload – now set strictly at 40 percent teaching, 40 percent research and 20 percent service.
Minority faculty, who tend to spend more time mentoring students of color and serving on committees, should get more credit for that during tenure review, Regent Gail Schwartz said. She was among several university leaders who said CU should infuse its diversity goals into the tenure process. They say there’s no need to lower standards to attract minorities and women.
The idea that a university has to lower its academic standards to attract more minority faculty is “intolerable” and “immensely aggravating,” said Arturo Aldama, a tenured professor in ethnic studies.
The problem, he said, is that some of the cutting-edge research that delves into social issues of ethnic communities does not get the respect it should during the tenure process.
Minority faculty are tapped more often than white colleagues to serve on committees and mentor students. Aldama, at the Boulder campus, said he knows minority faculty who are on 15 committees during their first year.
“I hope that the tenure process isn’t just bean-counting,” he said. “Some of these qualitative issues need to be taken into account.”
But neither Aldama nor CU-Denver provost Mark Heckler, head of the tenure committee, believes the university should alter faculty workloads and make the service component more than 20 percent.
“Service is valued less at the university than teaching and research,” Heckler said.
Instead, Heckler expects his 10-member committee will have “substantial discussions” in the next few months about requiring departments to modify their research criteria.
Minority faculty, looked upon as role models in communities of color, often do research in those communities, Heckler said. Their work is published in multidisciplinary venues, and tenure review committees hold it up against research published in top-tier journals by some of their white colleagues.
Tenured faculty at Boulder include two American Indians, 16 African-Americans and 34 Latinos out of 774 tenured professors. Only 27 percent are female.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-820-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
