The Leaky Pipeline: as faculty advance, diversity diminishes Part 1: Hired

Upper West Side NY

10 March, 2022

3:52 PM

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Columbia Daily Spectator By Stella Pagkas and Talia Traskos-HartMarch 10, 2022 The process of becoming a professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science is "a little bit like dating," professor Lydia Chilton said."It's not easy; there's no clean narrative for it, but somehow things happen."After applying to positions at 25 colleges and universities in a hiring process she described as lacking "a whole lot of logic," Chilton eventually was offered—and accepted—a position at SEAS. But the education, research, and mentorship required to reach the hiring stage itself was particularly difficult to obtain as a woman in computer science.Women make up 46 percent of full-time faculty and constitute even lower percentages in certain schools: Only 17 percent of engineering professors and 26 percent of business professors are women. The gap is even more drastic for "underrepresented minority" scholars, a group which the Office of the Provost defines as including those who identify as "Hispanic or Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native, Black or African American, or Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander." Although people from "underrepresented minority" backgrounds comprise 40.7 percent of New York state's population, they account for just 10.6 percent of all faculty members. Asian Americans, whom the University does not define as underrepresented minorities, make up 18.2 percent of faculty members, and 9 percent of New York state's population.At every step of the process of becoming a professor, diversity is lost. Why and how does this diversity fall off?The undergraduate student body does not mirror faculty demographics; 53 percent of Columbia undergraduates are students of color and 50.6 percent are women. In SEAS, 65 percent of undergraduates identify as students of color; this number drops to 43 percent of engineering graduate students. Chilton noted that the process of becoming a professor functions like a "leaky pipeline," with diversity lost at each step of the way. For example, the proportion of Black engineering graduate students is one-eighth of the proportion of Black engineering undergraduates.An institutional failure to encourage students of color to pursue postgraduate education may be one factor driving this under-enrollment. Ronald B. Mincy, a professor at the School of Social Work, emphasized the importance of mentorship for prospective professors."I think good mentors are few and far between," he said. "[Minority students] are often in an environment where there are very few people like them around and they are not in a position to ask for help."A 2010 study by Teachers College professor Pamela Felder found that Black students who seek support from faculty mentors may be more likely to complete their degrees. However, Talha Siddiqui, a lecturer in the chemistry department, described a lack of encouragement for female candidates, especially those who hope to have children."There's no encouragement or any sort of support for women, especially women who want to have a family," Siddiqui said. "The environment is [not conducive] to having a family, to having a life outside of this. So it tends to steer towards [being] a more male-dominated field, especially in the sciences."As diversity in education diminishes, the body of potential professors grows increasingly white and male. History professor Pablo Piccato explained that certain departments have trouble finding and hiring candidates from underrepresented backgrounds."Some disciplines have a lot of diversity in the pool of applicants. … The chances that you can find someone who is a minority are very high," Piccato said. "There are other disciplines where that hasn't happened yet, where there needs to be an effort to prepare students, to get them ready for the job market, and then hire them. It takes a long time to go there."The challenge presented by often a small pool of diverse candidates is exacerbated by the potential biases in the hiring process. A 2020 study in the Journal of Higher Education found that concepts of "fit" in faculty hiring, the measure of how well-suited a candidate is for a certain position, is largely based on what individual search committee members prefer and thus could be harmful to the hiring of diverse professors.When candidates apply for faculty positions at the University, they are reviewed by the relevant department based on their potential research, fit with the department's priorities, and ability to supervise undergraduate and graduate students, among other criteria."[In these interviews], you're showing your new idea to the university or college you're applying to," Siddiqui said. "You're showing this is what I have done in my postdoctoral work, my independent research; these are my ideas and what I hope to accomplish if I get this position."Chilton felt as though she had to "apply everywhere" when seeking a role as a professor. Now, she reflected on the process of reviewing applications in her current role."We look at tons and tons of faculty applications," she said. "You're buying into that person's potential. [You] want to see what they're going to do next."Since 2005, the University has devoted $185 million to hiring diversity initiatives, forming diversity, equity, and inclusion commissions across Columbia's schools in an effort to, among other goals, increase faculty diversity. Brendan O'Flaherty, a professor in the economics department, noted that recruiting committees have become more focused on diversity in recent years."Everyone who's involved in recruiting … knows what they should be doing, knows how they should be looking for underrepresented groups," he said.Despite these efforts, diversity has increased only slightly over the last decade. The proportion of "underrepresented minority" faculty has only increased by a mere 1.6 percent since 2011, while the proportion of women faculty has increased by 6.6 percent. Professors across departments emphasized that fighting for diversity must remain a top priority, as faculty diversity is immensely valuable to the University. Piccato noted that faculty diversity can also improve the experiences of a diverse range of students."You want to go to a place where you can identify with the faculty there," he said. "It is clear that when the students can choose between programs, they will tend to choose places where they don't feel that they're the only one in a group or that they are isolated."A 2018 equity report from Columbia's Policy Planning Committee found that professors from underrepresented groups felt isolated and overwhelmed by the lack of faculty diversity. 65 percent of female survey respondents reported that they experienced discrimination by colleagues at Columbia, a rate similar for women across all racial and ethnic groups that were surveyed. On the other hand, only 10 percent of all male respondents said they had faced discrimination, and 40 percent of "underrepresented minority" men reported encountering discrimination."We are fighting against a strong null hypothesis that we are unworthy until we prove ourselves," an anonymous professor said in the report."If you don't have a network behind you, they can abuse you as much as they want," another said in the report.Ronald B. Mincy, a professor in the School of Social Work, noted that professors from "underrepresented minority" backgrounds may be less likely to seek support than their white counterparts."I work with junior faculty … [who] often don't ask for the assistance that's all around them because they believe somehow it would reveal that they don't belong there in the first place," he said.Some data remains unmeasured, making it difficult to understand the full scope of the disparities in each department. The University has not, for example, gathered data on professors who are gender non-conforming or identify as members of the LGBTQ community. Despite the incomplete data, O'Flaherty said that bringing attention to these disparities may be the first step in more thoroughly studying the issue."If nobody's asking for [the report], it is not going to be urgent enough. So it would be very good for students to be asking for this," he said.Chilton noted that any solution must take into account the many existing barriers to faculty diversity."There's a lot of different things that are broken. It's not just one problem—it's many, many things," she said.Read on to learn how these faculty members push for representation as they are reviewed by their departments, faculty committees, and the Board of Trustees in gaining tenure.Staff writer Talia Traskos-Hart can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @taliakth.Deputy Editor Stella Pagkas can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @stellapagkas. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.