Task Force Focusing on Faculty Diversity Created

A new task force comprising 18 faculty and staff members from both the Charles River and the Medical Campuses will address how to increase faculty diversity at BU. Photo by Cydney Scott

Earlier this semester, President Robert A. Brown and Jean Morrison, BU provost, appointed a task force to encourage University-wide discussions on how to make BU a more diverse, inclusive community for faculty members. The formation of the Task Force on Faculty Diversity and Inclusion was announced in a letter to faculty and staff in August.

“It is critically important to the impact and relevance of Boston University as a global research university that our faculty be composed of the highest quality educators, scholars, and researchers, and that our faculty reflect the rich diversity of our society as well as the diversity of our student body, both now and in the future,” the letter said. “Boston University must focus more attention on faculty diversity and increase the proportion of underrepresented minorities on our faculty. To this end, the Task Force on Faculty Diversity and Inclusion is part of a multifaceted effort that will consider new approaches to faculty recruitment and retention and the fostering of a more inclusive community.”

The goals of the task force, stated in the letter, are to promote awareness of the opportunities and challenges the University faces as it attempts to recruit and retain diverse faculty members, gather information about what other major research universities are doing as they recruit and attempt to retain diverse faculty, and suggest ways the University can elevate the importance of faculty diversity and inclusiveness.

Heading the task force are Steve Brady, chair of the Faculty Council and a School of Medicine associate professor of psychiatry, and Gene Jarrett, associate dean of the faculty, humanities, and a College of Arts & Sciences professor of English and African American studies. The other members are 16 faculty and staff members from both the Charles River and Medical Campuses.

Jarrett says that over the coming months the group will examine important institutional data about BU and compare it to other similar-sized universities. Brady says that while the number of underrepresented minority faculty at BU has been relatively stable in the last few years (in 2013, it was 6.9 percent, according to Institutional Research)—it’s “smaller than we would like.”

“A diverse faculty is needed in order to achieve excellence,” says Brady. “BU has made a number of efforts at recruitment and retention of underrepresented minority faculty, utilizing some of the generally recognized best practices, but more are clearly needed to substantially impact the numbers.”

The task force will couple this kind of data with “crucial historical background and personal stories about the challenges of recruiting and retaining an excellent and diverse faculty,” says Jarrett, “and about the climate of inclusiveness that is important in higher education and at BU in particular.”

Once this research is completed, the group will prepare “reports and concrete proposals” for BU’s leadership and community to consider. They will hold forums across the University so faculty can learn more about, and provide feedback on, their efforts.

“These ideas are only provisional,” Jarrett says, “contingent on both the recommendations made by the task force and the judgment of President Robert Brown and Provost Jean Morrison on how to move forward in the years ahead.”

The task force’s new website, which was launched last week, invites faculty to share their thoughts and experiences with the group.

Currently, the task force members are meeting several times a month. They have a February 1, 2016, deadline to deliver a set of interim recommendations. They will update the Faculty Assembly at its spring meeting in March, and they plan to deliver a full report to the provost and the president by May 1, 2016.