Minority
Continued from Page 1
fessors were hired in 1984 and
1985 through personal contacts,
according to the OAA report.
The University should not re
ly on personal contacts for hir
ing purposes, contends Bernd
Crasemann, a physics professor
and chairman of a faculty search
committee. “We don’t want to
just call our pals or hire old
students. That might later look
like we circumvented the pro
per approach.“ he said.
The problem lies with the
small pool of applicants and the
competition between univer
sities for those minority pro
fessors. said University Provost
Richard Hill. “The future pool
of potential minority faculty is
shrinking.“ he said.
The University can contribute
to that pool by encouraging its
minority students to continue
with their education, jackson
said. “We need more Chicano
students to go through our
department and then identify
the strong ones and encourage
them to go on." he said.
The University must begin
that process by recruiting
minority students. Coleman
said. “What we've seen in the
past six years is a reversal of
many of the gains made in the
past 20 years. As far as
recruiting (minority) students. 1
think we’ve done a miserable
job," he said.
The University has difficulty
attracting minority professors
because it has little to offer
them. Okahara said. “The
University salaries are low com
pared to other universities. Plus
the minority community is very
small,” he said.
“If there’s no community, if
there’s no other black faculty, if
there’s no black culture and no
pay, what’s in it (for them)?’’
Coleman asked.
To combat these problems,
the University might need to
pay a minority professor more
than his or her University col
leagues in an effort to be com
petitive with other institutions,
Okahara said.
While the University has a
lack of minority professors, the
administration must be given
credit for their attempts to im
prove the situation. Okahara
said. “This isn’t Utopia, but in
terms of commitment and
Wi . T &S$
awareness in efforts to attract
minorities, this campus is a
whole lot better than other
places,” he said.
The problem is not unique to
the University, said Robert Pro
udfoot, a Sioux Indian and a
professor in the education
department. “It’s endemic in
our society.” he said.
Jan Oliver, director of the
Minority Affairs Council,
however, questions the Univer
sity’s hiring practices. “We
were raised in America; there
are shortcomings to the think
ing here. Racism is un
consciously embedded,” she
said.
"Sometimes those people
have had one bad experience,
like getting mugged by a non
white in New York while at a
conference; that legitimizes
their racism then," Oliver said.
For minority students, a lack
of non-white professors poses
special problems, Oliver said.
“The few black professors can’t
be there for all the black
students, it is too big of a
burden to bear.”
Support offered by a professor
who shares a similar culture
and interests is more valuable to
the students, Cogdnll said.
“When I had my mentor (a
white professor) read a story I
had written, he said, 'People
don’t talk like that.' I said,
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‘Black people do.’ ” Uogdell
said.
It is common for white pro
fessors to treat minority
students differently than their
white counterparts in the
classroom, said Tammie |o
Rhodes, a Black Student Union
member who is majoring in
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“The stereotype of the
minority student doesn’t in
clude ambition and drive,” she
added.
The white professors also
assume the minority students
will be experts in issues relating
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to their race, Rhodes said.
“Anything about blacks, the
professor will turn to me for
verification, thinking that is the
limit of my knowledge. They
don’t realize how racist that is."
The handful of University
minority professors are
specialized in the fields of their
ethnic background, which
perpetuates their uniqueness.
Rhodes said.
She noted that Coleman
teaches classes on black poetry
and prose, and David Anthony
teaches Afro-American history.
“It gives credibility to the
classes. But the professors are
not mainstream — you don’t see
a minority teaching Writing
121," she said.
On the other hand, classes
with specific emphasis on
ethnic studies are sometimes
taught by white professors. “It’s
true, someone brought up in a
particular African culture will
know things you can't study
and then teach," said Vernon
Dorjahn, a white anthropology
professor who has taught
classes on Africa at the Univer
sity for 30 years.
But he maintains that so
meone teaching about their own
culture would in) too biased.
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