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Diversity in the Academy: A Stratified System (Jump to Connie Allen)
President Levin tells us yearly in the Yale University Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Polices and University Grievance Precedures that "Yale's diversity is among its greatest assets." But what, exactly, is the extent of that diversity?
In December, 2003, GESO released its own report on diversity, The Few, The Proud: The State of Diversity at Yale. The report lays out some telling statistics about faculty and graduate student (future faculty) diversity at Yale, painting a picture of a University in which women and people of color remain unsupported, unempowered, and unrepresented.
Some Facts (from The Few, The Proud)
Scholars of color comprise 14% of ladder faculty at Yale and only 9.8% of Yale's PhD graduates.
About 13.5% of all of Yale's graduate students are of color. The national average is 19.4%.
White men hold 61% of faculty teaching positions, whereas women of color hold 5.75%. Women and people of color are decreasingly represented among ladder and tenured faculty, such that women of color account for only around 2% of tenured faculty.
Of Yale's nearly 800 full professors, exactly one is a black woman.
Some Implications
Disturbingly, the facts suggest that not only are women and people of color underrepresented among faculty (and especially among tenured faculty), but Yale's graduate school is also helping to create an even less diverse future faculty. This is a crisis of mentorship. This crisis is compounded by a complete lack of institutional support – healthcare for graduate student dependents, affordable childcare – for graduate students and younger faculty.
Says Hazel Carby, Professor of African-American Studies and the only black woman in a tenured position at Yale, "I maintain that a handful of faculty with term appointments are being used to establish the intellectual legitimacy of Yale as a diverse university with a diverse curriculum. . . But. . . can this young faculty look forward to being valued, nurtured, and promoted? The answer in short is 'no.' All they can expect is Yale's revolving door."
full text of The Few, The Proud
UOC's leaflet on faculty diversity
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A Case in Point: Connie Allen
Since the 2000-01 school year, Connie Allen has served as a Lecturer in Yale's Chemistry Department, teaching the popular first-year course Chem 113. Students have found Dr. Allen to be an excellent teacher – many students have called her the best teacher they've had at Yale – and she has served as a mentor to dozens. She is one of the few women of color teaching at Yale, especially in the sciences. However, in December, 2003, Dr. Allen was told that, come the end of the 2003-04 school year, her contract would not be renewed. Administrators blamed the decision to let go of Dr. Allen on budgetary problems. But the decision struck Dr. Allen and students as unacceptable, especially in light of the University's stated commitments to teaching and to building a diverse faculty.
On Mar. 29th, 2004, Dr. Allen told her story to over 100 graduate students and undergrads at a diversity speak-out organized by GESO. Throughout April, dozens of Dr. Allen's former students, along with UOC and GESO members, wrote letters to President Levin, Deputy Provost of the Sciences and Technology Andrew Hamilton, and Chemistry Chair Gary Brudvig, calling for Dr. Allen's contract to be renewed or for her to be put in a tenure-track position.
On Apr. 29th, more than 20 concerned members of the Yale community, including Dr. Allen, 11 of her former students, UOC members, GESO members, and a Local 35 member, walked in to the Provost's Office, demanding a meeting with an administrator. Eventually, Deputy Provost Hamilton agreed to meet with students. At the meeting on May 6th, Hamilton told students that "Yale does not appoint its ladder faculty based on student demands."
Outraged by Hamilton's dismissiveness and by teachers and students apparently having no voice in decisions related to teaching, Dr. Allen and students have continued the fight over the summer. Students have made two attempts to meet with President Levin, and Dr. Allen is pursuing a departmental grievance procedure.
Check out the press and student letters in the Hartford Courant.
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