Diversity hiring and retention expert shares tips
February 28, 2007
Sixty senior administrators, deans and faculty learned more about recruiting and retaining faculty and staff of color from an expert on the subject who visited DePaul on Jan. 31 to alert hiring managers to potential pitfalls that could negatively affect minority employee hiring and retention.
Elizabeth Ortiz, vice president for Institutional Diversity and Equity, invited JoAnn Moody, a lawyer and expert on diversity hiring issues, to DePaul to offer strategies that will help the university move closer to its goal of becoming a model of diversity in higher education.
"Dr. Moody noted where job searches can go wrong and the unconscious ways that we may create a non-supportive environment," Ortiz said.
Dean Corrin, associate dean in The Theatre School, determined that "The most important topic discussed was that most people are not purposely discriminating, but that we must be very intentional in our search practices in order to give all candidates equal opportunities and access." He added, "It was clear that the suggestions offered for search procedures would not only address issues of diversity, but lead to more effective and productive searches overall."
A former professor, university administrator and vice president of the New England Board of Higher Education, Moody said, "If not carefully prepared and coached, faculty search committees will often—unwittingly—succumb to some predictable shortcuts and errors, such as first impressions, rushing to judgment, elitism, negative stereotyping of members of certain groups, positive stereotyping of members of other groups, raising the bar, self-fulfilling prophecy, psychoanalyzing the job candidate and longing to clone. Search committees can avoid these errors if they have careful preparation and constant reminders."
Moody underscored why it is important for deans, department chairs and colleagues within hiring departments to pay far more attention to what she calls the solo phenomenon. For example, she said, "Predictable stresses and complex social dynamics are often experienced by one or only a few women hired into a predominantly male department and one or only a few under-represented U.S. minorities in a majority department." Reducing these stresses and helping the new solo hires feel warmly welcomed is essential, Moody argues, if DePaul is to retain diverse faculty hires and maintain healthy departmental climates.
Four faculty searches are now underway in the department of leadership in education, language, and human services. Associate departmental chair Andrea Kaufman attended one of Moody's sessions and said the most important insight she gleaned was the need for "informal and formal mentoring for all new hires, especially minority candidates." As a result, the school is instituting a mentoring program.
Robin Burke chairs CTI's recruitment committee and walked away with useful action steps as well. "(I learned) the need for clear, written procedures regarding the hiring process, something that CTI has not had before. Our committee is working on these procedures now."
Ortiz received positive feedback from attendees. "They said they learned practical tips that could be incorporated into departmental practices with little effort but were likely to make a significant impact on their hiring and retention efforts."
Additional information about Moody and her publications, such as the booklet "Rising Above Cognitive Errors: Guidelines for Search Committees" can be found at her Web site
www.diversityoncampus.com.
