Procedures And Guidelines For Conducting Faculty And Staff Searches At UMCP
- MYTH
- AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IS A FORM OF REVERSE DISCRIMINATION
- REALITY
- Affirmative action does not mean giving preference to any group. Affirmative action advances a multi-dimensional nature of excellence. It encourages us to recognize pluralism and diversity as a dimension of our value system. Accordingly, a search c
ommittee must create a diverse pool of candidates with a significant representation of women and minorities. A candidate’s ability to provide cultural diversity to a department, to serve as a role model for students, and to offer a range of perspectives
and scholarly interests should be major elements in the evaluation and selection process.
- MYTH
- Conducting a search that is responsive to affirmative action concerns is costly, tedious, and time consuming.
- REALITY
- If one employs proper management skills, conducting a search that is sensitive to affirmative action issues need not take significantly more time than conducting a search which is insensitive to those issues. Enlarging the pool of candidates and trea
ting all candidates equitably and fairly is more a function of will than of time. Ultimately, a proper search is both time and cost effective, for a search which attracts a diverse group of well qualified candidates is likely to result in a lasting and r
ewarding relationship between the individual and the University. Futhermore, a search which fails to create a diverse pool of candidates, may be nullified by a unit administrator, dean, or the provost.
- MYTH
- Once you hire an affirmative action candidate, you can never fire him or her.
- REALITY
- The terms of employment for women and minorities are the same as for all men and non-minorities. In fact, in terms of affirmative action principles, standards of achievement, job requirements, and job expectations must be equally applied to all indiv
iduals.
- MYTH
- If I hire one or two women or minorities for dead end jobs, I have satisfied my affirmative action requirements.
- REALITY
- Tokenism in hiring women or minorities for positions which are terminal in terms of advancement does not satisfy the affirmative action goals of the University. The same opportunities for employment and career advancement must exist for all individua
ls; policies and standards for employment and advancement must be applied equally to everybody.
- MYTH
- The pool of women and minorities in my discipline is so small that it is virtually impossible to find any.
- REALITY
- True, there are some disciplines in which women and minorities have not entered in large numbers, but there are not fields of study in which women and minorities have not been trained, 32.4% of all doctorates, for instance, awarded from 1980-1984 went
to women. One can enlarge the pool of candidates by applying the principles of an affirmative action search. This includes using bibliographies of women and minorities in academic disciplines and the professions. Consulting with women and minorities i
n the same discipline at other universities and establishing a unit or institutional relationship with colleges and universities where women and minorities are predominant. Additionally, one should develop programs to create pools of under represented ca
ndidates, e.g., professional development, internships, postdoctoral programs, special mentoring programs, training programs, etc.
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Appendix G
MYTHS & REALITIES
