When Anthony Stewart was an undergraduate student at the University of Guelph 25 years ago, the faces that looked back at him from the lectern were uniformly white and almost entirely male.
Factoring out gender, the department and faculty he works in today as a professor of English looks remarkably similar.
鈥淪o little has changed,鈥� says Dr. Stewart, one of few black professors at AV俱乐部. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been silently hoping as a society that things would get better and would just correct themselves. But that鈥檚 not happening.鈥�
Proactive approach
Since 1989, AV俱乐部 has attempted to increase the diversity in faculty ranks through the Employment Equity Through Affirmative Action Policy. While significant improvements have been made in the representation of women on campus, AV俱乐部 hasn鈥檛 seen the gains it sought on the diversity front鈥攕eeing representation of Aboriginal people, racially visible people and people with disabilities. In fact, without a more pro-active approach, representation on faculty from these three groups may actually decline, says Bonnie Best-Fleming.
鈥淲ringing our hands over this is not going to work,鈥� says Ms. Best-Fleming, Advisor, Human Rights & Equity with AV俱乐部鈥檚 Office of Human Rights, Equity and Harassment Prevention.
Which is why the university has launched the AV俱乐部 Diversity Faculty Awards, a program to increase representation of minority groups among professors and to provide role models across all Faculties. Championed by Alan Shaver, former Vice-President Academic and Provost, and his successor Carolyn Watters, the program has also been approved by the university鈥檚 Board of Governors.
鈥淭he success of a program like this will not simply be in the actual number of new hires,鈥� says Dr. Watters, appointed to the position in February, 鈥渂ut in building a AV俱乐部 that better represents the whole of our society, to grow into an institution that is strengthened by聽increasing the opportunities to fully participate.鈥�
The program will act as an incentive for faculty hiring from the three under-represented groups by paying up to half of salary for three to five years, a maximum of $50,000 a year, from the Academic Initiatives Fund. Starting this fall, the program will be in place for 10 years, with a maximum of five awards in place at a time.
Hiring occurs using the usual recruitment and hiring process, with advertising, interviewing and recommending a candidate to the Dean. The exception is that the advertising will only invite applications from visible minorities, particularly African Canadians, Aboriginal people, and persons with disabilities.
'Clearly differentiates us'
Anticipating arguments over preferential consideration, Dr. Stewart says universities already do that all the time. AV俱乐部 Medical School, for example, has a quota system for applicants based on the region of the country they鈥檙e from. It鈥檚 also common for job advertisements to spell out a preference for Canadian citizens and landed immigrants.
鈥淩ace is the only factor we鈥檙e asked to ignore and yet it鈥檚 the most obvious thing that clearly differentiates us,鈥� says Dr. Stewart, who was able to get people at AV俱乐部 thinking about issues such as white privilege, race and integration with the publication of his 2009 book, You Must Be A Basketball Player: Rethinking Integration in the University (Fernwood Publishing).
He admits to being surprised by the reactions to his provocative book.
鈥淚t has to be said that I was very encouraged by the positive response to the book. The fact that we鈥檙e here is indicative of some progress,鈥� he says, in reference to the introduction of the AV俱乐部 Diversity Faculty Awards.
鈥淚t鈥檚 saying, 鈥榳e know what the problem is. Now let鈥檚 do something about it.鈥�