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UVA LACKING IN LEADERSHIP BY MINORITIES-THE DAILY PROGRESS, FEBRUARY 8, 2008

Posted: Friday February 8, 2008

UVa Lacking in Leadership by Minorities
Casteen criticizes study for not including women

By Brian McNeill / bmcneill@dailyprogress.com | 978-7266
February 8, 2008

Blacks, Asians and Hispanics are significantly underrepresented among the leadership of the University of Virginia, according to a new report presented Thursday.

Of the 436 top executives, administrators and managerial faculty, only 28 are black, 10 are Asian, three are Hispanic and none is American Indian, according to the report by William B. Harvey, UVa’s vice president and chief officer for diversity and equity.

“We have a clear under-representation of what we’d hope to have among our leadership positions,” Harvey told a committee of UVa’s Board of Visitors.

UVa’s leadership diversity is apparently lagging behind the national average for every racial and ethnic minority demographic. A 2003 survey by the American Council on Education found that of the nation’s full-time administrators, 9.7 percent were black, 2.7 percent were Asian, 3.9 percent were Hispanic and 0.4 percent were American Indian. Of UVa’s leaders, 6.4 percent are black, 2.3 percent are Asian and 0.7 percent are Hispanic, with 0 percent American Indian.

“One of our goals should be to have enhanced racial and gender diversity in our administration,” Harvey said.

Of UVa’s 10 schools, the School of Medicine was the most diverse, as four of its 35 top leaders are black.

Three schools – the McIntire School of Commerce, the School of Continuing and Professional Studies and the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences – lack any racial or ethnic minorities in leadership positions.

In another three schools, blacks are represented only in assistant or associate dean jobs responsible for promoting diversity. These are the Curry School of Education, the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration and the School of Engineering & Applied Science.

UVa President John T. Casteen III criticized Harvey’s report for not including women, a traditionally underrepresented group in higher education administration.

“There is a substantial deficiency in what overall appears here,” Casteen said.

Casteen added that UVa is frustrated in its efforts to promote racial and ethnic diversity among its top jobs because it cannot use certain successful practices prevalent in the private sector.

One example, he said, is hiring “understudies” for jobs, which can provide yearlong on-the-job training for potential hires.

One opportunity to boost diversity among UVa leaders will be the pending job searches to fill the vacancies of six deans and two vice provosts. UVa Provost Tim Garson said blacks and Asians were represented in every finalist pool so far, including for the deanships of the College, the School of Law, the School of Nursing and the vice provost for research.

Warren M. Thompson, chairman of the BOV’s special committee on diversity, called the lack of diversity in UVa’s top tiers a “dismal picture.” He and other board members said they expect things to change.

“Now that we have the data in front of us, we know where we are,” he said. “The question is, where will we be in three years?”

Earlier in the day, the board heard a presentation from the president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, which similarly underscored the importance of diversity in higher education.

Freeman A. Hrabowski – whom Casteen called “almost a mythological creature” in academic circles – told the board about his success in promoting math, science and engineering research and academic success, particularly among minorities.

Hrabowski said that his school focuses on a few key scientific areas in which it excels, creating a reputation of excellence.

Similarly, a grant from a wealthy Maryland resident pays for UMBC scholarships for young black men, whom the college can then tout as success stories when recruiting top-tier high school students.

“Our theme is success is never final,” he said. “We’ve come a long way, but we have so much more to do.”

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UVA LACKING IN LEADERSHIP BY MINORITIES-THE DAILY PROGRESS, FEBRUARY 8, 2008

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