Editorial | Making strides in diversity

I n the past couple of months, Penn has seen a slate of new faces filling upper-level administrative positions: New deans have been hired for the Wharton School (Geoffrey Garrett ), the School of Social Policy & Practice (John Jackson ), the Graduate School of Education (Pam Grossman ) and the School of Nursing (Antonia Villarruel ). With these appointments, the University had an opportunity to address a concern that students, faculty members and the community at large have brought up extensively throughout the past few years: diversity in Penn’s administration.

Last year, the conversation grew particularly heated after senior faculty in Penn’s department of Africana Studies wrote a guest column in The Daily P ennsylvanian criticizing President Gutmann for failing to actually act out her commitment to diversity.

The column drew responses from the Board of Trustees Chair David Cohen , as well as Gutmann herself, who wrote that the University was “redoubling [their] efforts” at increasing diversity in the University administration.

We’re delighted that President Gutmann and other University leaders have held true to their promise with the recent hires. Two of the four recent hires are ethnic minorities; two are also female. This marks a commendable step for a university that a Daily Pennsylvanian analysis last year found has the third least diverse administration in the Ivy League, after only Brown and Yale.

Many students may be wondering — and indeed, many have wondered — why such hiring practices actually matter. We strive to increase the diversity of students, so why wouldn’t we do the same for the people who lead the student body and make the decisions that affect all of us? More importantly, minorities in upper-level administrative positions in the University send a powerful message to minority students.

President Gutmann’s response pledging continued commitment to diversity at Penn was published on April 19, 2013. Almost exactly one year later, we’d like to commend Gutmann and the other University faculty for acting on this commitment in tangible ways — and invite the rest of the student body to do the same.

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