Faculty Diversity Action Plan passes halfway point with mixed results

Three years after Penn’s administration launched the Action Plan for Faculty Diversity and Excellence, the diversity among faculty members has increased, albeit marginally.

Announced in 2011, the Action Plan allocated $100 million over five years to accomplish its goals, citing that “a diverse standing faculty both prepares students to live and lead in a global society.”

A progress report detailing the status of the Action Plan was released last February, and the results, while mixed, show “a steady increase in proportion of new faculty hired who are from underrepresented minorities or are women,” Vice Provost for Faculty Anita Allen said.

Allen believes that great progress has been made, largely due to the work of the diversity search advisors, who are tasked with recruiting diverse faculty members.

The initiative, which was devised by the central administration, is complicated by the fact that the separate schools are responsible for carrying out the Action Plan individually. Overall, the University saw an increase in minority hires since the Action Plan was issued, though the schools varied slightly in effect.

Statistically, the Annenberg School for Communication has had the greatest success, with a 17.1 percent increase in underrepresented minorities among its faculty and a 3.5 percent decrease in female faculty members. Conversely, the School of Engineering and Applied Science saw the smallest increase in percentage change of underrepresented minorities and women, with only 0.6 percent and 0.3 percent increases, respectively.

Of the Action Plan’s target groups, female faculty members saw the smallest total net increase, with the portion of female faculty increasing from 30.7 percent to 32.1 percent — a 1.4 percentage point gain, as opposed to the 2.1 percentage point increase in underrepresented minorities among faculty.

“The numbers are small in every school,” Faculty Senate Chair Claire Finkelstein said. “Proportionately, the University has had least success in growing the percentage of women on campus among the groups that the Diversity Action Plan seeks to improve.”

While the Action Plan seeks positive change, it does not address all diversity-related issues within Penn’s faculty. For example, there is a significant difference between male and female faculty salaries, Finkelstein said, citing a 7.8 percent difference from 2013 to 2014.

“I know that some of those losses we can’t control — individual stories have a huge percentage-wise impact on our departing numbers,” Allen said, adding that while the overall statistics may seem low for a plan that is more than halfway to completion, the quantification of faculty career choices into numerical values might be misleading. Financially, she said, “the financial targets were met and exceeded.”

While there is still work to be done, progress is being made in diversifying the faculty in race and gender. “The figures that we have for this year show that last year over 47 percent of everyone hired was a woman, so we’re almost at the halfway mark,” Allen said.

Whatever the final results of the Action Plan may be, Penn’s commitment to diversity is a step in the right direction.

“In all the time I’ve been at Penn ... I want to say this is the first comprehensive plan from the office of the President to say we need to move forwards with this,” Senior Director to the Deputy Dean of Wharton Anita Henderson said.

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