Report
of the Senate Equal Opportunity Committee on Charge S-0209,
Status of Hispanic/Latino Faculty and
Administrators
Pheroze Wadia, co-chair
Thomas DeRosa, co-chair
February, 2003
Report
of the Hispanic, Iberian, Latino Alliance of Rutgers (HILAR) on the Status of
Hispanics/Latinos in the Faculty and Higher Administration of Rutgers
University
Despite the fact that Hispanics/Latinos have now officially become the
United States’ largest minority and in all likelihood have also become New
Jersey’s largest minority--over 1.1 million were registered in the state by the
2000 census--there is an appalling dearth of Hispanics/Latinos within the
faculty ranks and higher university administration of Rutgers University.
The University has exhibited an extremely poor
record in hiring, retaining, and promoting Hispanics/Latinos. According to the
latest statistics provided by the University’s Office of Institutional Research
and Academic Planning (2002-03), while Hispanics/Latinos constituted 9 percent
of our student body and 13.3 percent of New Jersey’s population, they made up
only 1.89 percent of Rutgers’s full-time faculty. The Camden campus, which is located in a city with a considerable
Hispanic/Latino population, has only two Hispanics/Latinos in its faculty. Hispanic/Latino representation among our
full-time full professors is even lower (1.2 percent in 2002; only two in
Newark). As far as could be ascertained, not a single Hispanic/Latino held any
of the many endowed professorships of our University. Out of over one hundred
twenty department chairs in all of Rutgers only two are held by a
Hispanic/Latino, that of New Brunswick’s Department of Puerto Rican and
Hispanic Caribbean Studies and that of Camden’s Psychology Department. Only 4 of all of the University’s 234
executive administrators (a dismal 1.7 percent) are Hispanics/Latinos. There is good reason to believe that these
already small numbers may actually be inflated given the broad definitions and
categories used by the University.
Hispanic/Latino representation in the faculty has
slipped dramatically over the past three years and will continue to erode in
the near future if immediate action is not taken to reverse the trend. Rutgers
has recently lost, and failed to replace, many of its more senior
Hispanic/Latino faculty to retirement or resignation: Gabriela Mora, Miguel
Algarín, Ed Ortiz, Pedro Cabán, María Canino and Olga Jiménez. The tragic death of Susana Rotker also left
an enormous void. From 1997-1998 to
2002-2003 the number of full-time Hispanic/Latino faculty in all three campuses
fell by more than 18 percent from 60 to 49. When the most recent losses of
Hispanic/Latino faculty are considered, the proportion of Hispanics/Latinos in
the faculty may have already fallen below 1 percent, a shameful statistic, to
say the least. While budgetary
limitations are used to justify not replacing these Hispanic/Latino faculty
members, non-minority faculty continue to be hired throughout the university. Moreover, multiple allegations have surfaced
of de facto discrimination against Hispanic/Latino faculty members and Rutgers
faces the likely possibility of an exodus of many among its remaining
Hispanic/Latino professors.
We cannot provide statistics pertaining to
Hispanic/Latino representation in the University’s higher administration
because, as outrageous as it may sound, there is not a single Latino/Hispanic
in such positions. There has never
been! We do not have a single
Hispanic/Latino as college dean, faculty dean, area dean, and much less serving
as vice-president or provost or associate provost. Needless to say, we have
never had a Hispanic/Latino president.
Hispanics/Latinos have been systematically excluded from such
policy-making positions as those in power have failed to mentor and help advance
Hispanics/Latinos to such positions. In
this area Rutgers compares very unfavorably with the University of California
and other public universities among the peer group of institutions that Rutgers
aspires to be a part of.
The Hispanic, Iberian, Latino Alliance of Rutgers University (HILAR) applauds the Rutgers University Senate’s initiative to further investigate the status of Hispanics and Latinos at the University and to seek redress for their under representation. The Hispanic/Latino community of the University also recognizes president Richard L. McCormick’s extraordinary record of leadership and his commitment to diversity and affirmative action and looks forward to working with his administration to accomplish the long-overdue fair representation of Hispanics and Latinos in all areas of the University community.
Whereas the
Hispanic/Latino community is a large, growing, and vital part of the
population, economy, and cultural life of the New Jersey metropolitan area and
the nation;
Whereas the
Hispanic/Latino community has long experienced discrimination in education,
employment, and housing, as recognized by United States federal Civil Rights
laws, the federal Civil Rights Commission and Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission, and state and local Civil Rights laws and agencies in New Jersey;
Whereas Rutgers
University, the State University of New Jersey, has long stated its commitment
to implement affirmative action policies of inclusion in its recruitment and
retention of students and its hiring and promotion of faculty and staff, in
accordance with both the spirit and letter of federal and state Civil Rights
laws;
Be it resolved
that the Rutgers University Senate, representing the Rutgers University
community of students, faculty and administration call upon the administration
to acknowledge and take action to redress the severe under-representation of
the Hispanic/Latino community among junior faculty, tenured senior faculty, and
upper and middle level administrative personnel;
Be it further resolved
that the Rutgers University Senate call upon administration and faculty and
staff dealing with issues of student advising and student life to actively
address issues of recruitment and retention of undergraduate and graduate
students of the Hispanic/Latino community;
Be it further resolved that
in accordance with these goals the Rutgers University Senate call upon the
Rutgers administration to establish the academic year 2003-2004 as
Hispanic/Latino faculty, staff, and student recruitment and retention year, as
part of developing a 5 year strategic plan to recruit and retain
Hispanic/Latino administrators, faculty, staff, and students throughout the
fabric of the university and specifically to integrate Hispanic/Latino faculty,
administrators, and staff into all echelons of the university;
Be it finally resolved
that in accordance with these policies a high level administrator be charged
and given the necessary funding and support to supervise the development and
implementation of the strategic five year plan and to annually report their
progress to the University Senate.
Respectfully Submitted by the Equal
Opportunity Committee and these important contributors:
Yanet Baldares – Assistant Instructor,
Department of Puerto Rican and Hispanic Caribbean Studies
Manuel Cabrera – Co-Chair, Latino Student
Council
Sandra Rocio Castro – Assistant Director,
Center for Latino Arts and Culture
Asela Laguna-Diaz - Professor, Classic and
Modern Languages, Newark
Jose Laureano – Counselor, Rutgers College
EOF Program
Monica Licourt – Administrative Assistant,
Department of Puerto Rican and Hispanic Caribbean Studies
Luis Martinez-Fernandez – Chair,
Department of Puerto Rican and Hispanic Caribbean Studies
Isabel Nazario – Director, Center for
Latino Arts and Culture
Julio Nazario – Assistant Dean of Academic
Programs, Livingston College
Mara Ostfeld – Student, Livingston College
Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas - Assistant Professor,
Department of Puerto Rican and Hispanic Caribbean Studies/Anthropology
Lawrence
La Fountain-Stokes – Assistant Professor, Department of
Puerto Rican and Hispanic Caribbean Studies/Anthropology
Lourdes Vasquez – Librarian, Alexander
Library