Dear Editor,
In response to the May 14 Faculty Assembly resolution that affirmed a Faculty Hiring Plan that endorses race-based hiring, I would like to express my reassurance that this resolution is non-binding and that it is not and will not be University policy. I respect that Human Resources will guard against any such plans becoming University policy. In its current iteration, I find the hiring plan to be divisive, flawed in reasoning and laden with issues that will hinder execution.
With that said, however, I want to express an even graver concern: the devaluing of black professors on this campus. The central focus of faculty hiring should be academic quality. What the Faculty Assembly endorsed is a diversity-by-the-numbers hiring plan without any mention of academic quality. Further, that a professor would explain away the need for hiring black faculty by saying that there is a greater and more urgent need for Latino professors because there are more Latino students is an amazingly flawed premise (for which she was applauded). It is preposterous to argue that hiring minority faculty should be based on the size of student populations. This suggests that minority professors only serve minority students. In my 35 years of university teaching and service, at five private and public institutions (either predominately white or enormously diverse), I have never assumed that I was obligated to serve only black students. In fact, the opposite has always been my practiced obligation: I worked to serve all students, no matter their race, gender, sexuality, or ethnicity. In her argument, this professor, in effect, endorsed the flawed hiring proposal and devalued black professors by marginalizing them to the sidelines of racial representation rather than acknowledging their academic qualifications and contributions to the entire University. Even more alarming and ironic is that a black professor, at Faculty Assembly, also publicly endorsed this hiring proposal—a plan that is exclusionary and devaluing of black people. This diversity-by-the-numbers plan and its defense are dangerous, anti-intellectual, and not in the best interests of our students or the University. I am valuable, as a black faculty member at LaVerne, because all students, not only minorities, benefit from my dedication to teaching and serving them well. I sincerely hope this is true for any professor joining our ranks, regardless of racial distinctions.
Alden Reimonenq
Professor of English
Dear Editor,
Thursday, May 14, the Faculty Assembly passed by a 2-to-1 margin a seemingly well-intentioned, but seriously flawed resolution calling for increased hiring of Latina/o faculty. Increasing the diversity of our faculty is necessary, not because we have a large number of Latina/o students, as the resolution gives as its principal rationale, but because in the production and dissemination of knowledge we want as many different members from as many different groups as possible represented at the table, each providing her or his unique perspective. If 100 percent of our student body was white, we would still want to increase the number of Latino faculty. But what is most troubling about the resolution is that it excludes other historically-underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, most notably Blacks and Native Americans/Indians. Some proponents of the resolution argue that we can pass comparable resolutions for other groups in the future. In his “Letter From Birmingham City Jail,” Dr. King expressed frustration with white moderates urging him to slow down, to “wait.” And here we are doing essentially the same thing. Why can’t a stronger resolution include all historically-underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, instead of focusing exclusively on one, and state that in 100 percent of our searches we will take extraordinary and affirmative steps to generate the most racially and ethnically diverse pool of candidates, instead of stipulating, as the resolution does, that our “hope” is that 60 percent (an arbitrary percentage) of our new hires in the next five years will be Latinas/os? One argument given for targeting only Latinos at this juncture is the greater disparity between the number of Latino students and Latino faculty versus the disparity between black students and black faculty. When the low number of black students is used, in effect, to justify the exclusion of blacks from a resolution on faculty diversity hiring, there is something terribly wrong. While I’m troubled that this resolution passed as written, it is a good thing that the subject of racial and ethnic diversity in the faculty ranks is back on the table, and I hope that the commitment to this goal is more than a simple vote on a non-binding, seriously flawed resolution.
Héctor L. Delgado
Professor of Sociology
Dear Editor,
I am responding to three letters criticizing the Campus Times for putting a photo of a sex-ed exhibit next to a story about the president being named President of the Year by the ACUI (“Letters to the Editor,” May 15). I don’t think it was disrespectful, given the importance of both stories. In fact, I think it speaks well of the President, that ULV, under her leadership, takes this issue seriously. But while I respect the three writers’ opposing views, one of the writers speculated that the decision was motivated by a dislike for the President. I hope that the accusation was not based solely on the juxtaposition of the photo and the story on President Lieberman. Photos of and stories, the vast majority favorable, about Dr. Lieberman have appeared many times in the Campus Times – many more than her predecessor. Granted, editors do make mistakes from time to time, as we all do, but whether something is a mistake or not often is in the eye of the beholder. For me, this was not one. Obviously, others disagree. That’s what letters to the editor are for and I commend my three fellow writers for exercising that option, and by doing so, respecting our freedom of the press and celebrating our freedom of speech. I hope that everyone has a safe and fun summer.
Héctor L. Delgado
Professor of Sociology
Alden Reimonenq