The provost’s office this month pledged $1 million to diversify Northwestern’s faculty after a report released in April showed low numbers of black, Latino and women faculty members.

But the report did not include Asian-American faculty members because, officials said, their numbers have not decreased in recent years, unlike the numbers of blacks and Latinos.

“The committee explicitly acknowledged that diversity is many-faceted but felt that it was appropriate and necessary to concentrate on (blacks, Latinos) and, in some fields, women,” said John Margolis, associate provost for faculty affairs.

But some Asian Americans at NU say the university still needs more Asian-American faculty members. Stereotypes regarding Asian Americans, as well as a lack of active recruitment of doctoral students, hamper the hiring of qualified candidates, faculty and staff said.

“The perception is you have one (Asian-American professor in a department) and it’s taken care of,” said English Prof. Dorothy Wang, one of two professors in the Asian-American studies program. “For the diversity report to erase the presence of Asian Americans is a grave oversight.”

By the numbers

One often overlooked problem is the disparity between numbers of Asian-American faculty in the natural sciences and the humanities, Wang said. Asian Americans make up 15.8 percent of the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences faculty, compared to 6.5 percent of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences faculty, according to 1999 statistics released by NU’s Office of Administration and Planning.

And there is only one Asian-American professor each in the English and history departments.

Although the Office of Administration and Planning’s report says the School of Education and Social Policy has no Asian-American faculty, Education Assistant to the Dean Annie Kerins said the school has since hired one Asian-American adjunct lecturer.

“At NU, as at almost all universities, Asians and Asian Americans taken together are probably more strongly represented in the sciences than humanities and social sciences,” Weinberg Dean Eric Sundquist said.

Overall, the number of Asian-American faculty members is greater than the number of blacks or Latinos. Asian Americans make up 8.5 percent of NU’s faculty, while blacks account for 2.1 percent and Latinos 2.2 percent.

Graduate School Dean Richard Morimoto, a member of the Faculty Diversity Committee, said NU already is taking steps to increase the number of Asian-American professors in the humanities. He pointed to the recent hiring of Wang and history Prof. Ji-Yeon Yuh, both in April 1999.

They were the pioneer faculty members of the new Asian-American studies department, which was created when the Asian-American studies minor launched Winter Quarter. NU officials have said they hope to hire a third Asian-American studies professor by Fall Quarter 2002.

Lack of tracking

But Morimoto said universities face a major challenge in recruiting Asian-American faculty.

Although black and Latino doctoral candidates often are tracked throughout their doctoral academic careers, potential Asian-American candidates often are not watched, Morimoto said.

“Information just isn’t available, in part because Asian Americans have fit into the part of mainstream academic society,” he said.

But interim Asian and Asian-American Student Services Coordinator Tedd Vanadilok said Asian Americans have difficulty getting jobs at universities because they are viewed neither as part of the mainstream nor as underprivileged minorities.

“The ‘old boys’ network’ and the glass ceiling exist because people like to work with people similar to them,” Vanadilok said. “If these people are white males, they’re going to hire people similar to them, and that’s not going to be an Asian-American male or female.”

According to 1999 government statistics given by Margolis, 4 percent of all social science doctoral graduates and 3 percent of all humanities graduates were Asian Americans. In contrast, 6 percent of physical sciences graduates and 11 percent of engineering graduates were Asian Americans.

Morimoto said many of the Asian-American doctoral students in social sciences and humanities study subjects related to Asian-American studies. But NU should hire Asian-American faculty across a range of academic interests, he said.

“There’s no reason that an Asian-American professor shouldn’t be able to teach Italian or 18th century literature,” Morimoto said. “Part of it is there are fewer scholars in the pipeline as related to Asian-American studies.”

Despite the absence of Asian-American faculty in the diversity report, Margolis said the provost’s office would welcome any initiatives to hire faculty.

“The provost has made it clear to deans, department chairs and members of search committees that the central administration is committed to achieving a greater diversity on the faculty,” he said. “I am sure the Provost would take a very keen interest in initiatives by departments where other groups are underrepresented.”

OTHER OMISSIONS

Asian Americans aren’t the only minorities excluded from the diversity committee’s report. Medill Dean Loren Ghiglione expressed concern because Native Americans also were overlooked. According to the 1999 diversity statistics, Northwestern had only two Native American professors, one each at Weinberg and the Medical School.

Sundquist said the potential hiring pool for Native Americans is “very small,” and the tiny size of NU’s faculty may complicate this deficiency.

“There haven’t been specific efforts to recruit in areas where there might be Native Americans,” Sundquist said.

Ghiglione said he met two Native American doctoral candidates this summer at a National Association of Native American Journalists convention. One student was from the University of Michigan and another studies at Purdue University.

“They may be the only ones in the country for all I know, but I’m certainly tracking them,” Ghiglione said.

Keeping track of diversity in faculty is important for all minorities, he said.

“I regard all four (minority groups) as areas for me to work on,” he said. “I think if you work at that, you will succeed.”

Model behavior

Wang said hiring more Asian-American faculty members is difficult because of the perception that Asian Americans are model minorities or “honorary whites.” Vanadilok agreed with her.

“When they do say minorities, Asian Americans are often left off,” he said. “There’s a stereotype that they’re all well off and don’t need help like affirmative action.”

Asian American Advisory Board Chair Marie Claire Tran said Asian-American students might be more inclined to pursue academic careers if they saw more professors of their ethnicity.

“Sometimes we need role models to look up to or at least to give us advice,” said Tran, a Weinberg senior. “If more people saw Asian-American professors, maybe they would be more inclined to say, ‘Maybe I could try that.'”