Minority Faculty Hiring: Problems and Prospects.

Abstract

1972, A special order was issued by the Midwest civil rights director of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now known as the Department of Health and Human Services) that called on colleges and universities give preference women and minority group members over better-qualified white male applicants when making faculty and staff appointments. HEW officials insisted that the new requirement, contained in a revised set of affirmative action guidelines that dealt with hiring practices, was necessary correct the imbalance of women and minorities on college faculties. The requirement stipulated that neither minority nor female employees should be required possess higher qualifications than those of the lowest incumbent. The HEW officials told the Detroit News that this new directive, which had been sent the University of Michigan and nine other major institutions (including Harvard and Columbia) and was be enforced on more than two thousand campuses with federal contracts, meant that universities were now required to reject male (white) and nonminority applicants who might have better credentials than female and minority applicants so long as the latter have qualifications better than the member presently employed by a department. (My emphasis.) Presumably HEW did not care if the members of the department voted by secret ballot or a show of hands when they bestowed the honor of least qualified on one of their faculty colleagues. HEW had only one concern relay the presidents of these universities: Less than one percent of their faculties was black, and this indicates discrimination, and something needed be done about it fast. These officials seldom stressed the importance of academic qualifications or other skills for a faculty appointment. They simply