Angel Joseph
Staff Writer
The issue of minority faculty recruitment and retention was one of three "top priority" items brought to University of Houston System Chancellor/UH President Arthur K. Smith's attention at a recent meeting of minority organizations on the UH campus.
Smith discussed that and other issues last week at a meeting with representatives of the African-American Studies Program, Black Student Union, the Mexican-American Studies Program and other related organizations.
"Don't expect (the solution) to happen overnight. It won't," Smith said.
"But it will happen. We will do better year by year.
"Nationwide, the problem is one of supply," he said. In other words, too few ethnic minorities are interested in graduate studies, and not many are attracted to college teaching.
Smith said he intends to apply strategies he has used at both the University of Utah and the University of South Carolina to resolve the problem.
These strategies include funneling private money into minority doctoral programs and matching offers from other universities to keep minority faculty at UH.
"We must make sure that beginning assistant professors who are members of under- represented groups are properly mentored in their departments and given the opportunity to teach and teach well," Smith said, specifically addressing the retention of minority faculty.
"Theoretically, there is a clash between rhetoric and reality," said James E. Anderson, executive associate to the president.
Representatives from the Center for Mexican-American Studies said that the university should develop a "systematic" plan for minority faculty retention rather than an ad hoc scheme.
Several Mexican-American professors have been rejected from other departments in the past, and members of CMSA who were present at the meeting said they were concerned since there are at least four Mexican-American professors up for tenure.
The other two issues Reed presented Smith involved the National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant and the need for more involvement by the president's office and the UH student body on Martin Luther King Day.
The NEH is a Washington, D.C.-based federal agency that sponsors a "4 to 1" challenge to universities across the country. That means for every $4 provided by the university, NEH offers $1.
UH was awarded an NEH grant in December 1992. Part of UH's challenge has been met and the other part is due in July 1998. However, if UH does not raise the predetermined amount of money, it stands to lose the portion of funds it has already received from NEH.
Smith commended the AAS program on its MLK presentation.
"I was very pleased with everything I read about it," he said. "I should have been there this year."
Smith said he will get involved in future MLK Day celebrations if the focus is on higher education.
Several other issues were brought up at the meeting, though not by Reed.
Debra Gaines, president of Black Student Union, addressed the issue what she believes to be the UH Libraries' inadequacy of black research materials.
"Universities cannot have everything," Smith said, taking the chance to mention the exchange policies UH has with neighboring libraries, including that of Texas Southern University.
Those policies allow the UH Libraries to acquire materials they may not normally have.
This meeting was one of a monthly series Smith announced during which any UH student, faculty or staff member will have an opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns.
For more details,
contact Sandra Gates
at (713) 743-8820