Foreword The Carnegie Commission on Higher Education has consistently expressed support for efforts to increase the relative participation of women and members of minority groups in college and university faculties. It has recognized, however, that such efforts will be accomplished with considerable difficulty and probably more slowly than we might wish. In our report entitled Opportunities for Women in Higher Education, and in a technical note to our final report Priorities for Action, we reviewed some actions that must be taken if the difficulties are to be overcome. Among them are increasing the numbers of women and members of minorities who pursue graduate studies and become part of the "pool" of qualified academic talent available for faculty appointment; finding jobs for new faculty members during a period in which little or no enrollment growth is anticipated and existing faculties are well staffed by relatively young men and women; and matching new faculty members who seek jobs with the often highly specialized openings that may occur. Some of these same problems have been of concern to Richard A. Lester, who has conducted an extended independent study of the issues involved and has had practical experience with employment practices and compensation differentials in both industry and academe. He has served as chairman of the Southern Textile Commission under the National War Labor Board (1945), as vicechairman of the President's Commission on the Status of Women (1961-1963), Dean of the Faculty of Princeton University (19681973), and chairman of Princeton's Equal Employment Opportunity Committee (1968-1972). In this book, Lester reports on his studies and discusses many of the specific problems associated with increasing the membership of women and members of minority groups on the faculties xiii Foreword xiv of major colleges and universities. He stresses the fact that current faculty members favor such an increase, but warns that many of the action programs prescribed to achieve it fail to take into consideration either the inadequate supply of qualified people among those groups currently underrepresented on our faculties or the characteristics of academic employment that distinguish it from employment in industry. At stake is not only an equitable system of academic employment, but also loss of financial support as governments apply economic sanctions to achieve numerical hiring goals that often have little relevance to the character and mission of universities. Lester has given us a sensible and well-documented study that should be vitally important as our colleges, universities, and state and federal governments consider or reconsider the policies that guide them in this difficult and sensitive area. He speaks with the authority of a person with extensive and most successful experience in the field of industrial relations and academic administration and with the credentials of a long-time supporter of equal opportunity. His wisdom and his advice merit the most careful consideration. May 1974 Clark Kerr Chairman Carnegie Commission on Higher Education Preface Since 1968, universities and colleges having federal research contracts have been under antibias regulation by the federal government. The regulation, enforced by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, has been unsatisfactory in certain respects to various parties-university faculty and administrators, interested women and men in academic communities, and persons in concerned organizations and in government. Difficulties were to be expected in the first five years of a program that involves such a sensitive and complex subject as discrimination in faculty employment in universities and colleges. The question to ask is: How much have we learned from five years of experience, and is the program generating difficulties and ill-effects unnecessary for the achievement of its legitimate purposes? This book attempts to answer that question and, in doing so, proposes some different solutions to the problems involved. In presenting criticisms of government programs, and proposing alternative ways to achieve and enforce nondiscrimination for university faculties, I do so out of a strong conviction that prejudice in employment, on account of race, sex, religion, or other nonperformance factors, is destructive of democratic values and violates the principle of appointment and promotion on merit, which is so vital for achievement of the educational objectives of our institutions of higher learning. It should also be said that some of the criticisms and proposals in the book were presented to HEW officials by me in January 1972, in September 1972, and in October and December 1973. Some of the ideas offered here have much wider application than just to the faculties of universities. I leave it to those versed in other areas of activity to develop such broader applications. The writing of this book was my own idea, and the product is Preface xvi mine. I have purposely avoided seeking financial support for the project. The Carnegie Commission on Higher Education has no responsibility for any opinion and bias in these pages. Many persons have helped to sharpen the reasoning and improve the ideas and analysis in this book. They have done so through discussion of views and experience and by reading parts of the first draft of the manuscript and giving me the benefit of their criticisms and suggestions. I particularly wish to express my appreciation to the following for their contribution, but hasten to add that none of them is responsible for the particular views or proposals presented in the book: Robert L. Aronson, Orley Ashenfelter, William G. Bowen, J. Douglas Brown, John H. Bunzel, Robert R. France, Marjorie Galenson, Eli Ginzberg, Frederick H. Harbison, Clark Kerr, William F. Miller, Charles A. Myers, Robert B. McKersie, Albert Rees, Adele Simmons, Sheldon Steinbach, Phyllis Wallace, Edwin H. Young, and Verne A. Stadtman, whose skillful editing has greatly improved the book's readability. The staff of the Industrial Relations Section of Princeton University-Helen E. Fairbanks, Dorothy Silvester, Karen Stout, and Irene Rowe-have been of valuable assistance in a variety of ways, including preparation of the manuscript for the press. Richard A. Lester Princeton, New Jersey |