在我们国家大学的学年伊始之际, 学生的主要组成部分将会变得相当的多样化——大概有百分之六十五的妇女，百分之十一的非裔美国人，百分之八的西班牙人和百分之六的亚裔美国人。但是，尽管经过了三十多年的积极努力，大学里全职教师的组成还是没有什么变化。
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — As the academic yeargets underwayat our nation’s colleges, the student body will be fairlydiverse1—about 56 percent women, 11 percent African-American, 8 percentHispanicand 6 percent Asian-American. But after more than 30 years of affirmative action, the full-time faculty will be far less varied.
最引人注意的当数下列情况：非裔全职教员，他们在所有教员中所占的比例在过去的二十年中几乎是停滞不前，只从1975年的百分之四点四上升到1997年的百分之四点九；而对于黑人教员，现在与从前一样，近半数的黑人教授仍然在传统的机构里从教；虽然对于全职的西班牙裔和亚裔教员来说，他们所占的比例已增长了一倍，可他们占教员的总数仍只是很小的一部分：西班牙人大概占总数的百分之二点六，而亚裔美国人则占百分之五点五。
Most remarkably, the percentage of African-American full-time faculty members has remained vitallystagnantover the last 20 years2, changing from 4.4 percent in 1975 to 4.9 percent in 1997; now, as then, almost half of these professors teach at historically black institutions. And though the percentages of Hispanic and Asian-America full-time faculty members have doubled, they still make up a small proportion —about 2.6 percent Hispanic and 5.5 percent Asian-American— of the total.
女性群体的情况相比之下则要好一些。从1972年到1997年，全职女教员所占的比例翻了一番，最后达到了百分之三十六。但是，具有任期的女性与男性的比例没有变化。除此之外，有教授职称的女性只占总数的四分之一，薪水比相同职称的男性要少得多，而且要不合比例的地更多地承担繁重的兼职工作及无任期的职位。
Women, as a group, have fared somewhat better. The proportion of women among full-time faculty members doubled between 1972 and 1997, to 36 percent. But the proportion of women and men withtenurehas remained the same. Moreover, women make up only one-quarter of all full professors, earn considerably less than men at every rank and hold a disproportionately high number of part-time and nontenure track positions.
大学总是把师资多元化进程的缓慢归咎于人才输送问题——妇女和少数种族读研的数量不足。但是，现在取得博士学位的女性占总人数的百分之四十二，而少数种族占百分之十七。更难解决的顽症是人才常常流向毫无吸引力的地方。大量的研究，包括我们自己的，已经表明女性与少数种族遭受社会的孤立，细微却时常发生的公开歧视，以及缺少良师益友和远大的理想等问题。1999年的一个研究结果表明，相对于具有博士学位的白种人来说，相同学历的少数种族及妇女想要留在大学里任教的人数可能要少得多。
The academy has longattributed the slow progress in diversifying faculty to a “pipeline problem”—anundersupplyof women and minorities enrolled in graduate programs.3Yet women now earn 42 percent ofconferreddoctorates, and minorities earn 17 percent. The more stubborn problem is that the pipeline often empties into uninvitingterritory. Numerous studies, including our own, have shown that women and minority professors still experience socialisolation, subtle and occasionallyovertprejudice, a lack ofmentorsand ambiguous expectations. Small wonder then, that according to a 1999 study, women and minority doctoral students are less likely than white male doctoral students to want to be faculty members.
既然大学一直以宽容与改革而著称, 我们或许可以期待它们在大学教师的多样化的设置上有更好的表现。但是，它们自我纠正的前景并不乐观。很显然，变化应该首先从大学外部开始。举个例子来说，如果一个民权或是女权组织广泛地向外宣传一流大学与学院的教师组成情况，并分别根据种族和性别来进行排序。也许这些学校马上就会被调动起来去积极地去竞争。或者，如果“美国新闻与世界报道”在它的颇有影响力的大学排名报告里面把教员的多样化作为评定大学的一个因素，情形是不是能有所改善呢？因为大学的排名下滑会马上引起学校校长和教授的关注。如果在每届大型运动会上，名牌中学运动员和学生拒绝观看师资成分多元化方面做得最差的大学的比赛，这或许更能引起人们的关注。
Since universities have longprided themselves onbeing champions of tolerance and reform, one might expect them to have a better track record on faculty diversity. But the prospects for self-correction arebleak. Apparently, change will have to beinitiated from the outside.4If, for example, a civil rights or feminist group widely disseminateda report card or ranking of the faculty compositions,broken downby race and gender, of the top colleges and universities, these schools mightbe spurred intoconstructive competition to improve5or what if U.S. News and World Report included faculty diversity as a factor in its influential rankings? Atumbledown that ladder would certainly get the attention of a university’s president and professors. Moreprovocativestill might be aboycottby top-ranked high school athletes and students of the one university, within each majorathleticconference, with the worst record in faculty diversity.
这些解决手段也许看起来只是象征性的，但是，在其它领域类似问题上的努力已经起到了一定的效果。拿电视来说，在全美有色人种协进会公开提出批评和抗议之后，有线电视台开始雇佣更多少数种族的演员，作家和制片人。
Thesetacticsmight seem merely symbolic, but similar efforts have worked in other industries, like television, where after public criticism and protests by the N.A.A.C.P., the networks werecoaxedinto hiring more minority actors, writers and producers.
令人遗憾的是，由于没有这种外部的压力，所有的教授委员会很可能还都保持原先的做法，甚至学生也深受这种趋势的影响。更糟糕的是，这种不平等会让人们形成一种错误的观念，即妇女与少数种族有能力在大学里学习，但是却没有能力在大学里授课和做研究。Regrettably, without this kind of external pressure, theprofessoriateis likely to remain relativelyhomogeneouseven as the student well served by this trend.7Worse, the disparity would foster themisimpressionthat women and minorities are capable enough to learn in college but not to teach and do research there.
理查德 ·切特是哈佛大学教育学院研究生院的高等教育学教授和教师任用研究项目负责人, 凯茜·特拉沃尔是这个项目的资深研究者。
Richard Chait is a professor of higher education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and director of the project on faculty appointments. Cathy Trower is a senior researcher on the project.
来源于《纽约时报》
网友评论