OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Kent Blansett says he loved his students, liked the University of Nebraska at Omaha, enjoyed the city and wasn’t eager to leave.
But this year, the University of Kansas made a pitch to the Native American professor at UNO. KU wanted to strengthen its Indigenous studies program, Blansett said, and saw him as a good recruit. Two years ago, Yale University Press published his book on Richard Oakes, the leader of the American Indian occupation of Alcatraz 50 years ago.
UNO failed to match KU’s offer, Blansett told the Omaha World-Herald last month, so this summer he moved to Lawrence, Kansas. In the process, UNO also lost to KU Blansett’s western history professor wife, Elaine Nelson, who is white.
Blansett said of UNO: “There was no retention package that was made to me. There was nothing done.” David Boocker, UNO’s dean of arts and sciences, responded to a reporter’s email by saying that “contract negotiations are considered personnel matters.”
Blansett’s case illustrates the competitive nature of recruiting and retaining minority faculty members, including Blacks and Hispanics. Higher education has been especially vocal over the past few weeks about the urgency to improve race relations in America. The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police provoked protests by Blacks and whites throughout the nation.
A key measure of campus commitment to racial diversity is the number of minority faculty members and minority students at the institution. At places like UNO, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Nebraska at Kearney, numbers of Black and Hispanic professors have not grown as rapidly as numbers of Black and Hispanic students, and in some cases have not grown at all.
Edna Chun, a higher education diversity consultant in Florida, said isolation in geography in more rural America works against some colleges. But Chun said want-to is a key element in recruiting minorities.
Networking nationally, crafting the job description so that it isn’t extremely narrow, recruiting aggressively and showing concern for how already hired minority professors are doing - all are important elements.
“My theory is: They’re out there, you just have to look,” Chun said of minority scholars. “I don’t think it’s only a matter of money. … It’s also how you go about it.”
Gwendolyn Combs, UNL’s director for faculty diversity and inclusion, said it helps to have a “critical mass” of minority faculty members and students. Then a minority job candidate or prospective student can envision himself fitting in on the campus.
But one person’s critical mass is not the same as another’s, Combs said.
Numbers of minority doctorate recipients are rising. Federal statistics show that Hispanic holders of doctoral degrees more than doubled between 2000-01 and 2016-17, rising from 5,204 to 12,493. Black doctorate recipients doubled from 7,035 to 14,067, while Native American numbers remain low, growing from 705 to 746.
Administrators throughout the NU system say their commitment to hiring “underserved” minority faculty members is genuine. Results are sometimes hard to show because other schools want such professors, they say. Further, the state of Nebraska doesn’t have the appeal for some minority faculty members that states rich in minorities, like Michigan and Texas, can provide.
“It’s a work in progress,” said Sacha Kopp, UNO’s senior vice chancellor for academic affairs. But Kopp said UNO has taken important steps.
Kopp said faculty members and administrators have revamped UNO’s recruitment guidelines over the past year. Among many things, the guidelines say efforts to hire new professors should include networking with historically Black colleges and colleges with high Hispanic enrollments.
The guidelines encourage UNO deans and department chairmen to be connected to national pipelines of scholars by academic discipline.
UNL Chancellor Ronnie Green has emphasized the need for soul-searching, to acknowledge racial biases and take action, such as improving the recruitment and retention of minority faculty members.
At UNL, the number of Black full-time tenured and tenure-track professors has remained flat over 20 years, with 22 in 2000 and 24 last year.
“I want to understand, why is that the case?” Green said in a recent interview. He said pledges of improvement have come and gone over the years. This time, he said, “It really has to be different.”
Marco Barker, UNL’s vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion, said his hiring (UNL’s first in that position, created last year) indicates that UNL wants to make progress. “I absolutely believe there’s a real commitment” to improving race relations on campus, he said.
Nebraska census information indicates that there should be solid growth in minority enrollments. Hispanics in the state have more than doubled since 2000 to an estimated 219,645 in 2019, or about 11.4% of the population. Blacks have risen 40% to an estimated 94,830 last year, or 4.9% of the population.
The census data was compiled by the UNO Center for Public Affairs Research.
At UNO, the number of Black faculty members fell from 27 to 22 from 2000-2019, while Black students increased over that time from 755 to 936. And at UNK, numbers of Hispanic students have increased six-fold while, as of 2018, Hispanic professors had increased by one since 2001.
Kopp said UNO has increased a faculty development program in which some faculty are hired before they complete their doctoral programs. The program is designed to bring more diversity to the campus. He said UNO targeted eight people for that program two years ago, an additional four last year and then four more this year.
He said intensified efforts to recruit minority faculty members should be evident in the fall. Of 52 new faculty members, he said, 12 are Hispanics, Blacks or Native Americans.
Jabin Moore, a UNO senior and student-body president, said he has taken some Black studies courses in part just to study with Black professors. Outside of those classes, Moore said, he hasn’t had a single Black faculty member. And in some classes, he said, he has been the only Black man.
Nevertheless, he said, his meetings with UNO administrators suggest to him that they want to hire more minorities. They are “not trying to sugar-coat things,” he said, and they’re working at it.
Moore said he feels the nation is on the cusp of reform. “I definitely think change will happen,” said the Omahan, who is majoring in business.
Batool Ibrahim, a junior and president of the Black Student Union at UNL, said it’s important for Black students to see Black professors. They understand what it’s like to be a Black student, Ibrahim said, and they inspire students.
She said she has had only one Black professor in her time at UNL. That was Kwakiutl Dreher, an English professor, who became a bit of a guide and mentor for Ibrahim in her freshman year. “I cannot thank her enough for her investment in me as a Black scholar,” said Ibrahim, who plans to become an attorney.
Martonia Gaskill, a Latino professor at UNK, said the increase in Hispanic students at UNK has been impressive.
“UNK has made a priority to serve underrepresented populations,” said Gaskill, who is a faculty member in teacher education and UNK’s Faculty Senate president this year. “And we are doing quite well in that area. But we need to do the same with faculty.”
It’s not enough just to hire minority faculty members, she said. They need to feel supported and at home once they’re on campus. “And you have to understand that it’s a two-way thing,” she said. “You have to be open to change yourself (and) adapt.”
When Claude Louishomme was hired in 2000 by UNK’s political science department, the NU system had a pool of money for hiring women and minorities, he said.
“From what I see, there hasn’t been any concerted effort” since then, said Louishomme, who is Black. New NU President Ted Carter has said campus diversity is a priority for him.
Louishomme said he has stayed in part because “I love my colleagues. I work with thoughtful, supportive, kind folks.”
Now settled in Lawrence, Blansett and Nelson said they were disappointed that UNO didn’t fight to keep them. But they are eager to get started at Kansas.
Blansett said: “I just said, ‘I’d rather go to a place that I’m wanted.’ ”
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