‘Alarmingly Low’: FAS Sciences Struggles to Increase Proportion of Underrepresented Minority Faculty

Though much of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences has seen recent increases in the proportion of underrepresented minority tenure and tenure-track faculty, the Sciences division continues to lag behind.

Students and faculty say this lack of diversity limits the perspective that faculty can add to their research, teaching, and mentorship and leaves minority students — and prospective faculty members — feeling they do not belong. Administrators acknowledge that more work remains to be done, but say they believe they are making progress in both recruitment and retainment.

An annual report on faculty diversity released last week shows that the proportion of tenured faculty in the Sciences who identify as Hispanic, African American, or Native American has remained at 5 percent when compared to 2015, whereas the rest of FAS has grown. And unlike in the Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the proportion of tenure-track faculty from underpresented minorities in the Sciences has fallen — from 10 percent to 3 percent — from 2015 to 2018.

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Still, over the 15-year period highlighted in last week’s report, the proportion of underrepresented minorities in the Sciences has increased — from 1.9 percent of ladder faculty in 2004 to 4.5 percent in 2019. The University’s ladder faculty comprises both tenured professors and those on the tenure track, including assistant and associate professors.

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“The lack of diversity in the faculty for the Sciences has made me question my future more than once,” Arin L. Stowman ’19, president of the Harvard Society of Black Scientists and Engineers, wrote in an email. “While I am confident in my own abilities, not seeing people who look like me in the positions that I want to be in someday makes me question whether there will ever be any space for me.”

{snip} Hakim J. Walker, a mathematics preceptor, said that while he has recently observed a field-wide push towards recruiting a diverse pool of faculty, he believes there has historically been a lack of drive surrounding diversity initiatives throughout his career.

“I think that’s kind of the ethos of many math departments, and many mathematicians, is we care about your talent, we care about whether or not you can contribute and gain something from the math curriculum here,” Walker said. “I think we’re seeing more of a push against that in more recent years.”

The pipeline of underrepresented minority Ph.D.s remains slim. According to data released by the National Science Foundation, 27 Black and 35 Hispanic students received a Ph.D. in mathematics and statistics out of a total of 1864 recipients in 2014, amounting to 1.4 and 1.9 percent, respectively. The fractions of underrepresented minorities who have recently received Ph.D.s in other fields within the sciences are similarly low, with none above 5 percent.

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Stubbs outlined a number of measures the Sciences have taken to address the pipeline issue, including implementing a “Future Faculty Fellows Program” to provide better advising for minority students. The Astronomy department is also piloting a new initiative in which it has eliminated the consideration of GRE scores in graduate student admissions.

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Yet ultimately, hiring decisions depend on an applicant’s body of work, according to Charles M. Lieber, chair of the department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, who noted that his department has implemented numerous formal and informal mechanisms to ensure minority applicants are fairly considered in searches.

“It just can’t be solved by just saying ‘Okay, we’re going to hire “x” number of different faculty,’ because if there isn’t a pool of viable, strong candidates, it is not a good thing to hire a weak candidate,” Lieber said.

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The disparity between the proportion of tenure-track faculty in the sciences at Harvard compared to engineering could in part reflect differing levels of support at the undergraduate level, according to some faculty and administrators. Without support at the undergraduate level, students may feel limited in their ability to pursue an academic career in the sciences, creating a vicious cycle.

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SEAS has recognized chapters of both the National Society of Black Engineers and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, while the College does not have any student groups dedicated exclusively to serving underrepresented minorities in the sciences.

The Black Premedical Society caters to black undergraduates seeking to pursue a career in medicine and the Harvard Society of Black Scientists and Engineers serves all black STEM students at the College.

Stowman said that the need for HSBSE stems from Harvard’s lack of support for minority students.

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Ifeoma E. White-Thorpe ’21, the founder of the Black Premedical Society, wrote in an email that she believes the lack of diversity among faculty affects the curriculum of science classes at Harvard.

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Rahel M. Imru ’21, incoming president of HSBSE, wrote in an email that while she agrees that engineering has become more diverse, she still believes black students are not “properly represented” in either engineering or the sciences.

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The historically racially homogenous makeup of FAS could also affect its ability to hire faculty from underrepresented backgrounds, according to multiple department chairs in the Sciences.

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“There can be hidden biases because of how you’re brought up, what time you’re brought up, if you don’t make an effort to, you know, learn about things,” Lieber said.

Venkatesh Murthy, chair of the Molecular and Cellular Biology department, said the low diversity figures among science faculty could in part be contributing to a self-perpetuating cycle, in which prospective hires are unwilling to “take a chance” with a department lacking individuals who share similar backgrounds.

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The departure of even one of a few underrepresented minorities can have an immediate and lasting effect on faculty demographics, Lieber said.

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