COMMITTEE ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Annual Report 2000-2001

To the Academic Senate, Santa Cruz Division:

Last fall, the Committee on Affirmative Action (CAA) proposed and this body passed Senate Resolution AS/SCP/1282-8, which affirmed our commitment to excellence through affirmative action and strongly urged the administration to join efforts with the Academic Senate in advancing faculty diversity and excellence on this campus. CAA then proceeded to devote the remainder of the year to exploring ways to implement the Resolution.

Fruitful meetings with the Divisional Deans, Assistant Chancellor Armstrong-Zwart, Executive Vice-Chancellor Simpson, and Chancellor Greenwood led us to focus our attention on reviewing the preliminary Divisional long-range plans to ensure that each division integrate affirmative action and diversity goals to achieve excellence in their plans. As we wrote the Committee on Planning and Budget (Attachment A), we were concerned that three out of five divisions neglected to even mention diversity in their executive summaries, and that all of the academic plans lacked specific strategies to enhance faculty, staff, and student diversity. Our report urged the Deans to consider subject areas, programs, positions, and recruitment strategies that would advance curricular and faculty diversity in their respective divisions. We intend to remain involved in the planning process as it continues and to work with individual departments as needed on diversity hiring strategies.

CAA also continued to work closely with Human Resources and EEO/AA to coordinate faculty diversity efforts on this campus. During the spring quarter, Chair Yung and EEO/AA Director Hiramoto met with each division’s Council of Chairs to discuss best practices and diversity issues in their searches. In addition, CAA members met with state auditors investigating gender equity and worked closely with EEO/AA on the campus’s response to their recommendations. During the summer, CAA again teamed up with Human Resources and EEO/AA to set guidelines for the Diversity Fund Program that EVC Simpson has established to encourage recruitment and diversity efforts in the departments over time (Attachment B). CAA has agreed to assume the responsibility of reviewing all proposals and making recommendations to EVC Simpson.

Following up on a faculty retention survey that CAA conducted in 1998, we decided to conduct exit interviews with the thirteen faculty who had resigned since 1998 to ascertain causes of dissatisfaction (Attachment C). We found that the majority resigned because of better job offers with regard to resources, salaries, housing, and research opportunities. Compared to the results of our survey three years ago, spousal hiring and housing remain the key retention issues. Because of the small sample of women and faculty of color, differences due to gender, race, and ethnicity could not be discerned in the current study. We thus felt that the Committee on Faculty Welfare would be a more appropriate body to conduct exit interviews in the future, and they have agreed to do so.

Other ideas for implementing the Senate Resolution on excellence through affirmative action that we hope to pursue this coming year include:

• Work with Graduate Division to increase diversity in the academic pipeline.
• Work with Committee on Academic Personnel to acknowledge diversity efforts of individual faculty in personnel reviews.
• Work with Committee on Educational Policy to diversify curriculum.
• Work with Committee on Research to add diversity efforts as a criteria for granting research funds.
• Participate in the Gender Equity Review process.
• Work with individual departments to improve diversity efforts.
• Work with Human Resources and EEO/AA to develop awards program to honor individuals/units for promoting diversity.

Respectfully submitted,

COMMITTEE ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Bettina Aptheker

Doyle Foreman

Patti Hiramoto, EEO/AA Director

Robert Levinson

Triloki Pandey

Christy Teranishi, Graduate Rep

Avril Thorne

Judy Yung, Chair

September 25, 2001