Update
A discussion on diversity with Rutgers' General Counsel
Jonathan Alger, vice president and general counsel of Rutgers and an expert on affirmative action law, will play a key role at a national conference on diversity, to be hosted by Rutgers, December 3 through 5, 2008, in New Brunswick. He will be both a moderator and a speaker at the conference, “The Future of Diversity and Opportunity in Higher Education: A National Forum on Innovation and Collaboration,” jointly sponsored by Rutgers; the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School, Columbia University; and the College Board. Before coming to Rutgers in 2005, Alger, 44, was assistant general counsel at the University of Michigan and coordinated briefs in two lawsuits against Michigan’s admissions policies before the U.S. Supreme Court. In its ruling the court upheld the university’s right to consider race in admissions policies in order to build a diverse student body.
Earlier this month FOCUS spoke to Alger about the upcoming conference and Rutgers’ continuing efforts to promote diversity among its student body, faculty, and staff.
What’s unique about this conference?
We want to cross traditional institutional lines to identify barriers to access in higher education, and use partnerships and collaborations to overcome them. We’re looking for innovative ways for universities to work with corporations, with K-12 schools, with community institutions, and with other entities to identify and overcome these barriers. People at each of the sponsoring organizations have been working on these issues separately for some time, and it was through interactions with each other – at different conferences and events – that we realized, “Look, we have some mutual interests here. Wouldn’t it be great to work together?”
What, exactly, is “diversity”?
When we talk about diversity in the educational context, what we’re talking about is not diversity for the sake of diversity, but diversity as a means to an end. And that greater end is educational benefits. Diversity is not just about race, but also (among other things) about gender, socioeconomic background, geography, special abilities, different life experiences, and disabilities. Diversity and excellence go hand in hand. In order for us to provide educational excellence – to have the best possible learning and teaching environment for faculty and students – we need diversity.
What are Rutgers’ most promising programs and policies toward that end?
We have a variety of programs designed to provide access and build a diverse pipeline of students in various areas, such as Project L/EARN (health research) and RISE (Research In Science and Engineering). We have recently started the Rutgers Future Scholars program, which reaches out to disadvantaged students at a young age and introduces them to the notion that they might, in fact, end up going to college, and even perhaps continue on to careers in the academy. With regard to diversity among the faculty and upper levels of the administration, we have the President’s Council on Institutional Diversity and Equity, which is developing a best practices guide for inclusive faculty hiring and retention, an annual “Diversity at Rutgers” conference, and a lecture series on diversity and excellence in the various disciplines. The council is also the administrative locus of the President’s Faculty Diversity Cluster Hiring Initiative, which seeks to attract a more diverse faculty to Rutgers by attracting such faculty as a small group or “cluster” focused on a particular interdisciplinary issue, such as urban entrepreneurship or Caribbean studies.
Does Rutgers have a diversity problem? The most recent Rutgers Fact Book shows that, universitywide, whites make up 49 percent of the student body, 62 percent of staff, and 73 percent of faculty.
I think the reality is, we’ve come further with regard to the diversification of our student body than we have yet with our faculty and staff. We certainly feel that we can, and must, do better on that front. This conference will be talking about both categories, both are part of the same pipeline. Wonderful policies on outreach and admissions, or hiring, are not enough. You have to look at the climate to see if people are in an environment where they can succeed and feel supported. How do you get people interested in academic careers? When they’re undergraduates, do you give them opportunities to see and do research?
Has Rutgers lost minority faculty members to other institutions in the past?
Yes, that has happened at Rutgers, and it’s something we’ve been quite concerned about. We have to look at that phenomenon and what we can do to remain competitive and keep people here. We have worked hard on the front end, but you have to retain people. You may get wonderful promising scholars and bring them to campus, and then find that other institutions will try to pick off your star faculty. In the long term, it really matters, who stays and who succeeds.
So how do you attract and keep a diverse faculty?
There’s no silver bullet. It requires a multipronged approach. You can’t just do the same old thing; you have to find additional forms of outreach. When we describe a position we’re trying to fill, are we sending a message that says we care about diversity? There are certain traditions about what graduate schools you hire from or what journals people have to have published in, but part of our responsibility is to look very carefully at assumptions underlying those criteria. There may be people who do interdisciplinary work, cutting-edge work, and it’s being published in other places. We actually want faculty who will challenge traditional orthodoxy in our university. That’s a hard thing sometimes for search committees. People tend to think merit looks a lot like themselves.
How does a university community know when it’s sufficiently diverse?
Diversity is a dynamic concept. You don’t reach a point, and then you’re done – it’s not something where you can hang out the “mission accomplished” banner. In the Michigan decision, Justice [Sandra Day] O’Connor talked about the court expecting that, in 25 years, we wouldn't have to consider race as a factor in admissions. I heard her speak about this recently, and it’s my impression from her comments that she recognizes a lot of work still needs to be done.
Have you ever heard anyone say that it’s time to deemphasize diversity or the fact that we have an African-American presidential candidate proves America has become inclusive on its own? We do hear this, from time to time. My answer is, “There’s no question we have made progress, but all you have to do is look at the disparities that still exist.” Just pick a segment of our society. There are so many disparities with regard to race and ethnicity, whether it’s in the school system, the health care system, or the criminal justice system. Our human capital is our most significant resource, more so than any natural resource. Not only do we need to continue to talk about it, but also we need to talk about it positively. It’s our greatest strategic asset going forward.