Overview: Dr. Lourdes D. Follins is the group’s facilitator and is now responsible for locating reading materials, coordinating and scheduling the groups’ meetings, and updating this wiki. This group will meet four times this semester (9/28, 10/19, 11/16 and 12/7) one Friday a month, from 11am to 12:30pm in KCTL conference room. Lunch will be served, so come join us!!
Readings for the semester (updated each month):
1. Taylor, O., Burgan Apprey, C., Hill, G., McGrann, L., & Wang, J. (Summer 2010). Diversifying the Faculty. Peer Review, 12, 15-18. (September reading)
2. Issacs, E. P. & Boyer, P. G. (2007). Voices of Urban and Rural Community College Minority Faculty: Satisfaction and Opinions. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 31, 359-369. (October reading)
First meeting: September 28th, 2012
Just as the meeting was about to being, KCC Associate Provost Reza Fakhari stopped by the door of the meeting room and indicated that he would be interested in attending a D-FIG meeting to learn about members’ experiences in their departments. He said that KCC President Peruggi is committed to retaining under-represented faculty as we are “role models for the students”. It was agreed that the facilitator would be in touch with the Associate Provost once the matter is discussed with the group.
Since this was the first meeting of the semester, we needed to check in and welcome a new member. This lead to a discussion of what brings us to the group and we shared how experiences with racial, religious, gender, and sexual orientation microaggressions (Sue, 2010) from KCC faculty and students lead to feelings of isolation, frustration, and sparked a determination to thrive in what can sometimes be a discouraging environment. We all agreed that teaching students who seem to need our particular perspectives was main reason for working at KCC and that we are aware that we are role models for many of our students.
Second meeting: October 19th, 2012
After our check-in, the group discussed the Associate Provost’s offer and decided to invite him to attend the next meeting. We agreed that we would like to learn more about KCC’s plans to support and retain diverse staff and faculty. The facilitator will extend the offer to the Associate Provost by email.
The meeting continued on with a discussion of the Issacs and Boyer (2007) article about “minority” faculty satisfaction working at and opinions of community colleges. Overall, the group related to the findings of the article: an overall level of satisfaction working with students and concerns about how they are treated as under-represented faculty. There was agreement that in order for under-represented faculty to feel accepted and succeed at KCC, the administration, faculty and staff need to be willing to examine and effectively address individual, organizational, cultural and systemic biases against under-represented faculty.
Third meeting: November 30th, 2012
As a result of the recent storm (Hurricane Sandy) and Nor’easter, the group checked in about how both group members and students were faring in the past month. There was agreement that while some students were not directly affected by the storm, many were impacted by it and the general trauma experienced by New Yorkers as a whole. The facilitator shared her decision to hand over the facilitation responsibilities to another member. The next D-FIG facilitator to be determined.
Fourth meeting: December 7th, 2012
The purpose of this meeting was to wrap up the semester and meet with Associate Provost Reza Fakhari about the Administration’s efforts to recuit, retain, and promote under-represented faculty and staff. This meeting marked the end of the group’s second year and group members shared the impact their participation in the D-FIG has had on them, e,g, comraderie, support, validation, mentoring around how to advocate for oneself in the department, and the re-appointment and tenure process for adjuncts, substitutes, full-time tenure-track instructors and staff. The group was joined by KCC’s Chief Diversity Officer, Mr Angel Rivera and learned about the 2012 CUNY Diversity Action Plan ( DiversityActionPlan_Revised CUNY.pdf ) and how each of CUNY’s 22 colleges must create and submit an individual Faculty Diversity Strategic Plan to the CUNY Office of Recruitment and Diversity by May 1st, 2013. The specific guidelines that were sent to the various presidents and provosts are included here: (Oct. 2012 Fac. Div. Strat. Plan Guidelines.pdf and 10.24.12memo to Pres. re Div. Action Plan.pdf ). Mr. Rivera also shared how KCC tracks the goal amounts of ‘minorities’ and ‘protected groups’ recruited, hired, and retained in each position in each department, as well as how many of these individuals depart the college. Unfortunately, the Associate Provost showed up the meeting after it officially ended. As a result, only four members of the group were present to hear that as part of the larger Performance Management Program, KCC’s Human Resources, Office of Recruitment and Diversity, and department chairpersons will work together to diversify the faculty. This may include working with the President’s Diversity Committee and the D-FIG was encouraged with ensure that the Committee and the Administration do all that is necessary to truly diversify the college.
