Not just a colleague, but a mentor: on hiring a new African-Americanist
Confidentiality protocol bars me from disclosing too much about the hiring process, but I can share what has already been made public. After more than two decades, my colleague Pete Mhunzi, who taught both African and African-American history, is retiring. In this depressed budget climate, we had to fight tooth and nail to get a replacement position approved; some in the administration wanted to fill the Africanist position with a series of adjuncts.
At the beginning of the year, we sent out the standard notice for a new tenure-track hire. Because we are a community college, we need someone capable of handling several different intro courses: African-American history; the History of Ancient, Early Modern, and Modern Africa; modern U.S. Survey. We received a number of excellent applications, and starting at noon today, we'll meet the most promising candidates, the one who survived the "paper screen" process.
When we were first writing the hiring proposal last year, there was some debate amongst the members of the committee about non-academic qualifications. We have only one professor who teaches African and African-American studies; the retiring holder of that position served not only as a classroom professor but also as a mentor to black students on campus, advising the BSA and so forth. Though just three decades ago, the campus was nearly 25% black, today the percentage of African-American students has plummeted to the mid-single digits. Some of that is due to the changing demographic of the San Gabriel Valley and of Southern California in general, some of that is due, frankly, to a decline in the number of African-American high school graduates who are attending any kind of college.
As far as I -- and the other members of our committee -- were concerned, it's vital that the new faculty member we choose be committed not only to mentoring all students, but have a particular interest in working with young African-American men and women. Of course, this doesn't mean we asked for or are demanding that the person we hire be themselves black. (Even with tenure, if I, as a member of a sitting hiring committee, announced on a public blog that race was a qualifying factor, I'd be in a massive heap of trouble. Heck, I might not be allowed to serve on a committtee again. Wait a minute... naw, bad idea.)
Pasadena City College does not have a separate ethnic studies program. Those of us who teach ethnic or gender studies also teach as historians, sociologists, philosophers and so forth. But it's made fairly explicit that those who do teach ethnic or gender studies, as I do, have a "special responsibility" to do outreach work in the community. After much debate, our committee decided to make that responsibility an explicit part of our hiring notice. State law does allow us to do so, though it of course precludes us from specifiying a racial preference.
As a man who teaches women's history, I'm aware that someone who isn't a member of a particular group faces a special challenge in teaching the history of that group to students who are members thereof. My maleness never disappears; my whiteness doesn't fade away. The best I can do is strive, within the limitations imposed by class and color and sex, to inspire and mentor and connect. I think I do a pretty good job, though -- as the discussions in the 'sphere this past year have shown -- I still have quite a long way to go. My point is, I don't think we need to hire someone of African or African-American ancestry for this position -- but I do think we need to hire someone who is demonstrably capable of connecting with and providing leadership in the black community on campus. Can a white person, or, say, a Latino person, do this? Legally, the answer must be an emphatic yes. Morally and politically? Harder to say.
I'm walking a fine line in terms of what I can and can't say as a committee member. What I can say is that we've all agreed -- and agreed publicly, in writing -- that we are hiring not only an academic but someone who is committed to working with the broader community. I am glad that we have made the statement that part of being a full-time professor is matching what goes on in the classroom with what happens in the city around us. I am glad that we are willing to be open about the special responsibility of those who teach ethnic or gender studies to provide intellectual and personal direction to all students, but perhaps particularly to those from historically disadvantaged groups.
I've sat on hiring committees before, but never for an ethnic studies position. Especially in light of our blogosphere's contemporary agony, I feel a keen sense of responsibility as I go into these interviews today and tomorrow. The temptation for all of us, on hiring committees, is to assess potential collegiality first and everything else second. After all, we're going to spend the remainder of our careers in close quarters with the man or woman we hire! But though collegiality is not unimportant, I feel a special obligation to think about this process from the perspective of a young student of color. To whatever degree it is possible, I will do my best to look at the candidates today both from the perspective of a tenured white professor and from that of a young, first-generation college student. I can't pretend that I'll do it perfectly or well. But if I can do anything today to put "talk" into action, it will be to bring a strong sense of social responsibility to the hiring process that continues today.
That is my promise and my pledge, and when the process is concluded, I'll be able to say more.