The Status of Black and Hispanic Faculty in Massachusetts Colleges and Universities. Working Paper #7.

This report presents results of a questionnaire survey intended to establish a profile of Blacks and Hispanics holding faculty positions in Massachusetts colleges and universities. The survey was sent to 86 community and two-year colleges, liberal arts colleges, comprehensive institutions and doctoral-granting institutions (72 responded), of which 29 were public and 57 were private. Among the findings were the following: (1) Blacks and Hispanics filled 4.4 percent of the faculty positions; (2) 10 of the respondents had no Black or Hispanic faculty members; (3) representation by discipline for Blacks and Hispanics in Massachusetts did not differ radically from statistics nationwide; and (4) only 6.4 percent of all Blacks and Hispanics served in departments of education, despite the fact that a substantial fraction of minority faculty, particularly Blacks, teach in education. It was also determined that very few colleges and universities have set specific targets or goals for increasing the number of minority faculty; that many colleges and universities do not have university-wide faculty hiring policies; that lack of Black and Hispanic faculty is largely due to the paucity of doctoral graduates in these two groups; and that Massachusetts' fiscal crisis is having a direct and adverse impact on faculty recruitment, particularly for minorities in the public sector. The appendix includes the list of colleges and universities surveyed. (GLR)