Daniel Bayer
  Staff Writer

The Faculty Senate Committee on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, which addresses the implementation of university policy on increasing the representation of women and minorities among the faculty,  conducted a panel discussion last Wednesday, March 16, seeking solutions to a lack of diversity among faculty on the UNC-Greensboro campus.

Conducting the panel were faculty members Gerald Holmes, Jim Carmichael and Andrea Hunter.

According to Hunter, the university isn’t doing all it can to recruit and retain available women and minority faculty candidates.

Presently 81 percent of the faculty is white males, and even though white women are moving towards parity with their male counterparts,  68 percent of the non-tenure stream faculty are women. However, the “pipeline” for new faculty is more diverse, Hunter said.

After an introduction, attendees were organized into breakout groups where they were encouraged to discuss and record ideas for increasing diversity in both the faculty and curriculum.

Carmichael, a professor in the Department of Library and Information Studies, said that there are a number of factors that create pressure on UNCG when it comes to recruiting minority faculty members.

Carmichael spoke on attracting minority faculty saying, “A big problem is flat salaries, which makes it hard to compete with the larger schools.” This is offset, however, by growing diversity among the student body, which means that more possible candidates will be available in the future.

“A good part is the state marker for diversity in the curriculum,” he says. The marker designates classes that emphasize cultural diversity in their studies and encourages inclusivity of viewpoints.

“That’s wonderful,” said Carmichael.

Other ways of encouraging diversity and breaking down a monolithic viewpoint in the curriculum include “flipped classrooms,” where instructors serve as facilitators for students who are teaching themselves “That way they don’t have to conform to the teacher’s standards,” says Carmichael.

Diversity coaching for instructors that help them deal with students from different cultures and backgrounds was another idea discussed.

Carmichael said encouraging diversity in the classroom goes beyond traditional notions of differences based on race and gender to include issues such as mental illness.

“I’ve had students who were homeless, who lived in dumpsters,” he said. “We have a lot of students who are mentally ill. We provide a lot [of students] counseling about suicide and depression.”

There are also generational differences that affect diversity efforts, he said.

“Race was a big problem for my generation, but I don’t think it is with the younger generation,” he stated.