Colleges Must Change to Retain BIPOC Women Faculty
BIPOC women faculty frequently tell me they are blamed for students’ race-based “incivility,” perceived as bad teachers by colleagues resistant to their teaching and dismissed when making justified claims of race and gender oppression in their student ratings and observations. They have shared with me that their institution’s response to those obstacles is, far too often, to relegate them to the teaching center to be “fixed.” Or worse, a number of institutions may force these faculty members out of the institution through unsuccessful tenure bids. These women -- sincerely committed to teaching students well -- spend an inordinate amount of time, emotion and energy dealing with classroom racism, sexism, classism and the like, often to the detriment of their research productivity, health and work-life balance.