Numerous studies point to the role that noninclusive academic contexts can have in shaping the experiences of URM faculty members. URM faculty members report isolation, a lack of support from supervisors, repeated microaggressions and marginalization in various contexts, as well as being overburdened with diversity work that’s not recognized when it comes to promotion and tenure.

The reason colleges and universities fail to increase faculty diversity is obvious: the solution is not aligned with the problem. While the problem is systemic, most interventions are targeted at the individual level—professional development seminars, grant-writing workshops and the like—an approach that identifies the difficulty of recruiting and retaining URM scholars as a problem with those scholars themselves. That lens leads to a deficit-focused model of support that emphasizes workshops and professional development so as to make URM scholars a better fit for the academy.

We must change course. We must stop viewing URM scholars through a deficit lens. Instead, we must create supportive environments where they can develop and flourish. And to do so will require a collective effort at the department level.

Current initiatives to diversify faculty often are top down: they start from central campus programs that select scholars and then assign them to a department. But minoritized scholars’ main home is their local community—that is, their department.

Departments should have retention, mentoring and support systems in place before a URM faculty member is hired. If a department is not committed to engaging in the significant and difficult work needed to provide a more inclusive environment, it is unlikely to retain minoritized scholars who don’t feel valued and engaged. Departmental efforts must be grounded in core program tenets that center URM scholars’ sense of belonging.