Retention of African American Faculty in Research Universities

Abstract

Most literature on the American professorate provides a culture of evidence that suggests that the above account represents the typical experience endured by many African American faculty members and other f acuity of color. African American faculty remain under-represented in predominantly White research universities. The number of African Americans in the professorate has remained static over the last three decades despite affirmative action program policy and related efforts of universities to attract African American faculty members. Worse yet, even in light of this already low representation, many of these African American faculty members are marginalized in terms of their scholarly activities which contributes to their low retention rates. The author's analysis makes a case that a "business-as-usual" attitude continues to dominate academic culture, and a new leadership and governance approach is needed to increase the diversity of urban and metropolitan university faculty.