Doing the Right Thing - by Marybeth Gasman

Book Synopsis

An honest confrontation of systemic racism in faculty hiring--and what to do about it

While colleges and universities have been lauded for increasing student diversity, these same institutions have failed to achieve any comparable diversity among their faculty. In 2017, of the nation's full-time, tenure-track and tenured faculty, only 3 percent each were Black men, Black women, Hispanic men, and Hispanic women. Only 6 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander men, 5 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander women, and 1 percent were American Indian/Alaska Native. Why are the numbers so abysmal? In Doing the Right Thing, Marybeth Gasman takes a hard, insightful look at the issues surrounding the recruitment and hiring of faculty of color. Relying on national data and interviews with provosts, deans, and department chairs from sixty major universities, Gasman documents the institutional forces stymieing faculty diversification, and she makes the case for how such deficiencies can and should be rectified.

Even as institutions publicly champion inclusive excellence and the number of doctoral students of color increases, Gasman reveals the entrenched constraints contributing to the faculty status quo. Impediments to progress include the alleged trade-off between quality and diversity, the power of pedigree, the rigidity of academic pipelines, failures of administrative leadership, lack of accountability among administration and faculty, and the opacity and arbitrariness of the recruitment and hiring process. Gasman contends that leaders must acknowledge institutional failures of inclusion, pervasive systemic racism, and biases that restrict people of color from pursuing faculty careers.

Recognizing that individuals from all backgrounds are essential to the creation and teaching of knowledge, Doing the Right Thing puts forth a concrete call for colleges and universities to take action and do better.

Review Quotes

"Although it is a difficult task to speak to and appease such broad audiences, by placing professors' engagement with DEI efforts as constitutive of their job as professors, Doing the Right Thing's use of a wide lens convincingly shows how investments in elite affiliations are part of defending a White professoriate. To this end, Gasman impressively combines quantitative and qualitative data to support her argument and provides a benchmark for future debates on DEI in higher education."---prahdeep singh kehal, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

"Winner of the PROSE Award in Education Theory and Practice, Association of American Publishers"

"In this important book, Gasman (Rutgers Univ.) takes a closer look at problematic hiring practices at the 62 member institutions of the Association of American Universities (AAU). Written in a conversational style, her book draws on countless interviews she conducted with faculty and administrators at the nation's leading universities. . . . Though written with AAU institutions in mind, the practical advice Gasman offers should also be applied in all other higher education contexts. Only then will there be a noticeable and much-needed change in faculty hiring across the country and thus a true commitment to inclusive excellence."---G. Thuswaldner, Choice

About the Author

Marybeth Gasman is the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Endowed Chair in Education and a Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University. Her books include Making Black Scientists and Educating a Diverse Nation. She lives in Philadelphia. Twitter @marybethgasman Instagram @marybethgasman