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The Hub-o-sphere: March 16
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Last time we visited Emerson's campus on the Common, we realized that it was white, white, white. At a school where a mere 3 percent of the students are black, and only four black faculty have ever been tenured, you might wonder what a black person's gotta do to get a professorship. The answer, as we found out, is bring a lawsuit. Half of those four black professors had to bring discrimination suits against the college before getting their tenure.
That's a problem. A recent panel on the issue found that Emerson's black faculty find themselves in a "caste-like position," the result of decades of institutional deafness to the needs of black academics. The panel's report is a study in white privilege—Emerson might not actively discriminate against black people, but its lilywhite environment makes it hard for black academics to break out.
It's been a bad month for things named Emerson. A few weeks ago, a cadre of English professors proposed kicking Ralph Waldo Emerson out of the American literature canon because he wrote "the prose of a crazy person."
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also of note from the report, 59% of emerson's instructors are adjunct, and even 34% of full-time professors are not tenure track. and two of the three largest departments at the school have only two full professors each. so nobody's really getting tenure, it seems.
fortunately, my insider source (emerson email list) says several meetings are being planned to begin discussing the implementation of report recommendations, so we can expect changes to take effect in... oh... 2050 or thereabouts?
The biggest pile of crap I have ever heard. Discrimination? Really? The funny thing is I can point out 2 black professors at Emerson I had that didn't deserve tenure or even to be teaching there - and NOT because of the color of one's skin, but of the content of their lectures. Emerson should be in trouble for discriminating against educated people, and more often that not, hiring hacks and quacks to teach kids a bunch of bologna at cheap rates and high tuition. I strongly doubt anyone was hired/denied position or tenure because of their ethnicity. They went with the most qualified people they saw fit - blind of skin color. Names like Kevin S. Bright are attractive. Or, "I taught in California." What Emerson needs is more qualified blacks to apply. And that my friends starts with equal education for all in the elementary schools through high schools - where people learn the things to get into colleges. Quotas SOLVE NOTHING.