Diversity and Compensation Forum

During the development of the proposed faculty salary formula, there was some discussion of including salary incentives to attract and retain diverse faculty, including faculty of color. The proposed formula does not include such incentives, but the committee provides a number of alternate proposals and suggestions that could address our commitment to hiring a more diverse faculty and also doing better retaining and supporting the faculty members we have now.

The Faculty Salary group discussed this in their report, including in this section:

Valuing diversity is an integral part of our college mission, and its relevance to the issue of compensation becomes more urgent, considering that the recent demands made by concerned students include, among others, “the hiring of more people of color in faculty, staff and resident advisor positions.”  But how to reflect our commitment to diversity in our faculty pay structure is a difficult issue, and passionate arguments were made on this topic among the faculty we talked with. Many feel it is important to “put our money where our mouths are” and pay higher salaries for those we want to recruit.  Those same faculty acknowledged the difficulty of defining diversity in this context, and in even knowing whether someone brings a component of diversity that we cannot see or ask about in the interview process.  It was also pointed out that valuing diversity should go beyond the time of hiring, and should include a comprehensive plan to make Guilford more welcoming to faculty of color.  Still others felt that if we paid everyone well, we would be better able to attract and retain faculty from all backgrounds.  The only consensus appeared to be that faculty are committed to finding ways to more intentionally value diversity in the campus experience.

It is in this context that we have chosen not to recommend that a diversity component be included in the faculty salary formula.  Instead, we recommend that the Faculty Personnel Committee work in tandem with the faculty to identify and  recommend concrete measures of hiring and retaining more faculty of color and other marginalized groups by helping to create a more welcoming atmosphere.

We believe that improving all salaries on campus will improve our attractiveness to all candidates as well as improve the welfare and morale of all faculty. We have identified practices related to hiring and building community that we believe will have a greater likelihood of broadening the scope of diversity on campus.

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