Compared to the nation’s 12.8 percent average, blacks make up only 1.9 percent of UW faculty, according to the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity.

To address this issue, the Board of Regents hired Luis Fraga in July 2007 as the associate vice provost for faculty advancement. The UW has also developed multiple councils and fostered an Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity.

“The commitment of the president and provost to these issues is as genuine as I have ever experienced in my academic career,” Fraga said.

But the numbers are still low, he added.

In 2006, blacks made up about 6.1 percent of King County and about 3.6 percent of the state, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

When the UW looks for new faculty, which includes all of the UW’s teaching staff excluding TAs, a search committee usually sends out a job opening announcement. Fraga works with departments and schools to make sure diversity is a criterion on those announcements. This encourages search committees to better consider diversity, and it attracts more diverse applicants, Fraga said.

Some argue that although positions are always advertised, those hiring rely almost exclusively on recommendations and rarely consider applicants outside their network.

“We lead the public to believe that it’s an open process…[when in reality] there are very few [open] positions, for white people as well,” said Clarence Spigner, associate professor of public health, an active member of diversity discussions on campus. “It’s not so much that one person simply has more ability than another person. It’s just that you have so many people with all the skills and abilities. So there has to be a pecking order. Who do you bring into the University? You bring in people you know. You bring in people you’re comfortable with.”

Spigner said the “old boys club” mentality has contributed to the UW’s lack of diversity among faculty.

“I think one of the reasons [is] that the numbers of the pool of faculty we would pull from is not as large,” said Conie Proctor, a Board of Regents member. “It’s competitive, in a good way.”

There isn’t a great deal of diversity at the UW among tenured faculty, who hold their positions until they leave the university or retire, Fraga said.

“Even if there is a tremendous increase in numbers of new hires, those folks with tenure are always going to be there. So making progress is going to be slow in terms of our tenure system as a whole,” Fraga said.

In addition to changing the way the UW hires faculty, Fraga has been addressing issues of retaining diverse faculty.

Although the UW has a strong black community, its numbers are small, Proctor said. This makes it difficult for black faculty to find a sense of community. It also makes it harder to attract black faculty.

“I don’t believe in the birds of a feather argument. Black people live everywhere,” Spigner said. “I don’t believe [that] white people, just because they’re white, aren’t welcoming or tolerant. It’s a circular argument, and it’s an absurd one.”

To provide a greater sense of community, the UW has hosted events that bring together black faculty and local black leaders within the Seattle community.

“Having people feel a connection to a larger community is important,” Proctor said. “People need to understand that the community is there.”

Sheila Edwards Lange, the vice president of minority affairs, also works with connecting diverse faculty to local communities.

“I think in terms of retention, it’s the intangible tht can be difficult to manage. How people feel about the place impacts their retention,” Lange said. “I can’t replicate large African-American communities.”

Spigner said the atmosphere at the UW isn’t always conducive to academic survival, in particular when it comes to getting published.

“It’s a difficult thing to put your finger on, because we’re supposed to be independent researchers. There is this mythology that we’re supposed to be doing all our work alone. … that’s never been the case,” he said.

When writing books and articles, Spigner said the extra help most faculty receive from colleagues, whether it be research or mentoring, isn’t there for many black faculty.

Often diverse faculty are given competitive wages from other schools. Lange said she tries to follow these offers and counter them.

“Even when you work hard to develop a plan, a competitive offer, if it’s more a personal issue than a professional issue, then it’s hard to respond to that,” she said.

The strategy of improving the UW’s diversity among faculty and graduate students is continually being developed, and Fraga is still doing research.

“[We] begin by recognizing that progress is only made when department chairs and senior members of the department identify this as a worthy and important goal,” he said.

About 3.2 percent of undergraduate students are black. That percentage drops to 2.6 percent for graduate students, and continues to fall to 1.9 percent for faculty, according to the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity.

There hasn’t been a direct link between the low percentage of black graduate students and faculty, although some have discussed possible connections. Spigner said that most graduate students, of any ethnicity, require mentorship and encouragement from faculty to continue into graduate work.

Black undergraduates often connect better with black faculty, and so the lack of black faculty creates fewer opportunities for black students to receive the critical encouragement they need, Proctor said.

Spigner said if the problem is mentorship, white faculty members aren’t doing their job, and should be reaching out to black students like they would any other student.

“If African American students still don’t feel comfortable talking to white faculty, then we need to ask what the white faculty are doing that [the students] don’t feel comfortable,” he said. “I would suspect there is a pure and simple lack of nurturing that’s going on.”

Lange said that although it doesn’t help the situation, the lack of black faculty doesn’t dissuade black students from the UW.

Through the Graduate Opportunities and Minority Achievement Program, students from diverse background recruited from the John Hopps Research Scholars Program at Atlanta Morehouse College are planning to spend a week immersed at the UW. Faculty hope to include them in research projects for the summer, Lange said.

Although such programs focus on math and sciences, the program encourages students from diverse backgrounds to apply to the UW for graduate work and helps them build references within the UW community, Lange added.

“I think we live in a world that is definitely multicultural in terms of connecting people to people, the world is getting smaller,” Proctor said. “It’s important for all students of Washington to have a better understanding of other peoples, regardless of whatever work they go into their lifetime.”

[Reach reporter Celeste Flint at features@thedaily.washington.edu.]