Perspectives: African-American Ph.D.s: Good Enough for America’s Educational Institutions?: For several years after receiving our doctorates, we struggled to find full-time work as tenure-track professors. Despite having more qualifications than many of the fresh Ph.D.s who were getting interviews and job offers, we were relegated to adjunct faculty positions that offered none of the benefits of tenure-track jobs.
As colleges and universities look to cut costs and keep budgets tight, we are concerned that African-American Ph.D.s like us will be left out of the university hiring process. Despite the old adage about higher education institutions being bastions of liberalism, many remain very conservative in their hiring process.
In fact, only 5 percent of university full-time faculty members are Black, and we suspect that there is a disproportionate amount of those at HBCUs. We worry that, as the demographics of universities change, diverse faculty are being shut out of opportunities.
