From Theory to Practice: Promoting Antiracist Action at NIU

Workshop I of II: Addressing Hiring and Promotion Inequities

WELCOME!!

Introductions

01

Name/Pronoun

• Department

Years at NIU

• What brings you here?

“If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is tied up with mine, let us work together.”� - Lilla Watson�

Objectives

• CREATE space for a community of individuals committed to antiracism
• UNDERSTAND our local and national context
• PRACTICE how to analyze and interrogate hiring and promotion policies using an antiracist lens

Consider:

• Why is this unsettling to me?
• What would it mean for me if what’s being said were true?
• Is my unease helping to reveal some unexamined biases or assumptions I might be harboring?
• Am I willing to consider that possibility? Why or why not?

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6

Acuerdos/�Community�Agreements

• Be brave, honest, and participatory
• Be open-minded by listening for understanding
• Center the voices of those traditionally marginalized and excluded.
• Seek to understand the intent and impact. Let us not ignore the impacts of our words/actions and let us not assume the intentions of others.
• Ask for clarifications in the moment to resolve misunderstanding.
• Keeping conversations in these meetings in confidence. You can share the impact something had on you without sharing the details of who and what was shared.
• Use “I” statements
• Embrace the silence

Acuerdos/�Community�Agreements

• Be brave, honest, and participatory
• Be open-minded by listening for understanding
• Center the voices of those traditionally marginalized and excluded.
• Seek to understand the intent and impact. Let us not ignore the impacts of our words/actions and let us not assume the intentions of others.
• Ask for clarifications in the moment to resolve misunderstanding.
• Keeping conversations in these meetings in confidence. You can share the impact something had on you without sharing the details of who and what was shared.
• Use “I” statements

02�Setting the �stage

Defining Antiracism

• Systemic

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• Focused on outcomes

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• Action-based

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• Intersectional

“Antiracism”

Kendi:

“the opposite of racist is not ‘not racist’”

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• Beyond individual context
• Carmichael (Kwame Ture) and Hamilton - “Institutional Racism”
• Bonilla-Silva - “Color Blind” racism
• Informal networks
• Historical segregation
• Implicit bias
• Meritocracy

75%

28% 45%

<1%

of full-time faculty at degree-granting institutions are White

Growth of non-white undergraduates between 1997 and 2017

growth in faculty diversity between 2013-2017*

Whiter, more male

NIU Context

• 16.5% Black / 19% Latinx undergraduates (2018)
• 2.8 % Black / 2.3% Latinx full-time faculty (2018)
• Faculty/student ratio – 1:10.3
• Black faculty – 1:66
• Latinx faculty – 1:75
• Fewer tenured associate professors
• Even fewer full professors
• Task Force met with 19 faculty… our response to the Senate report:
1. BIPOC faculty are primarily concerned with a fair process
2. BIPOC faculty have increased service expectations, usually uncompensated, diminishing scholarly productivity
3. BIPOC faculty more disadvantaged by subjective evaluations
4. Faculty compensation needs to be equitable
5. Bold, concrete action steps required

�Activity:�

As you read the example personnel policy, reflect on the following:

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1. How might the current personnel policies  and practices* promote racist outcomes? (Be specific!)
2. �Where is there room for implicit bias? 
• vague language; room for various interpretations
• room for various levels of enforcement
• unwritten rules*
3. �What specific changes can be made to produce more equitable outcomes?

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Next Steps:

• Workshop II: Next week at same day/time!
• Focus of Workshop II: Examining our departments’ personnel policies for hiring and promotion

Thank You!!