Exeter Struggles to Retain Faculty of Color
The Afro-Latino Exonian Society (ALES) proposal submitted to the administration last term highlighted the need for increased inclusivity and the importance of hiring and retaining faculty of color. ALES is concerned about the community’s lack of attention to the racial makeup of the student body and the faculty. Despite their many initiatives in recent years to increase diversity, the administration has struggled to retain faculty of color for long periods of time.
“It is important to see role models in a variety of bodies [...] so we don’t assume that a teacher or a professor looks one way.”
The administration has previously established programs to attract faculty of color to campus, such as the Dissertation Fellowship Program, which will not continue next year due to lack of funding. However, Exeter continues to hire interns of color. Though they are hired for one year only, interns teach classes and live in dorms, and are considered part of the faculty. Despite these efforts, Office of Multicultural Student Affairs intern Michelle Irukera said, “there’s still a lot of work to be done.”
According to English intern and PEA alum Wei-Ling Woo, the department has held discussions regarding faculty diversity. “There is awareness in the English department that we need more diverse faculty,” she said. “I know just personally as a faculty of color I would like to see an increase of diversity.”
According to Mathematics Instructor Sami Atif, the efforts to diversify faculty were interrupted during the transition from former Principal Tom Hassan to Principal Lisa MacFarlane; a student-written document outlining the demands around this issue was not passed down from the former administration to MacFarlane’s.
Changing how the Academy hires its faculty will require a fundamental restructuring of a fairly large and complex system. The hiring process at Exeter currently involves input from staff in several different offices, including Human Resources, the Dean of Faculty and department-specific “hiring committees” chaired by department heads. Atif, who is also a faculty advisor of ALES, said the departmentalized nature of the process means that it is at the discretion of the departments determine how much to prioritize to varying the applicant pool. “There is no person on this campus whose number one job is to actually seek out diverse candidates and seek out retention,” Atif said. Until the notion that faculty diversity is an absolute necessity spreads “through all constituencies,” the same issue will continue to come up year after year, he said.
In addition, some teachers feel that the Academy’s faculty searches are not extensive enough. According to Atif, the school has not contacted “organizations that have international connections;” even nation-wide searches are still not a reality yet. “There is a wealth of talent out there in the world,” he said. For some people, Exeter’s “brand name” is not enough to convince them to devote their career and personal life to the Academy, unless they feel this is a place where they can thrive.
“Exeter is a small town in a rural state, which makes it harder to attract and retain minority faculties [...] the lack of social outlet is constantly present,” History Instructor Kwasi Boadi said.
Faculty of color have frequently experienced difficulties integrating into the predominantly white adult community on campus, in both the town of Exeter and the state of New Hampshire as a whole. “Faculty of color often feel inconsequential at the Academy, as their voices go unheard, and their needs unmet,” Dean of Multicultural Affairs Rosanna Salcedo said. “It is easy to feel isolated and undervalued here.” In a similar vein, intern Michelle Irukera described how she feels unsafe walking alone in the evening in the town of Exeter. “I’m fairly used to living in majority white communities and have done so for the past seven years now, but it still comes with its challenges and difficulties,” she said.
Furthermore, faculty of color frequently feel the need to “universalize” their experiences for people who do not understand their culture. “As a collective entity, we don’t really appreciate what each other’s identity is [...] there’s a dominant culture that forces you to conform to it in order to thrive here,” Atif said.
This, in part, contributes to why some faculty of color only stay with Exeter for a few years. Many have identified this as the biggest obstacle to increasing faculty diversity; four-year senior Oreoluwa Solanke said that the problem “is not about hiring faculty of color but mainly about retention.” Similarly, “there is awareness in the English department that we need more diverse faculty.” Charlotte Polk commented on how she has “seen a lot of faculty of color come and go even in three years.” The administration has not yet implemented any policies to solve this problem. “It’s not really changed in the long term sense,” Polk said.
Instructor of English Courtney Marshall believes that efforts to welcome faculty of color upon their arrival at Exeter will help encourage them to stay. Marshall added that showing faculty that their culture is sustainable and embraced on campus by sharing pieces of information, like where to grocery shop and which salons work well with curly hair, can help faculty of color feel welcome.
Coach Toyin Augustus-Ikwuakor felt similarly on the subject of integrating faculty of color on campus, saying that just as Exonians are given a support system of people to reach out to, so too should faculty be supported. “We go out of our way to look for ways for them to thrive,” she said. “It is this type of ongoing support and attention to needs that would be beneficial to faculty members as well.”
Previously, Marshall taught at the University of New Hampshire, where the administration would conduct a “cluster hire” of professors of color to better ensure that their stay be long-term. “They just hire three black women. So you don’t just bring in one person, who might feel isolated, you bring in a group,” she said.
Many other suggestions have been made by faculty members. Atif suggested an “affirmative action incentive” incorporated into a recruitment process. Irukera echoed Atif’s idea of deliberate recruiting, adding that “Exeter can put some of its expansive resources” to advance the process.
Salcedo believes in taking initial steps before action by delving into the history of the school. “I believe institutions like Exeter have to examine their history of white supremacy to begin to understand what it might feel like to be a person of color in this environment,” she said. “To be a truly pluralistic and inclusive society, the dominant culture needs to face its historical past, identify and challenge institutional forms of racism and white supremacy.”
According to Augustus-Ikwakor, the administration is currently working to hire professionals like the Director of Community Equity and Diversity to address the issue. “The candidates have been on campus for interviewing and I’m hopeful that they can help keep us on track with innovative ideas and training,” she said. “As a community we should stick up for each other as advocates.” Toyin also emphasized that this issue needs attention for a solution to arise. “We can’t just have an ‘open door policy’,” she said.
Senior Kelvin Green compared bringing in faculty of color to Exeter’s last transition in 1970—the decision to allow for female Exonians, and therefore recruit female teachers. “It makes sense,” he said. Solanke agreed, saying, “If we have youth from every corner we should push to have faculty from every corner as well.”
According to Atif, although the Academy defines itself as an inclusive institution, many members still do not comprehend the value of having a diverse faculty body. “Right now it seems superficial to some, important to others and somewhere in the middle for most faculty,” he said. He went on to stress that students “across the spectrum” benefit from interacting with adults from different backgrounds.
Boadi echoed these sentiments, saying, “Not only does faculty diversity give some comfort for minority students to see faculty like them, it also provides a cosmopolitan outlook for the other students.” According to Boadi, the wealth of experiences brought by such instructors also enriches students’ curriculum.
Many feel that having more adult figures who share similar cultural backgrounds also benefits students of color on campus. “It is important to see role models in a variety of bodies [...] so we don’t assume that a teacher or a professor looks one way,” English instructor Courtney Marshall said. Similarly, Green said that students of color need more role models to bolster their confidence and self-esteem. “A white student would never have to question, ‘can I do this?’ They see people who look like them in all the fields,” he said.
Atif, meanwhile, expressed concern for students who feel they cannot trust the adults on campus, saying, “When I hear students speak about not being safe, about not having adults they can confide in, all this speaks to a lacking, and I think we owe it to ourselves to address it.”