A comparison of black and white professors' engagement in the service component of faculty work

Abstract

Faculty diversity is critical for higher education excellence. Yet, faculty demographics are not proportionally representative of the race/ethnic and gender diversity seen in the general population. Two factors that may contribute to the limited diversity are distinctions in the time minority and "majority" faculty spend on professorial roles (particularly the service role) and the unequal weight awarded to different faculty roles in the promotion and tenure process.The purpose of this study was to investigate the community/professional service time allocation by black and white faculty members in higher education institutions. The following research questions were explored: The research questions were examined using data from the 1999 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF:99). The NSOPF:99 data represents "all public and private not-for-profit Title IV-participating, degree-granting, institutions in the 50 states and the District of Columbia" (U.S. Department of Education, 2002, p. iii). The study had six independent variables (Carnegie Classification of institution, academic rank, tenure status, academic discipline, gender, and race) and one dependent variable (service). An analysis of variance was used to examine the possible relationships between the independent variables and dependent variables.The results showed that, overall, black faculty members spend a greater percentage of time on service than their white counterparts. Additionally, black faculty members prefer to do more service than their white colleagues. Generally, white faculty members are performing a preferred amount of service while black faculty members are doing more service than preferred. The notable exception to the trends reported is among white health sciences faculty, who reported the highest percentages of time both spent on service and preferred on service of any disciplinary cohort in this study.