Recruiting, Retaining, and Benefiting From a Diverse Community College Faculty: A Case Study of One College’s Successes

Abstract

The variety of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives that an ethnically diverse faculty provides a community college give it the capacity to support the complex work that community colleges undertake. The challenges in having a diverse faculty require recruiting diverse applicants and in retaining those applicants once hired. Achieving these twin aims has proven elusive for many community colleges. This case study explores one college that underwent significant institutional transformations and concurrently diversified its faculty in ways that helped it evolve the collective skills that the institution needed. Over a 15-year period, the college became the most diverse in its state while growing from 4.3% full-time faculty of color to 23.3% full-time faculty of color. The study explores that 15-year period through analysis of archived records and interviews with key informants. This study identifies how a diverse faculty strengthened the college; it also suggests three key principles for how other colleges can achieve such diversity.