From: David.Koert@CoE.Drexel.EDU (Dave Koert)
Newsgroups: sci.research.careers
Subject: Re: Hiring quotas and faculty positions
Date: 12 Sep 92 21:16:29 GMT
Organization: Drexel University
X-Xxmessage-Id: <A6D7D8BD440214E5@n1-20-229-hess-lab.coe.drexel.edu>
X-Xxdate: Sat, 12 Sep 92 17:26:21 GMT
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In article <11SEP199216584182@jetson.uh.edu> Schieber, schieber@jetson.uh.edu
writes:
>>This will cause extreme feelings of resentment, anger, and frustration
>>among the people adversely affected by the practice (as well it should),
>>as well as among many people who only imagine AA has affected them.
>
>If they do not understand the complexities of academic life, such
>individuals may feel resentment.  We should educate them about all
>of the different ways they may be wrongly turned down, as well as
>the ways they may be correctly turned down.  They can almost
>certainly find more heinous sins in the system than AA.

I hope it won't sound too much like an admission of naivete to say that
I have learned alot about hidden considerations in hiring by following
the postings on this issue.  My experience in walking (meandering along)
the career path through a graduate education toward the goal of a 
faculty position has provided many occasions where my eyes were opened
sometime after the point I needed the information.

[It took me six months to realize my advisor wasn't going to give me
even a hint on how to select and perform a research project.  Even
after I jumped that hurdle (alright... maybe I crawled under) on a
few bad days I could still be heard singing, "No body loves me,
Everybody hates me, I think I'll eat worms."  Until I occasioned to
hear my advisor's advisor explain his theory that "nobody worth his or
her salt has to be told what to do," I just though my boss didn't
particularly like me.  *Then* the light bulb turned on ... it was just
another *test*.  There have been a few times when I wished someone had
just hinted there were some unwritten rules at play.  Am I the only
one?]

Anyway, I admit, by airing my opinion that I didn't get hired
because an advantage was given to another candidate due to gender,
I did not properly weight that single factor in the complicated mix
of factors that *could* be involved in a hiring decision.  (I'll
bet you have to read that sentence more than once.)  Having
said that, I think it is a mistake to dismiss my "anecdotal claim"
of unfairness in hiring as statistically irrelevant or merely the
failure of the novice to understand "the complexities of academic
life."

I have reason to believe that there are instances when an
administrator, such as a Dean, communicates (directly or indirectly)
to a search committee something like, "I know you have a position
that needs to be filled.  I know you were promised that you could
hire somebody, but money is awfully tight.  The only way I'll let
you hire somebody is if its a woman or minority...
... or maybe a superstar."  This very statement (yeah, yeah, yeah
if it has ever been said) points to drastic differences in
qualifications.

You're not going to find any statistics to back that up.  I suspect
that not many people *publicly* own up to having participated in
that style of hiring.

As an added complication to a fair discussion of this subject, let me
say that I don't think this is happening uniformly across all the
branches of science and engineering.

I would like to summarize my sentiments by saying that statistically
speaking my story may not represent a significant or meaningful
population of stories about hiring for faculty positions, but I hope
that my voice can be heard.  I don't think it's a reasonable way of
treating people (me), to bring finalist in for interviews when the
choice has already been made. (This is overstated, please don't
ignore the meaning because of the tone.)


dave koert, research assist. prof.       | "You can't excuse your own abuse
combustion & fuels group, hess labs      |  because someone caused you pain."
Mechanical Eng. Dept. (MEM), Drexel Univ.|   from the play, AND I STILL RISE
David.Koert@CoE.Drexel.EDU               |         by Mya Angelo
Newsgroups: sci.research.careers