The recent flap at Niagara County Community College over the firing of minority staff, including African-American Robin Ray, the 17-year veteran financial aid counselor/instructor, and the relocation of several programs from the city campus to the suburbs, have given rise to the brewing controversy over education and diversity.
Ray, the daughter of Niagara Falls businessman Arthur B. Ray, was denied tenure when her 12-month contract was suddenly reduced by two months, effectively slamming the door on her quest to earn tenure, which would have secured her in her position.
As a counselor, she has assisted more than 5,000 students, bringing in an estimated $55 million over her 17-year career to the college through the financial aid office.
Despite her impeccable record and high praise from her supervisors, peers and students, college President Dr. James P. Klyczek recommended, and the Board of Trustees agreed, not to renew her contract but instead to shorten it by two months, barring her from automatically earning tenure.
Some, myself included, decided that the move to reduce minority representation, minus any logical, reasonable, rational excuse to do so, has, at the very least, created the appearance of impropriety, incompetence, insensitivity and ignorance on the part of Dr. Klyczek, and at worst, racism. Pointing out that no fewer than four minority staff have left the college in the past six months, community leaders are wondering what's going on.
A growing number of so-called affirmative action critics argue against diversity, saying that hiring should never be based on race, while proponents counter that neither should firing.
At NCCC, the numbers speak for themselves, but what is not clear is why the college appears to be moving away from years of progress toward its own Mission Statement, which seems to embrace diversity while the college president clearly does not, failing to fill the position designed to promote diversity and rejecting an opportunity to grant tenure to an African-American who, according to all the evidence, earned it.
Carlos Tejada, Theresa Little, Stephanie Lopez, and Robin Ray, all minorities, have all lost their jobs at the community college, reducing minority representation on the NCCC staff to less than four percent.
Currently, there are only two tenured African-Americans on the entire staff of more than 600 employees. In a county where minorities comprise at least 12 percent of the population, minorities should be better represented than that. In fact, the position the college created to help assure their compliance with county, state and federal regulations regarding minority employment has been vacant for most of the past year.
With enrollment expected to rise above 7,000 this year and a budget of more than $38 million, the college should be embracing diversity instead of stepping away from it.
In "Diversity and Higher Education: Theory and Impact on Educational Outcomes," a 2002 "Harvard Educational Review" article, Patricia Gurin, Eric Dey, Sylvia Hurtado and Gerald Gurin explore the relationship between students' experiences with diverse peers in the college or university setting and their educational outcomes.
Using both single- and multi-institutional data from the University of Michigan and the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, the authors examine the effects of classroom diversity and informal interaction among African-American, Asian-American, Latino and white students on learning and democracy outcomes.
The official synopsis of their report indicates that "the results of their analyses underscore the educational and civic importance of informal interaction among different racial and ethnic groups during the college years."
Their findings are offered as evidence of the continuing importance of affirmative action and diversity efforts by colleges and universities, not only as a means of increasing access to higher education for greater numbers of students, but also as a means of fostering students' academic and social growth.
While NCCC has made significant progress toward achieving a more representative diversity of students, in part as the result of Ms. Ray's success in the Financial Aid Office, they have not done as well in minority faculty and staff hiring, promoting and retention.
They need to implement a plan to increase the number of minority faculty and staff on campus to help students be better prepared to work in a diverse environment after graduation.
Two college presidents who are concerned with the importance of diversity in higher education and its impact on American society addressed the issue recently at the Hall of Philosophy at the Chautauqua Institute.
Daniel F. Sullivan, who served for 10 years as the president of Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., and is now the 17th president of St. Lawrence University, said, "If the United States wants to remain globally competitive economically, diversity is a necessity to higher education."
DePauw University President Robert Bottoms said that, when he became president 19 years ago, there was only one minority faculty member and very few minority students. He said the university had to change some of its recruitment methods to increase diversity and remain within legal constraints. Because of their efforts, minority faculty has increased from just one member to 40, and minority student enrollment is up to 16 percent.
Clearly it is possible to reverse the trend toward undoing all the good that NCCC did over the past 30 years to make our college a place we can all feel a part of, but the disturbing downward spiral away from diversity must be brought to a halt.
Perhaps one way to do that might be to take a closer look at the budget proposed by Dr. Klyczek. Since the college's board of trustees, with the exception of Mr. Roscetti and Mr. O'Connor, apparently doesn't care about diversity, perhaps the Niagara County Legislature does.
They are responsible for the review and approval of his budget. They might at least ask if he is committed to the college's published Mission Statement. It reads, "The mission of Niagara County Community College is to provide the people of the Niagara region with a teaching and learning environment dedicated to excellence. ... Our College nurtures and empowers its students in ways that recognize and value our common humanity as well as the richness of our diversity. ... The College operates through a collegial model of shared decision making and is accountable to meet the highest standards of professionalism."
If they decide that he is not committed to the principles of equality and diversity, they ought to ask themselves if he is entitled to continue to collect the $129,780 salary the Niagara County taxpayers and students are paying him, which he spends where he lives, in Erie County.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Aug. 2 2005 |