Report of the 2004 Committee on the Status of Blacks

One of the main goals of the Committee on the Status of Blacks (CSB) is to assess how well African-American political scientists are faring in the discipline. Given the nature of the academy, we believe an important element for success is effective mentoring. Our position is supported by the American Political Science Association (APSA) which established a Task Force on Mentoring in 2002 to address issues facing underrepresented groups within the profession. One of the initiatives is a Mentor Database designed to connect interested minority graduate students and minority faculty with political scientists who are willing to share their experiences and knowledge and give their advice and council to participants. The Committee is supportive of this initiative whose goal is to help underrepresented groups have satisfying professional careers.

In this article, we contribute to this worthwhile endeavor by calling attention to some of the concerns that African Americans have about the mentoring process. As it stands, little is known about the attitudes of Black political scientists on this topic. Here we highlight some of their concerns based on solicited responses via the National Conference on Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS) listserv. The article closes with a few recommendations that are intended to complement and build on the efforts of the APSA Task Force.

Background

A growing number of colleges and universities recognize the importance of implementing a Faculty Mentoring Program.¹

Although a mentoring program would likely enhance the professional development of all new faculty, the program would be of special value in helping to acculturate junior Black faculty to academic life. Numerous studies have documented the importance of mentoring for faculty of color, especially on predominantly white campuses where they are more likely to feel isolated, marginalized, and unwanted (see, for example, Alexander-Snow and Johnson 1999; Banks 1984; Blackwell 1989; Boice 2000; Fields 1996; Menges 1999).

Many factors may contribute to why people of color may need a special focus, some of which include combating negative stereotypes, overcoming feelings of isolation, relieving tension over affirmative action, understanding departmental expectations and norms, gaining greater access to research resources, engaging in collaborative research with departmental colleagues, and balancing demands over minority service.²

Within the political science profession, African Americans continue to be underrepresented in the vast majority of predominantly white colleges and universities (Ards and Woodard 1992; Cross 1998; Geiger and Travis 1997). Rarely will one find more than one or two (if any) African Americans in political science departments on white campuses. We emphasize this point because the lack of faculty diversity is not only an issue of recruitment, but also of retention. Mentoring is a process that can increase the retention of Black faculty.

To be sure, the profession must continue its efforts to increase the number of minorities in the recruitment pool. Department chairs, however, must be aware and sensitive to the issue of retention since Black faculty members are less likely than their White colleagues to advance in rank (Ards, Brintnall, and Woodard 1997). They must take measures to ameliorate the organizational culture within their departments. This is especially true of departments that employ a token number of minority faculty. Mentoring supports professional growth and retention and has been shown to assist minority faculty in overcoming their sense of marginalization (Blackwell 1989; Boice 1992; Johnsrud 1993; Menges and Exum 1983).

In essence, mentoring is a proactive enterprise that calls for the involvement of both the profession and individual departments. As it stands, the Association is taking steps to address the retention problem, the first of which is the establishment of a Mentor Database. It is important to emphasize that the Association must be committed to this goal or we will continue to witness a shortage of Black faculty in the political science profession. Individual departments must address the retention issue as well. This is crucial because many African Americans learn about departmental expectations after the fact, during the promotion and tenure evaluation period that come too late to rectify. Moreover, previous studies have reported many instances of faculty of color leaving their departments before a tenure decision is reached because they expect to fail the tenure process (Alexander-Snow and Johnson 1999; Banks 1984; Blackwell 1988; Boice 1992, 2000). Clearly some intervention is required to address this problem. The Committee's position is that assistance in the form of mentoring will mitigate the retention problem and promote professional advancement for African Americans and other people of color.

An Assessment of African Americans and Mentoring

In order the gauge the views of African Americans on the adequacy of the mentoring they receive, we solicited comments from a broad range of Black respondents from the listserve of NCOBPS in the fall of 2004. The Committee received comments from 14 respondents. We recognize that the responses do not necessarily reflect the experiences, opinions, and thoughts of all African Americans in the profession, and indeed the results are not representative. Nonetheless, we have taken the liberty of presenting this information with the hope of providing a nuanced, albeit preliminary, appreciation of the value and limitations of the mentoring process. Our hope is that future work in the area will develop more finely tuned qualitative assessments and more broad-based representative analyses.

In general, we asked the respondents to provide information on whether their departments offer a formal mentoring program. We also asked whether they ever received effective mentoring. In addition, they were asked to provide information on the perceived benefits of mentoring. Our respondents run the gamut of professional experiences. Two are graduate students, two are primarily full-time administrators, three are assistant professors, two are associate professors, and the remainder are full professors. Eleven of our respondents are at predominantly white institutions and three are from historically black colleges and universities. Our participants include six females and eight males.

Recommendations for Effective Mentoring

The Committee strongly recommends to readers that they peruse the APSA web site on mentoring. The web site provides tips and strategies for the creation of successful mentoring programs for faculty of color. In addition, it also provides links to sites on many diverse themes on mentoring. The Committee makes the following three specific recommendations:

1. Department chairs should play a key role in the professional development and advancement of Black faculty. Implementation of a formal mentoring program is highly recommended; it will help to promote professional achievements.
2. Senior non-black faculty members should make sincere efforts to involve faculty of color, including in research collaborations. This will help promote collegiality and provide opportunities for increasing publication.
3. At the professional level, political science associations (e.g., APSA and NCOBPS) should work collectively as well as individually to address the issue of mentoring for faculty of color. This includes informing people of color how to get on APSA committees.