"Today, after 19 years, I happen to be the only nonwhite person (faculty member) in the Graduate School of Education, besides the dean," Malave, associate professor of learning and instruction, told her colleagues on the Faculty Senate Executive Committee during the group's Sept. 16 meeting.

During discussion of a proposal that recommends the creation of a mentoring program for junior faculty members, she noted that she has seen members of minority groups hired for faculty positions, only to leave for a variety of reasons. Among them are loneliness, lack of collegial role models and heavy committee and advising responsibilities.

List is long, story sad

"The list (of reasons) is very long and I think it's a very sad story," said Malave, who described herself as one of the few minority faculty members who "made it" (received tenure) at UB.

The environment at UB also is hostile for women faculty members, she added.

"If you (women) want to get tenure, you don't need a husband, you need a wife," she joked. "There is a lack of understanding from our well-esteemed, well-respected male colleagues about the tradition of women faculty," in addition to that of minority faculty, she said.

The mentoring proposal from the senate's Affirmative Action Committee recommends that all junior faculty members-not only women and minorities- have the opportunity to request and be assigned an advocate/advisor or a committee as soon as he or she is appointed to the university, or at any point within the first few years of service.

The program is designed to increase the retention of junior faculty members, in particular women and minorities.

But "there's no problem with retention if you haven't hired anyone," Gerard Rosenfeld, professor of anthropology and co-chair of the Affirmative Action Committee, pointed out.

Others express concerns

Rosenfeld related that he had been at UB for 25 years "and I'll say, quite frankly, that had I known the mix would be as it was all those 25 years, I never would have come here."

In those 25 years, he said, the anthropology department, "with one exception," has hired no minorities. He noted that it is particularly disappointing in a department whose members fancy themselves to be "globetrotters" whose work brings them to locales across the globe.

The concerns expressed by Rosenfeld and Malave were echoed by Loyce Stewart, associate director of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Affirmative Action Administration. Although UB does not formally conduct exit interviews when employees leave the university, Stewart told senators that she has heard the same complaints from faculty members as those expressed by Malave: lack of direction and motivation, heavy committee work and burdensome advising responsibilities. She cited the case of one faculty member who had advising duties for all minority students in the department-more than 100-"only because the faculty member happened to be a minority."

William Fischer, vice provost for faculty development, stressed that mentoring "begins at the point of hiring. Departments must understand that they are not hiring for demographics...but to bring the work of a particular faculty member into the department in a way that is integrated, appreciated and supported."

Don Schack, professor of mathematics, suggested that the senate get more information about mentoring programs that are already in place in some schools, such as those in the schools of law and engineering; "before we put something in place...let's study what's actually worked."

Fisher advised against spending a lot of time studying other mentoring programs.

Good will, energy needed

"What's clear to me (from the engineering and law programs) is that each discipline and locale will produce its own particular system that's appropriate for the pressures and requirements of those environments," Fisher said. "I would recommend not spending too much time investigating and producing evidence on this. The main issue is to get the responsibility down to the deans and chairs.

"I don't think this (mentoring proposal) needs to be elaborate," he continued. "When you finally come down to it, mentoring is going to rely on the good will and volunteer energies of the faculty. That's what's going to make it successful."