Last month, the Board of Trustees voted to promote 16 assistant professors to associate professorships with tenure, supporting the continuation of their teaching, research, and mentorship at the College. Beneath the joy of these decisions is a longstanding institutional failure: Over the years, inconsistent treatment and promotion of several valued faculty of color have led to an incredibly low rate of retention for faculty of color across academic divisions at the College. I urge departments, the Committee on Appointments and Promotions (CAP), the Faculty Steering Committee, and the Board of Trustees to reconsider past and present tenure denials and address faculty departures to answer the plea for support and retention of BIPOC faculty at the College.
For a professor, tenure confers institutional protection, independence, and academic freedom. It serves as a powerful defense against external pressures and protects academics’ work against the variability of the political and institutional climate. Having a diverse tenured faculty is integral to an institution’s success in fulfilling its responsibilities to students and society, as tenured professors commit to teaching and mentoring students and colleagues and promoting academic honesty.
At the College, throughout the seven-year tenure evaluation process, an assistant professor’s advancement is considered by their department and CAP, and is later voted on by the Board of Trustees. According to the faculty handbook, factors such as peer reviews, student input, and a candidate’s scholarly research are crucial components of this evaluation.
However, as the Gargoyle Society argued in a 2023 op-ed, the decentralized tenure process often hinges upon interpersonal relationships within departments, introducing inconsistency between departments and hindering transparency. Recently, a loved and esteemed assistant professor was not approved for tenure, blindsiding colleagues and students familiar with the quality of their scholarship, teaching, and mentorship. The professor has requested reconsideration, jumpstarting the tenure appeal process, where a candidate can argue that the decision was made with “improper considerations” due to discrimination, inappropriate standards, the lack of bona fide professional judgment, or lack of adequate discussion.
This assistant professor’s case is similar to that of former Assistant Professor of English and American Studies Anne Margolis in 1999, when the chair of her department claimed Margolis’ dissertation was “shockingly bad.” The dissertation was, in fact, awarded prizes and selected for publication weeks after Margolis was denied tenure. Thus, Margolis argued that she was assessed under improper considerations due to her pregnancy and her field of work. The assistant professor who was recently denied tenure said that they were similarly told by their department that their book required a publisher, despite different standards for other faculty.
The College has long failed to retain a diverse faculty. After several faculty of color departed from the College in 2019, a Record article inquired about the reasons behind the exodus. Faculty members stated reasons varying from the acceptance of better roles, the location of the College, hostile working environments, and the exhaustion of being a faculty of color at the College.
These discrepancies have persisted. Having faculty of color is critical for improving the treatment of students, faculty, and staff. It expands the breadth of mentorship, knowledge, and expertise offered to the College community. Associate professor of Africana Studies James Manigault-Bryant, is quoted in the 2019 Record article saying, “It’s important to have tenured people of color here because we’re empowered in ways that visiting faculty are not and untenured faculty are not.”
Manigault-Bryant further highlights the importance of evaluating tenure approvals from a more expansive perspective given the role of departments in selecting candidates and building culture. Cases where improper considerations are deemed to have occurred reveal how, despite general precautions to avoid bias and inconsistency, denials can still be dubious, revealing the procedural, and often social, dysfunction in a department.
According to the 2023–24 Common Data Set, out of the 348 instructional faculty at the College, only 95 are members of racial minority groups. Since 2017, eleven junior assistant professors of color and eight senior associate faculty of color have left the College, ten of whom are Black. Of the five Black faculty members to go up for tenure since 2017, only three have been awarded it. Additionally, there are still no tenured Indigenous faculty.
Faculty of color have tirelessly provided support and comfort to students by sharing their expertise and fostering a safe and empowering learning environment. Through low retention and continued tenure denials, the labor of faculty of color has been severely devalued, leaving marginalized students at the College without access to sustained mentors throughout their time here. Beyond being stretched thin between student support and teaching, faculty of color are also pushed to serve the College through their participation in events, committees, and panels.
The College needs to improve its retention of faculty of color. To do this, it must take seriously tenure appeal cases, like the ongoing one, and handle them with transparency. Only by doing this can we fix inconsistencies between departments, faculty of color retention rates, and the treatment of faculty of color at the College.
In light of the recent attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion from the Trump administration, students and faculty of marginalized identities need more support than ever before. The College must address the grave injustice done to recently denied faculty and consider its complicity in a larger pattern in higher education that disregards BIPOC labor.
Sam Samuel ’26 is a Chinese and environmental studies double major from Shelton, Conn.
