Media Credit: Stephen Durda Dr. Gregory Vincent, vice president for diversity and community engagement, speaks to the University Faculty Council on increased efforts to recruit and retain ethnic minority faculty at the University. Vincent believes that the best way to increase the University's diversity is to begin with a more diverse faculty.

Faculty Council heard a wide range of issues from its constituents during two meetings Monday, including comments on the Brackenridge Task Force report, the progress of increasing campus diversity and the final state of the faculty grievance process.


Brackenridge Task Force report

University President William Powers said the Brackenridge Task Force report, presented Friday to the UT System Board of Regents, proposed what was "best for the University."

The report gave the history and breakdown of the 345-acre, UT-owned plot that sits west of Mopac Boulevard on the banks of Lady Bird Lake. The use of the land has been debated since it was donated for educational purposes to the University in 1910 by Col. George Brackenridge.

The report said the 74 acres of land used for affordable graduate student housing was not "the highest and best use" of the land and that it was unclear whether the size and location of the Brackenridge Field Lab, a major research location for the College of Natural Sciences, was necessary.

"I think it was a thoughtful report. People spent a lot of time on it," Powers said. "I think they're focusing on using that property in the best interest of the University. They want us to look at whether we're doing these things in the most effective way. There are some things that are not part of our mission. We'll cooperate in that process, but I think this is something that's going to take a lot more thoughtful review."


Diversity and Community Engagement

Gregory Vincent, who was appointed vice president for diversity and community engagement in June 2006, said in his second year he has been focusing on increasing diversity among faculty and has worked with deans and department chairs to hire 30 new faculty members from underrepresented backgrounds.

Vincent said increasing and retaining a diverse faculty is the best way to make the rest of the University more diverse.

"I really do believe that this kind of initiative starts with the faculty," Vincent said. "I believe that we have to recruit a student body, but I also believe that students will come and feel welcomed here when they see faculty that look like them and represent their background."

Vincent said he wanted to emphasize the collaborative nature of the effort and that he was pleased the president chose to make diversity one of his four strategic priorities.

"As a public university, this is appropriate, but we have to make sure all of us are committed to this issue," he said.

Vincent also reported a positive statistic relating to another of Power's priorities - retaining of faculty. He said that out of 10 faculty members in the Center for African and African-American Studies who were offered outside positions at other universities, seven chose to remain at UT despite competitive offers.

Vincent said recruitment of a diverse graduate student body is one place that needs work.


Faculty Grievance and Faculty Ombudsperson

English professor Alan Friedman, chair of the Faculty Grievance Committee, gave a recap of the more than two-year-long effort to establish a "fair and transparent" faculty grievance process. He said that regardless of the outcome there is still work to be done and expressed concern that administrators are still too involved in the grievance procedure.

"We settled to create [a process] that was fair, just and transparent," Friedman said. "This moment has been a long time coming. The Faculty Grievance Committee suspended the processing of grievances in September 2004 after a year of trying and failing to fix what we believe is a broken grievance process. Have we accomplished everything we should? I don't think so."

Friedman urged council members to read the final stipulations of the process in the handbook of operation procedures and determine "whether we have compromised too much."

Biology professor and Faculty Ombudsman Stanley Roux reported on the progress of the neutral third party that allows faculty members to make anonymous complaints.

Although the number of faculty who have reported to the entity have gone down, Roux said the department has managed to help almost 40 faculty members per year. He encouraged the University to hire an assistant ombudsperson as he is currently the only person faculty can talk to.

"It has helped at least in small regard with faculty morale," Roux said.

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