The Diversity Action Hiring and Retention Team presents Portland State faculty and staff with information on recruiting for diversity, retention and creating a welcoming and inclusive office or department climate for new hires. DAHRT was created in 1999 after, then PSU, President Daniel Bernstine’s Assessment Initiative was enacted.
Kelle Lawrence, coordinator of diversity programs, leads the trainings scheduled about once every two to three weeks. A one-hour DAHRT presentation may be requested by any office, faculty meeting or hiring committee, or for any faculty or staff retreat. The Provost’s Office has also required that all tenure-track faculty search committees include at least one DAHRT-trained member in order for position request paperwork to be approved by the Vice Provost for Academic Administration & Planning, according to the DAHRT Web site..
PSU is Oregon’s most diverse four-year institution and Lawrence explained that DAHRT serves the purpose of attracting and retaining a diverse faculty.
“Portland State has a lot to offer for so many people,” Lawrence said .”Retention is important. We especially want to protect the junior faculty from being over-involved and over-worked.”
She worries about new faculty feeling social isolation in the department and the institution, and about them “often [feeling] under pressure to invest too heavily in service to Portland State…and the track to tenure is classic in terms of publish, publish, publish.”
Katherine Cahn, executive director and assistant professor for the Center for Improvement of Child and Family Services and School of Social Work, completed DAHRT training last March. She said the training content was familiar to her because she has experience teaching and training in the nonprofit and public sectors, but that DAHRT training is critically important to those involved with hiring at PSU.
“[DAHRT] touches on key areas of practice for assuring diverse pools of qualified applicants for each position. Many academic folk[s] are not trained in the administrative or leadership practices that become part of their job as they move into leadership positions. This training helps with filling in some of that,” Cahn said.
Kristin Coppola, interim assistant vice president, also found her DAHRT training experience valuable. She took the training when she was interested in serving on a hiring committee, to make sure they were “reaching a diverse applicant pool.”
She recommends the training to other faculty and staff.
Lawrence stresses that different cultures communicate in different ways and while it may be “easy to dust off old job descriptions, change dates and publish,” hiring committees need to keep an open mind about written materials that do not look typical and reach a broader audience.
“It’s important to take a holistic approach [and] look at the big picture,” Lawrence said.
She believes that while it may be “more work on [the] front end, bringing in the right person pays off for students.”
More information on DAHRT can be found on its Web site: www.pdx.edu/diversity/diversity-action-hiring-and-retention-team.