Academic departments would be required to consider "diverse" candidates when hiring for all open faculty positions under a proposal introduced by Provost Madeline Wake.

Wake announced the new initiative at Monday's meeting of the Academic Senate, a body of faculty members that offers opinion to the administration about proposed academic policies.

Wake defined diverse candidates as minorities or non-American candidates.

Improving campus diversity is "one of the greatest priorities in the next era of the university," Wake said.

Minorities account for 10.6 percent of Marquette's faculty — a figure the university needs to improve, according to Wake.

"If we're going to turn the corner on diversity, we're never going to do it with 10.6 percent," she said.

Wake's announcement of the initiative drew several questions from the senate.

Carla Hay, an associate professor of history, asked how departments could find out if a candidate qualified as diverse, since asking for ethnic or racial information is typically considered an unacceptable hiring practice.

Candidates would be asked to fill out voluntary information cards to collect such information, Wake said. She said she is exploring other options to resolve the issue with Associate Provost for Diversity Keenan Grenell.

Hay and other members of the Academic Senate also expressed concern that it would be difficult to find diverse candidates for certain faculty positions.

"Are we supposed to put the search on hold until we can drum up someone?" Hay asked.

Wake said the definition of a diverse candidate would not necessarily be limited to racial minorities.

In the case of a German history professor — an example Hay cited as a position that could have a limited pool of diverse candidates — Wake said a German native would qualify.

Associate Professor of History John Krugler asked how Marquette plans to compete with other universities seeking the same candidates that can offer better pay or broader research opportunities.

Wake said Marquette is prepared to allocate additional resources to create attractive opportunities for candidates.

The university must push beyond the challenges of the process if it hopes to improve the situation, she said.

"If we just do business as usual," she said, "we'll still have 10.6 percent faculty of color in three years."

In other business, the senate discussed proposals for new academic programs.

Assistant Chair of Psychology Kristy Nielson said the proposal for a math for elementary school teachers major had been approved 10-0 in committee.

Peter Jones, chair of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, said the major will fill a need for education students who may be intimidated by a full-blown math major.

"It's no secret that there's some sort of crisis in mathematics education in this country," Jones said.

The new major will be geared toward elementary and middle school math education.

Jones said he hopes to see the major in place for the fall 2006 semester.

This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on September 20, 2005.