Faculty of color at UW-Madison—a demographic that has increased 5 percent in the last 10 years—who got promoted or recently hired were honored Thursday during an annual reception in which top university administrators discussed diversity on campus.
Honorees included 27 newly hired faculty members, 18 individuals that have been promoted to associate professor and 12 members that have been promoted to full professor.
Patrick Sims, vice provost and chief diversity officer and co-host of the event said faculty diversity is critical in order to build a vibrant and diverse campus for the students of UW-Madison.
“A diverse faculty improves our ability to serve a diverse student body,” Sims said.
Co-host of the event and University Committee Chair Amy Wendt’s opening speech focused heavily on the Office of Diversity’s private showing of the movie “Hidden Figures,” and how deeply it affected her to see the women, who worked to help NASA get men on the moon in the 1960s, did not receive recognition until recently.
“Let’s not wait 50 years, all of you in this room have already made brilliant achievements, and we must celebrate that tonight,” Wendt said.
Chancellor Rebecca Blank laid out the ways in which UW-Madison is attempting to hire more faculty of color.
Assistant professor of Curriculum and Instruction in the School of Education Erika Bullock, one of the night’s honorees, said she was excited to be a part of the event.
“Madison makes a lot of effort toward recruiting a diverse faculty,” Bullock said.
She said in the past five years the Faculty Diversity Initiative has worked tirelessly to recruit and support faculty of color. She also noted that 20 percent of the faculty on campus and 30 percent of hires in the past two years have identified themselves as people of color—record numbers for UW-Madison.
Blank said she is proud of the school’s growing inclusion efforts. She named various other organizations dedicated to furthering diversity on campus, and mentioned the new Black Cultural Center will be dedicated in the Red Gym later this month.
“Any person of the 21st century must be able to live and work in a diverse community, so UW-Madison must model this in the staff and faculty,” Blank said.
