Lifting of freeze leaves departments vying for slots

Thanks to an improved financial situation, the Administration announced this week that it would scrap its faculty hiring freeze, a source of intense debate since its introduction in 1992. But while all agree that the lifting of the cap is a good thing, the debate now turns to who Yale should hire and where they should go.

To many in the Yale community, boosting the number of tenured women and minorities should be a top priority. The political science department only houses two female senior faculty members--and no minorities. "It should be a priority to change these numbers," political science professor Rogers Smith said. "The University's always had the opportunity to be hiring women and minorities. But now is a very propitious time to be pushing the issue." Tassi McKay, TD '00, a member of the Tenure Action Coalition (TAC), urged Yale students to "put pressure on the political science department to strive to fill positions with women and people of color."

Professor Margaret Hoams, chair of the women's studies department, also hopes that the lifting of the cap will yield real results. "For a long time the Administration's been saying that they were trying to build a faculty composed of more women and minorities. But that hadn't translated into any action," she said. "Hopefully the abandoning of the faculty cap will provide everyone with more flexibility."

History professor Cynthia Russett, GRD '64, an adamant supporter of collegue Diane Kunz's failed tenure bid in 1997, agreed. "There are no excuses anymore because we've got the resources. Now is the time to look to hire more women and accommodate more spouses."

Other members of the Yale community believe that Yale should use the lifting of the freeze to help out recently-created programs devoted to non-Western studies. "I'd like to see ER&M allotted enough tenured positions to get it off the ground as a major," TAC member Rachel Deutsch, ES '99, said. "This is a department where we could hire faculty members who will diversify Yale's scholarship."

Also making a pitch for more faculty are Yale's science departments. Robert Wyman, the director of undergraduate studies of mollecular, cellular, and developmental biology hopes to bring relief to his department. "We're absolutely understaffed. We haven't increased our staff in the past 30 years," he said. "There's been an explosion in biological knowledge that's just huge. There are so many areas to cover and so many interested students. We can't even begin to imagine covering all that's out there."

Thus far, the University has awarded faculty slots to only three departments. The political science department has recieved six new slots, while each of the two biology departments receive three. Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead, BR '68, GRD '72, explained why the administration targeted political science. "It's a small department compared to other prominent departments," Brodhead said. "We've become aware that the department's faculty loads have gone up strikingly in the past few years." Smith called the change in policy "a mild thaw."

According to ecology and evolutionary biology department chair Jeffrey Powell, the search for new faculty is well in the works. "We'd like to get one senior ecologist, and then we're working on a joint appointment with the forestry school," he said. He hopes to wind the searches up by Christmas--one of the leading candidates for a slot is a woman.

For now, faculty growth will be limited, to be determined only on a case-by-case basis. Deputy Provost Charles Long stressed the "strategic, but limited" investments in faculty positions that the University is now in the position to make. But Brodhead emphasized that all departments will get a shot at expanding their rolls. "All departments would be able to make the case that they need more faculty," he said. "Undoubtedly the faculty always will have aspirations far beyond what we can afford--and that's good." Long added, "Without significant growth in the number of students, there is no compelling rationale for long-term growth in the number of faculty members."

But even the limited additions will make a difference. "The added [biology] positions should serve the students better and help the department recapture the prominence it had during the '60s and '70s," University President Richard Levin, GRD '74, said. "Universities have to keep interests alive. If you constrict too tightly, you won't be able to evolve constructively."

University President Richard Levin said that he signaled the policy change at a faculty meeting last May. "None of the students knew about this [at the start of this semester] because they weren't here. But this shouldn't come as such a surprise to anyone," Levin said.

The hiring freeze had been in effect from 1992 until 1997. "[The cap] was a prudent and sober strategy embraced to reduce the deficit," Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead, BR '68, GRD '72, explained.

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