Pol sci lecturer finds fault in Yale's hiring policies

PATRICK MCGARVEY/YH DIVERSITY DEARTH: Political science lecturer Dorothee Heisenberg, GRD '96, says the lack of tenured women is a problem specific to Yale.

President Richard Levin's, GRD '74, pledge to diversify Yale's tenured faculty has generated increased campus buzz over hiring and retaining faculty. In light of the burgeoning discussion, the Herald sat down with Dorothee Heisenberg, GRD '96, a political science lecturer, who shared her observations about the low number of tenured women and minority professors and the faculty hierarchy at Yale.

Heisenberg said that Yale's low number of tenured women reflects more of a problem within the University itself, rather than a general Ivy League trend. She said, "Every thinking person has to look at the statistics--why is it that Yale can't tenure more women, but Harvard, Princeton, and the
other Ivies can?"

After teaching at Yale for several semesters, Heisenberg's observations of the tenure process has strengthened her belief that Yale's system is at fault. "The numbers of women coming in as junior faculty are high," she said. "Between the time they arrive and when they leave, some subliminal signal gets sent that tenure is unlikely to happen--the intervening eight years is a factor. There's something happening at Yale that's happening to a lesser extent at
other places."

According to Heisenberg, many qualified women in Yale's political science department have opted not to endure the rigors of a tenure bid and have instead accepted offers at second-tier schools. "There's an element of women being risk-averse," she acknowledged. "There's also an element of `Why would you want to waste your time doing this?'" she added.

She cautioned that the high number of female departmental PhDs and junior faculty members could be misleading. Pointing to political science as an example, she said, "At least 50 percent of the PhD candidates that we accept into graduate programs are women. We also hired a lot of junior faculty members who are women. But at what point and why do they leave Yale?" She believes that the representation of women on Yale faculty should be assessed only by the number of tenured faculty members. "Look at who's doing what--if there are only two female tenured faculty members, that fact is completely masked by the [high] number of female junior faculty members and lecturers."

Like many other schools, Yale's faculty hierarchy gives its employees ranked titles. What remains unique about Yale, according to Heisenberg, is that the transition from junior faculty positions to senior faculty positions occurs only in exceptional cases. Further adding to the estrangement between senior and junior faculty members, she noted, is the fact that tenured professors have no set retirement age--a consequence of the repeal of the mandatory retirement law. At Yale, each tenured professor counts as two junior professors in terms of salary and hiring, and many tenured professors hold onto their positions because the teaching load is not too heavy. Heisenberg said, "All of these people not retiring are blocking the space to move up."

A lecturer herself, Heisenberg explained that departments at Yale hire lecturers to serve as "temps" who teach courses not covered by Yale senior faculty in a given academic year. Lecturers represent another rung in the faculty hierarchy--often senior and junior faculty are completely unaware of the work lecturers do. This tension became evident earlier this semester when the political science department canceled lecturer James Van De Velde's classes. "None of the senior faculty defended Jim Van De Velde because no one knew who he was," Heisenberg said. "It's not surprising."

Though lecturers at Yale don't have the same prestige and status as tenured faculty members, Heisenberg maintained that they contribute positively to the teaching of undergraduates. "Surprisingly, a large number of undergraduate courses in political science are taught by lecturers," she said, adding, "some of the lecturers aren't necessarily less than the senior faculty members." As a result, undergraduates tend to be more familiar with lecturers and junior faculty than they are with tenured professors.

Heisenberg said that only something as drastic as bad press could change the tenure system. She offered the alumnae boycott of Harvard's current capital campaign as an example of the bad publicity needed. In that case, alumnae refused to donate until Harvard increased its numbers of tenured women professors. "There has to be a PR cost to Yale's system as well," she stated. "I don't see a PR cost now. I don't see undergraduates voting with their dollars and their feet, or prospective students making the decision not to attend Yale due to its low numbers."

Back to News...