As Penn starts the New Year, is a diverse administration overdue?
“Guess who’s (not) coming to dinner,” a guest column in The Daily Pennsylvanian by the Senior Faculty of Africana Studies, has sparked debate over diversity within the university’s higher-level administration. With responses from President Amy Gutmann, the Penn Board of Trustees, and students of the university alike, it is clear that diversity within administration is an issue of great importance to the Red & Blue community.
The original column sheds light on President Gutmann’s annual dinner held to honor Penn’s faculty members of color. Focus is put on last year’s dinner and President Gutmann’s response when questioned about why she had not appointed more diverse individuals to the position of dean within her tenure. The professors wrote, “Her response was that she would not just bring in someone who is not qualified, a comment implying that none of the people in the room were qualified to serve in these positions, even though many of them serve in administrative capacities in departments and centers.”
The senior faculty members go on to discuss their disappointment with President Gutmann’s recent appointment of the new dean of the School of Arts and Sciences saying, “When presented with yet another opportunity to increase diversity at the highest levels of the University, [Gutmann] failed to do so after nine years at the helm.”
President Gutmann wrote an open letter published in the DP the following day in response to these accusations. In it, she mentions the multiple ways she has increased diversity within the University during her nine years in office. President Gutmann admits towards the end of the article, “There are areas, such as academic administration, where progress has been slow and where we need to work even harder.”
Students on campus have had their fair share of opinion on the subject of diversity within administration. Janet Chow, a senior in the College states, “I think Amy Gutmann’s response letter lacked any substance whatsoever, but speaking even as an Asian American student, these dean positions aren’t exactly going to other minorities either – Asian, Latino, etc. When you factor in the fact that Penn’s faculty is quite diverse, it makes little sense to me statistically why the administration is so non-diverse.”
Melissa L. Sossa, a junior of Hispanic descent, also mentions the lack of minority role models in administration: “It’s a little disheartening to see that the President of your institution that pledges to bring diversity to campus, doesn’t do it at her level. It’s tough sometimes and it would be nice to see people like us up there for a change.”
While it’s evident that students disagree with President Gutmann’s decisions during her tenure, others are willing to stand up for her. Ernest Owens, a junior, made it clear as soon as the argument on diversity broke out on Facebook, that he was a proud supporter of President Gutmann. Owens goes on in his post to say that the undergraduates are to blame, claiming “this campus moves to the beat of the undergrads…while we advocated for better dining halls and resources and club dollars and better facilities and…Penn Park…no one cared as much to talk about having diverse faculty until recently.”
Whether the undergraduates are to blame is certainly cause for debate, yet Owens brings up a relative point. It is good that students are being informed about this discussion on diversity.