Editorial: Anderson School should be transparent about gender disparity
By Editorial Board
June 5, 2014 12:39 a.m.
A 2006 internal report found that the UCLA Anderson School of Management had a disproportionately low amount of female professors among similar business schools and that women felt they were in a discriminatory climate.
Eight years later, not much has changed.
As of last year, the school ranked last in percentage of women faculty among the 20 top-ranked business schools. A more recent Academic Senate report, conducted this fall, found that gender inequity continues to color the experience of women faculty.
Even more troubling, school administrators have done little to combat this serious issue.
There is no simple solution for mitigating a gender-biased campus climate. But releasing the most recent report publicly and indicating clear steps the business school intends to take to combat the issue would show that administrators are taking the findings of the report seriously.
Anderson should follow the example set by UCLA when it circulated a report headed by California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno which found that the university did not have sufficient policies or procedures for addressing racial discrimination and bias among faculty.
Along with releasing the report on racial discrimination and bias among faculty, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block included concrete steps he planned to take to rectify the serious flaws indicated. He promised to create a new position for a discrimination officer and work to redefine policies and procedures regarding racial discrimination and bias.
Whether the changes will actually have a significant impact on UCLA’s campus climate is debatable. But the initiative to admit the university’s flaws and attempt some sort of solution showed a level of transparency that Anderson currently lacks.
The 2006 Anderson report made suggestions for next steps that administrators should take, such as setting a minimum number of women faculty and issuing a statement to cultivate respect between students and professors.
Kimberly Freeman, Anderson’s assistant dean for diversity initiatives and community relations, said the school formed a gender equity committee to examine the issue. Officials must outline concrete changes on a tangible timeline in another report the committee plans to release later this year to ensure that the administration is addressing the climate problem accurately.
Anderson Dean Judy Olian must publicly release a plan to rectify the business school’s fractured campus climate in response to the 2006 and 2013 reports. Female faculty reported that they often do not feel respected by their students or by their peers. Anderson administration, at a minimum, must give them the respect of openly addressing their concerns.
