Affirmative action and hiring practices in Higher Education

The purpose of this research was to provide data on what is actually happening in hiring practices in higher education to reflect affirmative action. It attempted to find out if there were qualified minority and female candidates available, if these candidates were seriously considered for employment, and whether they were actually hired. Data were collected from 191 institutions which has placed vacancy notices in The Chronicle of Higher Education. While there are some limitations to the study, the findings indicate that there are qualified minority and female candidates available. Further, in terms of percentages employed, members of minority groups are making progess toward employment and females are making even greater progress. White males, however, are not “closed out” in the hiring process. Therefore, it would appear that hiring practices in higher education are reflecting affirmative action.     

Affirmative action effectiveness criteria in institutions of higher education

In the last decade institutions of higher education have received increasing pressure to reduce and/or eliminate any discriminatory actions. Affirmative action programs have been used by these institutions to comply with the letter of the law. Research shows, however, that these programs have not been highly successful in eliminating discrimination. This study was designed to assess the judgment policies of personnel and affirmative action officers in institutions of higher learning regarding the criteria necessary for effective affirmative action programs. The research identified 13 separate potential criteria. The results suggest attitudes and procedures were the most important criteria for effectiveness. Institution type (public versus private) and size (number of students) have no moderating effects.     

肯定与肯定焦点

以往区分肯定和否定，一般以逻辑意义和形式标记为标准，但是在语用上，肯定句可以表达否定的内容，否定句也可以表达肯定的内容，肯定与否定的分界可以拿语用做标准。根据语用标准可以对肯定和否定进行分类，归纳出肯定和否定的语用类型。肯定焦点有自己的表现方式，常以“是”、“的是”作标记。     

Affirmative action strategies and professional schools: case illustrations of examplary programs

Increases of women and minority students at professional schools have been reported but disadvantaged populations still suffer underrepresentation. The literature indicates that effective affirmative action may be realized through early identification programs and pre-professional contact during recruitment; role modeling, and mentoring used from early identification through professional licensure; resocialization techniques for both faculty and students used after matriculation; and academic, social, and psychological support services used during the program that aid retention. A survey of law, medical, dental, and veterinary schools revealed various affirmative action strategies used for the recruitment, admission, and retention of women and minorities. Seven case illustrations of affirmative action programs are detailed. These cases demonstrate that an eclectic grouping of strategies is less effective than a concise, directed program of strategies complementary to the professional school, its faculty, their geographic location, their targeted clientele, and their specific goals for cultural diversity.     

Ambivalence to action: Addressing systemic racism in counselor education

Citing the ongoing and urgent need within counselor education to confront and disrupt systemic racism within the profession, we present how professional counseling has been both ambivalent to racism and enacted systematically racist policies against Black and other racially marginalized people. We share selected milestones in the profession's evolution to illustrate ambivalence in the pursuit of racial justice and close with recommendations to create a more inclusive, affirming, and antiracist profession for members and clients.     

Affirmative action at Virginia Tech: The tail that wagged the dog

Editor's Note: A pair of articles in the Spring 1992Academic Questions received considerable attention. Printed under the rubric “The Trivialization of Sexual Harassment,” one detailed the case of Allan Mandelstamm at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and the other the case of the Department of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Minnesota. Both were stories of extraordinary abuses of power by midlevel administrators who vigorously promoted charges of sexual harassment against professors wholly and obviously innocent of harassment. The following articles attempt to explain how these same two institutions reached the point where such abuses of power and violations of elemental justice became possible.     

Affirmative action in Brazilian universities: Effects on the enrollment of targeted groups

This paper investigates how the adoption of affirmative action for college admission affected the enrollment of students from disadvantaged backgrounds in Brazil. We explore the time heterogeneity of policy adoption by universities to identify the policy impacts while accounting for contemporaneous confounding effects. Our study shows that the adoption of affirmative action increased the enrollment of students from groups explicitly targeted by each policy, particularly public high-school students and Blacks.¹ We also demonstrate that these effects were concentrated within more competitive and more prestigious academic programs. Lastly, we find that universities that adopted affirmative action policies with explicit racial criteria experienced an increase in the enrollment of Black students whereas universities that adopted race-neutral policies had no significant changes in the racial profile of their students. These results indicate that affirmative action policies were successful in improving access to higher education for targeted groups. However, we also identify important limitations of these policies.     

理解“肯定性行动”

＂肯定性行动＂在美国是一项既有争议又不能被充分理解的政策,文章旨在从＂肯定性行动＂的含义、社会学家对其的贡献、多元文化、＂肯定性行动＂的公正性及负面性、对＂肯定性行动＂的不同态度等方面入手,分析了＂肯定性行动＂在就业及教育领域中的运行机制,讨论其在种族、性别等方面的争议所在。同时,文章从心理学及社会学角度剖析这一政策存在的必要性以及如何能取得最佳效果以实现多元文化从而维持社会正义。