As their proportions in the workforce increase, the lower educational levels among latinos, black and native Americans compared to those of non hispanic. Whites are an important diversity concern. The PhD project is an organization designed ti improve workforce diversity by improving the diversity of faculty at business schools by attracting underrepresented minorities to doctoral programs. The rationale for this approach was that having more diversity at the front of the classroom would increase the amount of diversity among students in the classroom. In 1994, the PhD Project estimated that fewer than 300 of the 22,000 business school faculty in the united states were from underrepresented minority groups. With the help of the PhD project, the number of latinos, blacks, and native Americans on certain business school faculties increased from 294 to 686 between 1994 and 2004. The PhD project believes that increasing the diversity of business school faculty will ;
Encourage more underrepresented minorities to pursue business degrees.
Improve the performance and completion rate of underrepresented minorities by providing role models and more natural mentors.
Better prepare all business students for todays multicultural society and work environment.
Recognizing the importance of diversity to organizational success, many universities and well know corporations have joined in supporting the PhD project. Sponsors include PhD project founder KPMG foundation, the Graduate management admission council, citigroup foudation, Ford motor company, Daimler chrysler corportation fund, GE foundation, Abbott Labs, JP Morgan Chase, Hewlett Packard, and numerous other companies. These sponsors believe in participating in the PhD project signals to its employees and to universities commitment to diversity in the workforce. The PhD project provides peer support and assists selected student in obtaining scholarship and funding to obtain a PhD. Doctoral student involved in the PhD project have higher rates of completion of their degrees and are more likely to work in academic positions than other students. These are currently more than 400 PhD project student in doctoral programs around the nation.
1. The PhD project estimates that, on average, fewer than one Black, Latino, or Native American business faculty member exists at universities in the United States. If you are a university student, or have studied at that level, how many black, Latino, or native American faculty do/did you have? Estimate or investigate the actual proportion of black, latino, or native American faculty at a university (that is not a historically black university) with which you are familiar.
2. What are the potential effect on white students and on students of color of a severe underrepresentation of blacks, latinos, or native Americans among university level faculty?