BY SYDNEY FREEMAN JR.

Too many scholars of color are leaving the academy, and too few higher education organizations, faculty senates, and faculty advocates are doing tangible work to combat this. After fifteen years in the academy, I recently stepped away from a tenured full professor position at a Research 1 university after receiving outside racist harassment. After announcing my departure publicly, I received tons of private messages, emails, and calls from faculty of color who had also made similar decisions. With the rise of anti-Black and anti-DEI sentiments pervading the academy, it is forcing me to consider the question: What context, policies, practices, and systems facilitate faculty of color to leave such coveted positions?

This question has even more profound potency only days after the death of Dr. Jason Arday. We share so many parallels: We were both the same age, 41. We were both brown/dark-skinned men who wore long locs; we both wrote unapologetically about the experiences of Black faculty in the academy. He and I made similar achievements at our respective universities, he being the youngest Black professor in Cambridge University’s history, I being the first African American man to earn the rank of full professor at the University of Idaho. Both of our universities took advantage of the publicity related to our successes on the heels of the Black Lives Matter movement. The main thing separating our experiences was the Atlantic Ocean.

While others may continue to litigate accusations of academic dishonesty on his part, I think there is a deeper issue we must attend to: the failure of the academy to protect and support faculty of color throughout their careers. Below I provide four recommendations I believe organizations such as the AAUP, educational unions, faculty senates, and faculty advocates should strive for, adopt, and implement for the flourishing and thriving of faculty of color.

Provide resources throughout faculty’s careers: It is important that faculty in all disciplines have the resources they need to thrive. Too often we don’t question the academic norms of disciplines and fields of study. It is imperative to think differently regarding the ways in which we particularly support scholars in education, the social sciences, and the humanities. For instance, when I started my tenure-track position, it was assumed that I did not need a dry lab for my work because I was in the field of education and I only needed a nominal start-up package in comparison to my colleagues in the hard sciences.

Furthermore, as discussions of plagiarism remain at the forefront of debate following Dr. Arday’s death, I think of one of my dissertation committee mentors, Dr. Jose Llanes. He told me that because I was a Black man with aspirations to become a university president, it would be imperative to have someone beyond my committee review my dissertation for any plagiarized information, as he knew that my work would come under higher scrutiny then many of my peers. This brings me to the fact that we need to rethink our system of peer review and add fact-checkers to editorial processes. While it may cost publishers more, voluntary peer reviewers and editors are not equipped to catch all errors. And while AI may aid in this process, a deeper investment in fact-checkers may strengthen the integrity of scholarship across fields and disciplines.

Protect faculty from internal and external harassment: There are too many faculty that are harassed and bullied by students, faculty, and administrators in higher education. I have previously written on Academe Blog about the ways that faculty evaluations can be used as a tool of bias and harassment. During my time at my previous university, organizations like the Idaho Freedom Foundation would specifically target faculty and staff supporting marginalized populations by publishing our names and courses. Many faculty of color have received threatening emails including our whereabouts (classrooms, offices, homes, places where trolls may have seen us) and threatening to expose us as so-called frauds based on unfounded accusations of plagiarism.

There need to be clear standards in place for our institutions to ensure our physical and emotional safety while on the job and hold senior leadership accountable to ensure this protection happens. For example, I remember being denigrated online by an academic troll early in my career, who essentially said I was a diversity hire and that my work had no merit. My dean got in the comments and responded forcefully on my behalf. That type of care and more should be standard no matter the rank of the faculty member being attacked.

Educate faculty regarding personal legal representation and educators’ insurance: In addition to encouraging faculty to become members of the AAUP and their local faculty unions if applicable, faculty of color need to know the extent to which their universities will provide legal representation, and it may be important to know which legal firms in their state specialize in education law and have a record of successfully representing higher education employees. Additionally, faculty need to be aware of the option of having educators’ professional liability insurance to cover any potential legal defense costs as well as settlements or monetary judgments.

Provide mental health support for all faculty: While most higher education institutions offer their employees access to an Employee Assistance Program, which provides access to confidential mental health services as a part of their benefits package, it does not always ensure that faculty of color have access to the culturally sensitive and competent support they need. For instance, if you are a faculty of color who works in a mostly white state, there may only be a few mental health providers with your background, many of which don’t take your insurance and would rather be paid out-of-pocket. This becomes an extra burden or tax on the faculty member. Policies need to be put in place to ensure that if such issues arise, the institution finds ways to cover the cost of such needed services.

In conclusion, we need to challenge the higher education context, policies, and practices that facilitate the need for faculty of color to leave academia, and draw upon the above recommendations to ensure all faculty thrive, flourish, and excel.

Sydney Freeman Jr. is the president and chief research scientist at Dr. Freeman, LLC. His research focuses on the thriving and flourishing of Black populations in higher education.