Jenna Lee ASA 002 A03 Week 4

          There were multiple readings for this week; and the one that stood out to me the most was “Investigating Discrimination: Injustice against Women of Color in the Academy” by Jane Junn and Mai’a K. Davis Cross. This reading was based on a 14-year long case study that was created to uncover the discriminatory actions that Asian Americans were facing in the academy. It was held at the University of Southern California, and the findings were quite disturbing.
         The largest demographic group were white males, which made up 34.9% of all assistant professors at USC during the 14 year period. Furthermore, “ninety-two percent of white male faculty were awarded tenure at USC”, meaning that 34 out of the 37 white male assistant professors were given tenure (Cross & Junn 2020). On the other hand, less than 50% of the minority junior faculty (including Asian American women) were awarded tenure. I was beyond shocked as the case study further uncovered the dark truth behind USC’s tenure process. USC had been involved in numerous suspicious and discriminatory actions including “violating its own procedures” and “breaching the hiring contract” (Cross & Junn 2020). I believe that the purpose of this case study was to inspire assistant professors in academia to speak up and fight for equality because they are not alone in this fight. In the past, I have considered becoming a professor (not anymore), and it’s truly devastating to hear that this would be the cold truth for people like me in academia if I were to have pursued that dream.

Question
It’s been several years after this case study has been published. Have USC and other universities changed their tenure processes to be less discriminatory?

References
Valverde, K.-L. C., & Dariotis, W. M. (2020). Fight the tower: Asian American women scholars resistance and renewal in the academy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Barnes, K. & Mertz, E. (2010). [Figure 1(a). Graph of Tenure Process by Race, Gender, and Cohort]. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228219173_Is_It_Fair_Law_Professors'_Perceptions_of_Tenure