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Challenge 4: Recruiting and Retaining a Diverse Workforce? Framework to Foster Diversity Homepage 1. How has your college actively engaged in locating and recruiting faculty and staff from under represented groups? 2. What recruitment strategies have been most successful? 3. What retention strategies have you implemented in your college to retain members from under represented group? CURRENT INITIATIVES Penn State Altoona strictly follows the University’s recruiting and hiring policies and practices. All searches are done publicly either through internal or external posting. The College actively encourages and seeks out candidates from under represented groups. For example, we have actively and aggressively sought out minority candidates to apply for positions as police services officers. We believe it is important to have a staff and faculty that are representative of the students at Penn State Altoona. There is a commitment to include among the qualified finalists for a position at least one female, a person of color or a person with a disability. The College regularly advertises for new faculty positions in The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Black Issues in Higher Education. In 2000-01, the College began advertising positions with the Minorities Job Bank. Faculty and staff also attend conferences to conduct preliminary interviews and answer questions about faculty or staff positions, programs, and the College. The best recruitment strategies we have employed at the College are advertisements in The Chronicle of Higher Education and in discipline-specific journals. One of the challenges facing Penn State Altoona is the lack of diversity within the Altoona community and Blair County. Penn State Altoona’s service area is also among the least diverse populations in the state. The only county with a significant minority population (more than 5%) is Huntingdon, which has a black or African-American population of 5.1%. Bedford, Blair, and Somerset counties are all over 97% white, and Cambria County is over 95% white. The state of Pennsylvania is slightly over 85% white. Only Dubois and Schuylkill have less diverse high school graduate populations than Altoona, and only Dubois and Schuylkill have less diverse college-going high school graduates than Altoona in 1998. White high school graduates account for nearly 98% of all high school graduates in the Altoona service area, while white graduates account for 86% of all graduates state-wide. However, Penn State Altoona has a more diverse Student population than the surrounding counties. Over 9% of the student body comes from minority groups, and another 0.7% is made up of international students. The workforce at Penn State Altoona is more than 4% minority, and the executive, administrative, managerial, or other professional staff is 10% minority. 4. What retention strategies have you implemented in your college to retain members of under-represented groups? The college has a very extensive faculty development program, including conference travel ($2,000 per year) and two small internal grant funds. An Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs serves as Director of Research and Sponsored Programs, and works with faculty to identify and apply for external funds. Moreover, each executive staff member has set aside professional development funds for staff within their departments. Turnover, among staff and faculty at Penn State Altoona has been extremely low over the last fifteen years, so it is difficult to determine what retention strategies are most effective.
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