Tom Eagar department-head minority and women faculty hiring program (1995-2000)

Tom's solution to the chauvinism reputation. (a) Take on the two archaeologist lecturers as a visible existence proof of women in the department. (b) Apply the "count the buds on the trees" lesson from his Sloan Senior Executive Program: identify good women and minority grad students in their second year and recruit them as faculty. Outcome: 4 women and 4 men hired in five years; one African-American, one Hispanic, one gay woman.

The first thing I did: there were two women who were lecturers in the department, one senior, one junior. They were archaeologists. They're still here. They wanted a home in the department, but my predecessor had kept them out. Within the first two months I had discussions with him, I had discussions with the provost, I actually have letters with the provost, and I agreed to take them on as department head, but not to put them on the rank list — which means they wouldn't ever be part of the tenured department. I asked them, could you teach 3.091? Could you TA 3.091? They both said no. 3.091 is the introductory freshman course, and I had a criterion: if you couldn't TA 3.091, you weren't really fit to be a faculty member in this department. I thought that was fairly objective, and they said no.