Discrimination in College of Nursing
I have read previous topic regarding "Discrimination in Nursing Schools" and the story is about discrimination among nursing students. I would like to share my experience as a faculty member in College of Nursing with all members here. Discrimination is still alive and continue and not only among students but faculty. I am the only minority faculty in a College of Nursing and I have been treated differently. I would appreciate if any of you who read my story would provide some suggestions or guides where I can get help and what is next etc.
While I was on the fourth year tenure-track faculty I received a T32 grant to pursue my postdoc at an outstanding nursing school. During that time my former dean supported and encouraged me to accept the grant and so I did. During my first year postdoc I was informed from my college to move my office from one building to a new research building. I was informed from the former research director to choose the office and I did. Later I was informed that my chosen office was taken by another faculty who is now acting as interim research director and I was assigned to another office. When I moved to a new office assigned, I found that the office was very small and had no space for a file cabinet. It was too small to meet with a student. That year my former dean left and interim dean and interim research director were appointed. I discussed my concern with former research director and she suggested that I should request for a move. I did submit my request to interim research director twice and both were denied. Then I submitted a third request and this time my request was accepted (totaling almost 2 years). However, interim dean demanded that I paid for the office move including telephone and a labor cost for moving my bookshelve from one office to another. I consulted this matter with some senior faculty and they agreed that the college should be responsible for the move because I was an employee and therefore the office should be provided by the college. However, I was demanded to pay for the cost and I did. A month later after I moved to another office, my annual performance (5th year) was reviewed by the interim research director and a new tenure-track faculty member. Before meeting with them, the new faculty member wrote an email to me that I had a good review, my teaching evaluations from students were great (rating 4 to 5, 4 means agree and 5 means strongly agree). Also my published articles were very informative and she couldn't quit reading. Then I met with both of them, the interim research director said to me that I failed and would be terminated. This was really a shock. The new faculty member said to me that she had no idea what the bottom line was and the interim research director wrote a review report. A week later I received my annual evaluation from the department chair via email and asked me to read, sign, and return. The evaluation was good and commented that I would advance my tenure. The same week I received an email from a secretary of the dean office asking that the interim dean and department chair wanted to meet with me. During the meeting I gave my signed evaluation to the chair but she disregarded the one I signed and gave me a new copy and demanded that I read and signed it in front of the interim dean. This second evaluation said I failed my teaching and service. My annual performance evaluation was changed from meeting the criteria to fail within 48 hours. Two weeks later I received a letter of termination from the interim dean saying that "I am not a fit." I sent my request to her asking for reconsideration and rereview by full Nursing Professor but she did not respond to my request. I finally submitted my appeal to the Faculty Right Committee and they unanimously recommended that I continued on the tenure clock and be offered normal contract. The committee also stated that “I meet all the criteria and have stronger research record than some others in the department who have previously received promotion and tenure.” Although I received recommendation from the committee, the college did not give me retention. I truly believed I was treated differently in my college because of my national and ethnicity. I would like to open for discussions and would appreciate all suggestions from you all.
Respectfully,
Minority Faculty
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Racism at William Rainey Harper College-Palatine, IL
Wed, 06/29/2011 - 10:43pm — COVERINGCHERUBI am a African American Hispanic student. Since my time at Harper College, I have been discriminated against. I came in with all of the prerequisite filled as I transferred from a higher University with 77 credit hours, yet I had to re-take all of the prerequisite because according to their policy the classes could not be more than 4 years old. I complied by retaking everything. Last semester I was excepted into the nuring program on a contigent basis. I was told if I passed Pathophysiology I would be accepted into the program. During that semester, I was forced to drop my Microbiology class in which I was passing with an A all because I reported my lab partner who was causcasian breaking lab equipment, which meant I was going to have to re-do the entire lab. The instructor forced me to drop the class because she stated she did not like my attitude. To add salt to injury, I was forced to drop the class with only 4 weeks left in the class. Currently, i am retaking the class over in this summer semseter.
I was recently targetd by the campus police and arrested simply because I brought my kids to school with me. My son(10yrs old) decided to walk to the car and get my lab top out of the car and. The campus police came into my class and arrested me and called DCFS on me. I really believe this was a ploy to keep me from entering into their program and from becoming a nurse. my son told the police that he was sitting in the lobby and that he went to the car to get my laptop yet they ignored what he told them and still arrested me and I was given a cour date of 7/18.
I had been requesting information from the Dean and Department Chair for years about the statistics of African American students in the nursing program at the school. Yet was never given an answer. I needed this information to find out if any minorities(African American students) actually graduated from the program.) I had to repeat two classes twice unjustly as I was passing the classes initially but then held back while white students I tutored were passed. I really believe that I have black been treated differently than other non-black students and this have become sucha problem until most of the black students leave Harper and go to other schools because Harper's diversity and morale among African American students are low.