The Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions (CMSIs) has released a new report that highlights the unique challenges and needs of early-career faculty at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs).
“Supporting Early Career Faculty at Minority Serving Institutions,” examines CMSI’s ELEVATE program launched in 2015, which supports professional development, mentorship, and retention for MSI faculty.
While MSIs play a key role in promoting faculty diversity by consistently employing more educators of color than other institutions, MSI faculty also face pressures, such as heavy teaching and advising loads, high expectations for research and publishing, and limited resources for career development. These stressors are often heightened by a lack of clarity around tenure expectations and a reluctance among junior faculty to speak up for fear of jeopardizing progression in their career.
“Educators of color gravitate towards MSIs because they offer a family-like atmosphere, a commitment to equity and student success, and the opportunity to both give back and nurture the next generation of leaders,” said Dr. Marybeth Gasman, one of the report’s authors and the executive director of the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions and the Samuel Dewitt Proctor Endowed Chair at the university. “That’s why professional development and mentorship play a critical role in fostering a diverse and dynamic faculty at MSIs.”
Since its inception, the program has seen promising results, with 70% of ELEVATE fellows going on to achieve tenure and promotion.
Dr. Cheron H. Davis, an associate professor in the Department of Elementary Education at Florida A&M University, attests to the success of ELEVATE after taking advantage of the program’s benefits to aid in her own career.
“As a proud member of the very first ELEVATE cohort in 2015, I had very few expectations. At the time, I was pregnant with my second child and attributed my tears before leaving to hormones,” she said. “However, being asked to return as a mentor each year since 2018 without being pregnant again has shown me that those tears were much more than a hormone-induced reaction. The friendships, professional and emotional support, camaraderie, and transparency I experienced were as authentic and genuine then as they are today.”
She said that the program has changed the trajectory of her career and has expanded her professional network, “bringing me closer to many co-authors, cheerleaders, and friends who have emerged from this experience.”
Dr. Cheron Davis
Davis said that she also learned the importance of self-care after emerging from the program and now, she reminds faculty like herself, to master the art of rest.
“Your health and well-being are paramount. “No” is a complete sentence—a subject and a predicate,” she said. “Although the demands of professorship often discourage this option, we must avoid overcommitting ourselves to the point where our relationships and responsibilities to family, friends, and our own health suffer.”
Balancing these demands is especially challenging for junior faculty members, said Davis. “I always remind them that their lives exist outside of their careers and that maintaining a delicate, yet crucial, balance between professional and personal life is essential,” she said.
Gasman said that offering the ELEVATE program free of cost is also critical as many MSI faculty lack travel and professional development funding. The program also provides access to mentors for early career faculty and trains them in grant writing, op-ed writing, teaching, and how to achieve a better work-life balance. How to achieve tenure and publishing assistance is also on the agenda.
“The community is why the fellows stay at MSIs,” said Gasman. “They want to work with students who have similar backgrounds and experiences. They are incredibly dedicated to their students and to the communities surrounding MSIs and from which they come. They believe in their students and the students know this and it’s empowering.”
Now in its 10th year, Gasman said that ELEVATE is helping to move the needle.
“The fact that 70% of the 167 fellows have now earned tenure is really heartwarming for our team.” said Gasman, who added that each year the program actively recruits new applicants to participate in a cohort model where they take part in workshops and networking events designed to assist MSI faculty in their careers.
Applications for ELEVATE 2025 will open on November 15, 2024.
