A Doctrine of One Third

Now that the new millennium has arrived, a new America is just around the corner and Independent Schools seem ready to examine themselves anew in the context of this new America. The past twenty five years have been a time of change in NAIS schools as women, people of color, Jews, working class families, Muslims, openly Gay and lesbian people and others, previously excluded or silenced, have gained access to Independent Schools. And, although their experience is often fraught with the pain, isolation and indifference of subtle and overt racism, sexism, homophobia and classism, these people have became Dept. Chairs, speakers at graduation, favorite teachers, administrators, captains of teams, student body presidents, admissions directors and even Heads of School. People of color and others have graced the pages of our published materials as proud indicators of a "new" more diverse climate and culture. Schools have had MAPS, sent their faculty to anti-racism conferences and diversity institutes, formed student multicultural groups and invited speakers and consultants to move forward in the important work of inclusion, diversity and multiculturalism. Some Independent Schools even seem eager to examine and consequently to change the traditions, practices and policies of exclusion. Although the degree of commitment varies from school to school, a majority of teachers, administrators, trustees and students have come to recognize the need for attention to the issues of diversity and the attending circumstances and complications.

Yet, as the numbers and experiences show, problems remain.

What can be done in schools that operate within a framework, created by history and tradition that remain the exclusive and privileged territories of certain families? Or at schools in which there are two career tracks for the educators who work there: one for "white" men and one, with fewer opportunities, for those who in some way are "other?" or in schools in which students must attend classes as the only representatives of their race or religion or class, with few or no adults like them to turn to within the school?

What is needed is a major shift in the Independent School expectations and pursuits of hiring and admissions that can create a viable "critical mass" of people who have not been adequately represented in Independent Schools, whether that be at the Board level, in the faculty and administration, in the student body, in the staff or in all groups. Furthermore, this shift must be made systematic and institutional so that a "new" and more inclusive approach will become policy that is invulnerable to the subjective and circumstantial decisions made by administrators and Heads who might change schools or lapse into indifference. In short, the shift to true inclusion and real representation needs to be permanent policy not temporary whim.

NAIS schools need some stated school policy that will compel administrators, department chairs and Heads into implementing practices that are fair and just in determining school percentages, culture and climate; a policy that will create accountability for diversity as we already expect it for fund raising and admissions; a policy that would render ineffective the time dishonored practice of Independent School teachers, administrators and Heads of School - declaring a rhetorical commitment to the pursuit of diversity even as they make decisions that reveal a truer allegiance to sports, development, legacy applicants, coaching hires, "good fits" with the school, and race, gender, sexual orientation and class.

So here is a possible policy for an Independent School to adopt:

Our school is actively committed to a Doctrine of One Third and so will strive to establish representation in its student body, its faculty, its administration, its development office, its non-teaching staff, and its board membership of 33% people of color.

Moreover, this commitment to One Third representation is not limited to race but is extended to all areas of inclusion and so sets goals of representation in the hiring, promotion and admission of non-Christians, Gays and lesbians, people of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and those with physical and mental handicaps.

A commitment to One Third representation also impacts the provision of Financial Aid, the formation of administrative and Board level committees (like Head Search committees), the hiring of staff and maintenance crews, and any other decisions regarding the various aspects of school life that can be rendered more inclusive and equitable by striving towards a minimum of One Third representation.

Why One Third? Because, in light of the recent data from NAIS, it is both a percentage of student and faculty populations that many of our schools have not yet reached and an attainable goal well within reach

One Third provides both measurable need and additional incentive for increasing diversity at many schools and in many areas of a single school. For if a school has already reached the level of One Third in its racial diversity, that school may continue to work towards greater diversity in terms of religion, by attracting more Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist students that could move the school beyond a Christian culture that is assumed and polite and yet dominant in creating the school’s climate and culture. Or if a school that felt it had come to the levels of One Third in its student body’s diversity, the institution could push itself at the administrative or Board levels to provide adult representation that would diversify these groups as well as give the students, as well as younger faculty, a significant number of adults to identify with. This would help to dismantle the "Plantation" model - having students of color but few or no faculty, administrators or trustees of color - and its attending associative racial implications about power, intelligence, scholarship and leadership that some of our schools have, perhaps, unwittingly embodied and followed for too long.

The Benefits for People of Color and others

As a percentage, One Third provides a level of representation that approaches a level of "critical mass" and so could reduce the burdens that accompany a "minority" experience in Independent Schools - the "Accumulated Impact" of the following experiences:

•Being witness and expert for an entire race, religion, class or group of people.

•A curriculum that rarely makes room for Asian philosophies, Caribbean or Latino writers and the non-Slavery experiences and accomplishments of African Americans.

•Being the only member of your race in a class or in a faculty meeting.

•Going hungry at school luncheons or meetings because no options other than ham or pork are available at a school lunch, dinner or gathering or because no kosher food is available ever, even during holy days.

•Taking on responsibilities and tasks that are automatically assigned by race.

•Having to be over-qualified to get hired and yet being too "inexperienced" or young for subsequent promotion opportunities.

•Being expected to honor and to uphold traditions and practices that directly and indirectly create an atmosphere of "Aversive Racism" of which you are an inevitable sufferer.

•Being expected to act as a change agent in the school despite having few public or vocal allies, no specific budget or title, and being expected to suggest change in a certain style and at a certain pace that is not deemed overly offensive or militant by those who have placed you in the position to change the school - the Faulkner principle as applied to Independent Schools.

The Benefits for “White” men

Likewise, for White men, a Doctrine of One Third creates the responsibility and accountability to divorce ourselves from the presupposed privileges, prejudices and expectations that create the racial, religious, sexual and class hierarchy that exists in a school. Some of these are:

•An assumption that a white male will rise to the next available position or title and once there will be included in a group of leaders who are also like us.

•The privilege to talk about diversity and a commitment to it only when it is convenient for white men to do so and, then, as simply and quickly as necessary in order to establish credibility according to Independent School levels and norms.

•The privilege to establish, to maintain or to change the ground rules of the dialogue when we talk about diversity or multiculturalism as it best suits us at the time and for the purpose.

•An ability to stop or to divert any conversations about diversity in meetings, at the department, faculty or board level that may become uncomfortable and make us nervous.

•The luxury of hiring even only one faculty member of color and then being able to give that teacher responsibility for all diversity initiatives and responsibilities of the school.

•The expectation that any inadequate or ineffective policies and practices relating to diversity will not be the fault of a specific administrator but will simply be "something the school needs to continue working on."

•The ability to hold faculty of color and students of color to different standards in hiring and in admissions while wielding an unquestioned right to hire alumni/ae as teachers or to admit their children in the name of tradition (development dollars) and often regardless of a lack of actual abilities or talents.

•The ability to look at 80% to 85% of a school community being one dominant racial group as proof of a school’s commitment to inclusion and diversity.

There are of course as many unwritten and unspoken privileges that white members of an Independent School community can enjoy and use as there are experiences unique to each school that complicate the daily existence of teachers, coaches, advisors and administrators who find themselves in the "minority." If Independent Schools truly want dialogue and progression and real change, then a critical mass of people that can effect power and agenda must be first created. A Doctrine of One Third as a guiding principal is one possibility of creating such numbers.

Steps to Take

At a minimum, there are some necessary first steps towards One Third representation that would bring substantive change to the school climate and culture as well as the faculty population and student body.

•There must be a strong and public commitment from the Head and the Board. This includes holding the Head accountable for diversity in his/her faculty just as he/she is accountable for admissions, the budget, development, college placement etc.

•There must be specific policies regarding hiring. Some Heads, like Peter Hutton at Beaver CDS, refuse to hire a candidate until they are assured that a viable candidate of color has visited the school for each available position. Peter Hutton also offers $1000.00 to any employee who finds a candidate whom the school hires. This encourages networking from all of the employees of the school.

•When hiring, Administrators and Department Chairs must look for people of color, people of "different" faith and sexual orientation and class for every position available and not only those positions that have been designated for a "Diversity Candidate."

•Those who hire must attend hiring fairs designed specifically for Diversity candidates, even when we do not foresee a specific need. It is important to attend Diversity conferences and/or send representatives of our faculty to learn strategies for a more inclusive school and to display the school’s active and professional commitment to diversity.

•When interviewing people of color, we must strive to be objective and to use the same standards and expectations that we would employ for any candidate. We must be willing to meet people in interviews across the lines of race, religion, class, gender and sexual orientation with a welcoming and respectful awareness of the differences that exist.

•White men, specifically, must resist the temptation to quickly hire the "junior" versions of themselves or alumni/ae or the sons and daughters of colleagues and actively examine the reasons for their comfort with these candidates. These hires not only continue an Independent School culture of nepotism, they also come at the expense of people of color, Jews, Muslims, Gays and lesbians, and people from working class families who do not have the same access and comfort during an interview process.

•Heads need to be aware that there is a network of people in Independent Schools who care deeply about issues of diversity and there is constant conversation amongst them about those schools that are "doing the work" as well as those schools that are abdicating their responsibility to do so.

•Schools should contact alumni/ae of color directly for positions that come available - especially teaching positions. This requires a database of recent graduates as well as those who are already established in education. We must also be aware of those current students of color or of Muslim faith or of Gay orientation who might well become teachers after college.

•Department Chairs should contact the Education Department or a specific Discipline directly at Historically Black Colleges and visit them when and if possible.

•Administrators absolutely must talk to the people of color currently working at our schools and ask them about what they want to accomplish and where they want to be in five or ten years. Retention is not only as important as recruitment; it is an instrumental piece in the recruitment of new people of color. Letting people at your school find success and advance their career is the best endorsement for others.

•Schools need to approach the challenges of hiring, admissions and climate with the resolve to be in it "for the long haul" and not as an experiment or even a necessity for a few years that can be discarded when the percentages are found to be "satisfactory."

•Heads and administrators should resist the temptation to be competitive with other Independent Schools in the same area and, by doing so, avoid the propensity to pit our school against another school. First of all, despite what we sometimes imagine or manufacture, there is not much difference between Independent Schools for those being introduced to the NAIS world. Additionally, if there is a candidate whose race, religion, class or sexual orientation will add to the diversity that all of our schools desperately need then his/her place in an Independent School should be celebrated, no matter which school is fortunate enough to get the candidate.

What Next?

But these specific practices and ideas are not enough unless they operate beneath some wide over - arching philosophy that can create new institutional traditions and practical systems that will dramatically strengthen a school’s continuing commitment to diversity.

Ultimately, what is at risk for any Independent School in specific and for NAIS in general if we fail to adequately address issues and numbers of diversity is credibility. Our schools will no longer be valuable as models of scholarship, of community, and of excellence, even within the education community, if they remain as schools that appear to educate a majority of students, whom are white and wealthy, overly privileged and falsely entitled.

Empty rhetoric proclaiming diversity, good intentions with little action, incremental shifts in percentages of students and faculty of color, one woman in an administration of men, the addition of a single African-American Literature course, the hiring of one openly Gay teacher to lead a GLSEN group that straight teachers would not lead, the creation of a Diversity Coordinator position that is not funded or included in "Admin. hierarchy" - all render a school’s commitment to diversity as ephemeral. And while such actions may have been enough to show a commitment to diversity and greater inclusion in the last twenty five years of the Twentieth century, in 2000+, these small comfortable changes, that fail to shift school culture to a more fully realized and better represented diversity that creates real change, will be meaningless. Little or no change will reveal our schools as being callously and backwardly loyal to the traditions and practices of exclusion, elitism, racism, anti-Semitism and homophobia.

The questions facing Independent Schools about our true commitment to diversity are great and they exist as both measurable percentages and anecdotal accounts of systemic ineffectiveness and personal suffering. However, there are some answers that we can embrace and they will create substantive numbers and personal stories that will display change and progress. And these changes will fuel the promise and the hope that our schools will be capable of educating students and of producing leaders that reflect both America’s diversity and Independent Schools’ unwavering commitment to it.

Twenty Five years from now, wouldn’t it be satisfying to have a Latina woman say to a crowd of college graduates at her alma mater, that those like her can also be President of the United states and that she received her start at an Independent School.

Alden Mauck - 2002

alden_mauck@nobles.edu