Minority Hiring on Campuses

Thompson’s column caught my eye. The writer discusses minority hiring in colleges--this is a problem, even in private institutions. As a student at a private graduate school, I found myself, a black, older woman, pretty much excluded, even in the classroom.

Issues were discussed in relation to the white population. As a black, older woman it was as though I did not exist. If I asked a question it was not given serious consideration--it was “entertained” shall we say, and then it was time to get down to “serious” questions.

There is a pervasive attitude in the schools of learning toward women. They are not looked upon as prospective “professors.” One white woman in the class who was about 60 was treated as though she was possessed of dementia. Her questions were deferred and demurred.

What is at issue here is that minorities--and that includes women of all colors--are discriminated against in colleges and graduate schools when it comes to faculty hiring.

The colleges and graduate schools want their tuition monies but they do not want to hire them. But comes the fund-raising from the alumni-alumnae--we are brothers all of us and we must support the venerable institutions of learning. Let us pray!

ELINORA WILLIAMS

Hawthorne