Yesterday a prominent philosopher noted he'd only had one Black colleague during his career spent at 4 leading departments. He also noted that he's effectively powerless to change this in his own department. A thread about that Black colleague and systemic departmental change. 1/

The one Black colleague referred to is Howard McGary, a leading political philosopher and philosopher of race and racial justice, recently retired from Rutgers. 2/

Among many other accomplishments, McGary founded the Rutgers Institute for Diversity in Philosophy, which aims to support talented undergrads from underrepresented backgrounds in thinking about going to grad school in philosophy. 3/

This program, now over 20 years old, is responsible for helping address the so-called “pipeline” problem, and has helped support dozens of Black and other underrepresented philosophers in the early stages of their now highly successful careers. 4/

In thinking about departmental change, it also has other effects. Significantly, it means that every summer 15-20 talented undergrads from underrepresented groups come through Rutgers, and several Rutgers faculty (and outside faculty) are invited to meet and speak with them. 5/

That starts to open eyes regarding how much talent is out there, and how odd it would be to be in a department with no Black, Latinx, Asian, etc. people. It also is a chance to invite BIPOC philosophers from outside of one’s institution. 6/

This again is useful for changing the culture: creating connections, expanding the local imagination when it comes to what the departmental needs and area priorities are. 7/

So, in addition to the broader good they do, these programs can be powerful in shifting departmental perspectives. Now, they aren’t magic, of course. There are many other factors keeping things as they are. But it seems an easy thing to set up, and independently worth doing. 8/

The Rutgers SIDP costs ~ $75,000 for the program, including travel/room/board/stipend for undergrads, paying staff, honoraria, food, etc. That’s not nothing, but univ admin are often very excited to support programs like this, and it’s really not much for a rich institution. 9/

It does take time for a faculty member or two to organize and run these programs, of course, and that’s significant. But it’s also hugely rewarding. 10/

And although there are now a number of these programs, there seems to me to be a lot of room for growth, particularly in terms of more outreach and encouragement at the high school and early undergrad stages. 11/

The more general lesson: solving ‘pipeline’ and institutional culture problems requires creativity, long-term culture building, and sometimes will require creating brand new things out of nothing, as Howard McGary did some 20+ years ago. 12/12