IRVINE, Calif.—University of California (UC)–Irvine announced in March it is joining three other UCs in using $2.3 million in federal grants to hire more Hispanic professors, citing ‘bias’ and unfair ‘barriers’ for lower numbers of Hispanic professors on UC campuses.
The effort is part of UC HIRE, an alliance across four UC campuses aimed at increasing Hispanic teaching professors in science, technology, engineering, and math.
Minority students learn better with professors from their same ethnic or racial background, or otherwise “look like them,” according to Brian Sato, a Biology professor leading the initiative at UC Irvine.
With the grant money, researchers from UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, and UC San Diego will spend five years evaluating existing “barriers” they believe make it more difficult for Hispanics to obtain UC teaching positions. The researchers will then provide recommendations to university hiring committees based on their findings.
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