One state representative has fair concerns about diversity on college campuses, but doesn’t have the right plan for how to address them.

Rep. Monique Davis, D-Chicago, plans to eventually introduce a bill that would create a state commission to review and approve faculty tenure. It would take the process of determining tenure away from the universities, but Davis left the legislation in a house committee hearing instead of introducing it this congressional session.

Davis said not enough minority faculty receive tenure at Illinois, driving them to jobs in other states.

“We can no longer tolerate institutional racism. We have to break down the barrier,” she said this month.

At Eastern, about half of both minority and white faculty have tenure, according to figures from the office of Planning and Institutional Studies.

As of Oct. 1 2003, 33 of 60 minority faculty members have tenure, 293 out of 560 white faculty members are tenured, while 60 are unclassified and two are international members.

Right now tenure depends on several factors. Not all faculty members are eligible. A faculty member must wait six years to be considered for tenure, a committee must review them and a department dean and chair must recommend the faulty member to the Board of Trustees for tenure.

Even with a lack of diversity in faculty members, taking judgment of tenure away from universities is not the right solution. Institutions and individual departments know their faculty better than a state commission would ever have the opportunity to.

The state does not need control in this area during a time when there have been other initiatives to switch power to the broader state level, such as Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s proposal to transform the Illinois State Board of Education into a Department of Education.

Cynthia Nichols, director of the office of civil rights and diversity, said last week that the decision rates on whether to give minorities or whites tenure are equal at Eastern.

It is obvious more efforts could be made to attract minority faculty, but determining tenure should be kept at the university level. Another committee could be created to evaluate tenure or other provisions made that would still keep the sign of faculty status within academic environments.