AAU Membership at What Cost?

Black Issues in Higher Education, Jan 21, 1999 by Bill Robinson

Additionally, he has also organized luncheons with minority faculty members to foster dialogue about issues they face on the predominantly White campus.

"I told them, `Tell me what do you see as a problem with your being able to advance,'" he says.

Odom says that "having a dialogue with young faculty members will do a lot of good" in making them -- especially the African Americans -- recognize that the university wants them to feel that they're an integral part of the institution.

... In a `Culture of Scholarship'

But according to Pigford, USC has a long way to go. She says she grew disenchanted with university leaders who seemed indifferent to African American concerns about "relationship issues, communication issues, supervision issues, fairness in terms of evaluations, issues in terms of allocations of resources for research, [and] who gets invited to what. That sort or thing."

During her 13-year career at USC, Pigford says she grew accustomed to, but never fully comfortable with, the expectations that come with being a prominent minority faculty member at a traditionally White institution.

"They wanted diversity, and they got it," she says. "But I gave it at a personal cost. I still had to do all the stuff that was required of AAU. I still had to respond to the African American community, who will let you know ... that you have to serve."

Being invited to join the other 62 institutions in the AAU is a priority for USC President John Palms. It is the motivation behind the push to boost library holdings and the endowment, to woo young, energetic professors, and to attract a greater share of multimillion dollar research grants.

The problem with that, in the eyes of some African American professors, is that their teaching specialties tend to be in disciplines that aren't major contributors to the university-wide cause.

An education professor like Pigford can -- and did -- win grants. But her contributions were not nearly of the magnitude of a cancer researcher in the chemistry department, or an electrical engineer trying to find new ways to create powerful new batteries for U.S. Navy vessels.

Pigford also says she's troubled by what she perceived as an eroding role of service, one of the professorial troika that also includes teaching and research.

"USC is very focused now on becoming an AAU institution," she says. "In recent years, it has been almost the single, driving force. It's almost as if you've got a drum beat and it's getting louder and louder and louder -- and pretty soon, everything else is drowned out. If it's not related to AAU, its value is questionable."

Odom says that's not so: "There is scholarship that goes on throughout the university. Just because some professors might not be bringing in large grants doesn't mean they're not doing excellent scholarship.

"Culture of scholarship is what we're trying to build here," Odom adds. "It doesn't matter whether there is money involved, or not."

Crosstown Traffic

In a state troubled by poor test scores, high birthrates to single mothers, and large pockets of poverty, Pigford said USC's faculty should be key players in helping South Carolina solve its problems.