Joint Review Boosts Faculty Diversity, Study Finds

"When minority faculty members are evaluated [separately], often the bar for promotion and tenure becomes much higher. The joint evaluation decision-making processes forces [tenure and promotion committees] to carefully calibrate against different cases without letting that criteria shift seep in."

"While Black and Hispanic people make up 31 percent of the national population, they represent 11 percent of faculty members, according to federal data cited in the paper. And that representation decreases with each level of promotion: 13 percent of assistant professors are Black and Hispanic, compared to 11 percent of associate and 8 percent of full professors."

Black and Hispanic professors remain significantly underrepresented in tenured and tenure-track faculty positions despite decades of federal anti-discrimination policies. A new study in Nature Communications demonstrates that joint review processes—evaluating multiple faculty members simultaneously for tenure and promotion—substantially improves outcomes for minority faculty. When reviewed separately, evaluation committees often apply inconsistently higher standards to minority candidates. Joint evaluation forces committees to calibrate criteria consistently across different cases, preventing bias from influencing decisions. Currently, Black and Hispanic individuals comprise 31 percent of the national population but only 11 percent of faculty, with representation declining at higher academic ranks. Prior research attributes these disparities partly to biased review committees predominantly composed of white and Asian faculty members.

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