TNJ - April 2001 - Features - The Professors They Wish They'd Had

April Y2K1

The Professors They Wish They'd Had

The Ph.D. Project conducts nationwide campaigns to lure minorities to leave their corporate jobs and return to academia.

By Seth Kolloen

As a business student, Kevin James felt helpless when he saw his peers struggling. “I saw all the black students around me dropping out. I thought that many of them would have made it if they had a mentor. [But we] never had a minority professor.” James’ experience wasn’t unusual; as late as 1993, less than 2 percent of U.S. business professors were African American, Hispanic American or Native American.

James, who is African American, decided to become the minority professor he wishes he’d had. He is part of an influx of minorities into business school faculties in recent years. The number of minority professors in U.S. business schools, a number that took generations to create, will triple in less than 10 years.

This signal change in academia has been brought about partly by the efforts of a $10 million corporate/academic partnership that identifies, educates and supports potential minority business professors: The Ph.D. Project.

The Ph.D. Project conducts a nationwide marketing campaign, identifying minorities willing to leave their corporate jobs to return to academia to earn a Ph.D. and become business professors. Top candidates are invited to a three-day conference, where they meet with minority business professors and representatives from Ph.D. programs across the country. They get all the information they need to make the transition from business to academia. Airfare and lodging for the conference is paid by The Ph.D. Project.

“The Ph.D. Project conference made all the difference to me,” said John Warren, now a doctoral student at the University of Illinois-Chicago. “It was the most important conference I ever attended.”

For minorities who enter a business doctoral program, The Ph.D. Project sponsors the Minority Doctoral Students Associations. These associations bond minority doctoral students who face similar challenges on the path to becoming business professors. These associations have been successful in reducing the dropout rate for minority doctoral business students. The average dropout rate for doctoral students is 25 percent to 33 percent. For Ph.D. Project participants, it is less than 5 percent.

“Academics who succeed have good social networks, mentors and role models,” said David Crockett, a doctoral student at Arizona State University. “The Ph.D. Project is creating the networks.”

In 1993, when the program was begun, there were only 294 African American, Hispanic or Native American professors in U.S. business schools. Today, there are 507 minority business professors, an increase of more than 70 percent. Moreover, 378 minorities are now enrolled in doctoral programs and will likely take a place at the front of the classroom in the next five years.

The mere presence of minority business professors has an effect on students.“On campus, people come up and say they are proud to see me,” said Kevin Bradford, an African American who last year became a professor at the University of Notre Dame. “Just seeing me makes a difference to many students.”

Minority professors are doing important research on topics surrounding race and business, a topic that was largely being ignored by nonminority doctoral students and professors.

The research is taken into the classroom to improve the education of students of all colors. But the most important and lasting result of an increase in minority business professors is an increase in minority business students.

At business schools all around the country, when a minority professor has begun teaching a section of a particular class, minority enrollment has risen sharply. Performance by minorities has also risen, as more minorities feel comfortable asking their professors for assistance.
More minorities in business classes leads to more minorities getting business degrees and more minorities being hired for executive positions by top corporations.

The pioneering Ph.D. Project is leading the way toward true diversity in corporate America. For information about The Ph.D. Project call 1-888-2GET-APHD or visit their Web site at www.phdproject.org.

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