Tenure is always a touchy subject — even more so when combined with the well-intentioned buzzword “diversity.” When Iowa State created U.S. diversity and international perspectives requirements in the late 1990s, it hired new faculty to teach the courses. But the university seems to have a problem keeping the faculty in Ames.

According to Daily staff reports, 32 percent of the total minority faculty hired by Iowa State between 1993 and 2002 resigned, and 27 percent of non-minorities hired at the same time resigned. Twenty-three percent of the “diversity hires” made between 1993 and 2002 resigned by the end of their fourth year.

A lot of these faculty members had co-appointments in relatively new ethnic studies departments; the American Indian studies department has lost three of its six faculty members, and the other departments are so small that losing even one faculty member could significantly affect the quality of the program.

Some of the faculty leaving Iowa State have been denied tenure-track jobs, prompting speculation that the tenure process is biased against non-traditional research. Other faculty said their dual appointments placed unrealistic expectations on them, and to keep up appearances in both departments, they had to double their workload to appear as full faculty in each department.

To add insult to injury, several former Iowa State “diversity hires” have gone to the University of Wyoming, whose student population is apparently cut from the same slice of white bread as Iowa State’s.

What can be done? Budget crises dictate a lot of the university’s actions. But if Iowa State is to truly act on President Geoffroy’s fall 2002 announcement to make diversity a core value at Iowa State, it can’t just sit back and bemoan the fall of ethnic studies programs and low diversity retention rates.

First of all, re-evaluate the goals and outcomes of U.S. diversity and international perspectives requirements. If we’re just hiring faculty to teach requirement courses that most students don’t even understand the reason behind, we deserve to lose qualified faculty — who wants to spend their days teaching courses to students who just don’t care?

Second, take another look at tenure processes and “diversity” stigmatization. If we’re hiring faculty to make the university look good, then denying their scholarship, then ignoring the fact that many of them are stigmatized for being “diversity”faculty … well, it’s a recipe for disaster.

Third, combine the various ethnic studies programs under the umbrella of one larger ethnic studies program — one that would pull more weight with a larger number of faculty.

Fourth, remember that diversity is more than a buzzword.

A true commitment to diversity means hiring faculty with different viewpoints and backgrounds in all disciplines, not just the conveniently categorized “ethnic studies programs.”