U of L ripped for help-wanted ad

Andrew Wolfson | Louisville Courier Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Video | U of L criticized over race-specific job post The University of Louisville is facing criticism for a job announcement that specifies the acceptable racial backgrounds of the person who will get the position.

The University of Louisville is drawing fire for a help-wanted ad for a professor that it said could be filled only by an "African-American, Hispanic-American or Native American Indian.”

In a story headlined “White, Asians Need Not Apply,” Insider Higher Ed reported Wednesday that the ad raised legal questions about limiting job searches to members of select racial and ethnic groups.

The story quoted one expert, Michael Olivas, former general counsel for the American Association of University Professors, who said the ad reminded him of university President James Ramsey’s recent Halloween costume stereotyping Mexicans “in that both events were two sides of the same racially tone-deaf coin," the publication said.

‘“Someone’s asleep at the switch here,”’ the Dec. 16 story quoted Olivas.

Inside Higher Ed said that the ad, for an assistant professor in U of L’s physics and astronomy department, was abruptly removed from a job site Tuesday after the department received a complaint that the preferences didn’t include applicants with disabilities, said C.S. Jayanthi, the department’s chair.

The story said she forwarded the complaint to administrators and the ad was removed from higheredjobs.com, a classified site.

The ad said the Department of Physics and Astronomy “announces a tenure-track assistant professor position that will be filled by an African-American, Hispanic American or a Native American Indian.”

The story said Cindy Hess, a university spokeswoman, responded by email that the human resources department was notified of “the error” and the ad was removed immediately.

Hess told The Courier-Journal the ad was in error "because we did not intend to exclude any group or persons from applying for the position." Jayanthi didn't respond to calls left at her home and office.

Hess said the university did not intend to exclude anyone from applying for this position and "we welcome all candidates from all backgrounds for all open positions." She said the vacancy will be re-posted.

Benjamin Reese Jr., vice president and chief diversity officer at Duke University and president of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, told Inside Higher Ed that “I’ve never seen that before and it strikes me as inappropriate.”

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 582-7189 or awolfson@courier-journal.com