I’d like to post an edited version of my email to Rob Capriccioso on this question. The ICT article in question is here. I think his report, while excellent and fair, doesn’t highlight how we have no read way to evaluate Kagan on her minority hiring record (the portion highlighted in red is what was quoted in the article):
It’s hard to judge Elena Kagan on her work as the shepherd of the Oneida Chair at Harvard, or as a dean that hired a single minority person during an unprecedented hiring spree at Harvard during her tenure, but the White House’s response to the criticism is so weak and misdirected that it might require additional consideration. The allegations are that Kagan, as dean, hired only 1 person of color (and I think it was 5-7 women) at a time when the Harvard faculty hired over 30 new faculty members. The WH’s weak response was that we don’t know how many offers she made to minority candidates, and that she did offer many visiting positions to people of color. Both are virtual non sequitirs.The Oneida Chair, created in 2003, required Harvard to hire a full-time, tenured faculty member dedicated to Indian law. That still hasn’t happened * * *. In short, Harvard has not found a permanent Oneida Chair to its liking. That is a bitter shame, since numerous American Indian law profs are objectively qualified to be tenured at Harvard. * * *Generally, deans are figureheads in law school hiring processes that don’t have a lot of say on faculty hires. They might attempt to guide a faculty hiring committee in a certain direction, but their main job in the hiring season is to negotiate a contract with someone the faculty has already agreed to hire. So it is a little unfair to judge Kagan for failing to hire minorities in general, and specifically a full-time Oneida chair. But one could make a sensible claim that Harvard simply is playing dirty pool with the Oneida Chair. * * * And the deans generally do have control over which outside law profs are offered visits. This is troubling to say the least, though to be fair, few of the top law schools in the United States hire minority candidates in any given year.I find it disconcerting that Harvard has failed to hire a permanent Oneida chair after most of a decade, especially after being granted free money to do so (I think the Oneida Indian Nation under Ray Halbritter donated $3 million). * * * But how much of the blame goes to then-Dean Kagan? Again, that’s tough. * * *
Thanks to R.C. for raising the point to me in an email that then-Dean Kagan could be utterly blameless for Harvard’s inaction on minority hires (or not, we simply don’t know).
Turtle Talk 