Questions about implicit bias are now part of most healthy, serious campus conversations — whether the topic is student admissions, campus policing, or faculty recruiting. These are critically important discussions to have, if only to cause every one of us to pause in our daily lives and consider the preconceptions and prejudices we may have.
One forum in which there is a need for continued exploration of bias is the leadership-search committee. In an effort to reduce bias and to ensure a diverse pool of candidates for leadership roles, institutions typically populate search committees with a mix of representatives — the idea being that diverse points of view and backgrounds will, among other things, bring implicit bias into the open and prevent it from coloring decisions.
The committees are inherently representative, but their members still bring with them hidden motives. With diversity of representation comes diversity of biases — about gender, race, age, body type, sexual orientation, dialect, accent, alma mater, hometown, degree worthiness, hairstyle, clothing. The list goes on.
What don’t we have biases about?
