Spring 2008 issue of Terry Magazine - (Page 49)

terr ymemo Insurance, Legal Studies and Real Estate Department By Melissa Weinman Affirmative Action pioneer he words of Martin Luther King Jr. reverberated through Dawn Bennett-Alexander’s mind as she contemplated whether she should leave her newly built home and tenuretrack position at the University of North Florida for a job she didn’t even want at UGA: If not you, who? If not now, when? During the late 1980s, there were few black professors at the University of Georgia, which did not begin actively recruiting minorities until then-President Charles Knapp assumed office, says Bennett-Alexander, who became the first University faculty member hired under the new affirmative action policy in 1988. “The University had really not made an effort to have any black faculty,” she says. “Knapp was willing to fund tenure-track hires. Departments started doing whatever they could to encourage colleagues of color to come to UGA. (Knapp) opened that dialogue . . . . He made it a priority and everything grew from that.” When Bennett-Alexander was asked to interview at the University, she initially refused, but after further thought changed her mind. “I thought, It’s ridiculous this place has been in existence 200 years and has so few black faculty,” she says. “Let’s talk about this elephant on the table. Why don’t you have more black folks here by now? I had to go because I criticized them.” Bennett-Alexander was asked to teach a course in employment law, a new and largely unexplored area. “The idea of somebody black and female teaching a course on discrimination didn’t sit well with me,” she says. “It was such a bromide, so predictable.” But Bennett-Alexander began to write about race and gender, “things at the time no one was looking at,” she says, and she went on to write a best-selling textbook on employment law. “I made the right choice,” she says. “The research was respected. People now see it’s an important area of law.” For years, she was the only black professor in the Terry College of Business. Although she was never overtly targeted or excluded by her peers, she says, being different was a challenge. During the past 20 years, UGA’s hiring practices have changed. The number of full-time African-American faculty members is approaching 100, the University has an African-American vice president, and the Office of Institutional Diversity was founded in 2002. Bennett-Alexander has the “ability to use herself as an example of someone who thrived and survived in an atmosphere that was not always as welcoming as it is now,” says Cheryl D. Dozier, associate provost and chief diversity officer. “She is one of those we can probably point to as being a true success.” “There’s so much misinformation about affirmative action,” says Bennett-Alexander, who says the purpose of affirmative action is to recognize groups traditionally underrepresented. “Unless you make a concerted effort to change, nothing will.” The University’s affirmative action policy gained notoriety in Terry College of T BuSineSS riCharD haMM/the reD aND BLaCK Bennett-Alexander, who teaches employment law at the Terry College, was the first faculty member hired under an affirmative action policy that the University instituted in 1988 to improve minority hiring practices. Twenty years later, the number of full-time African-American faculty members at UGA is approaching 100. 2003 after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the policy unconstitutionally favored males and minorities. BennettAlexander says she tries to incorporate reallife scenarios into her classes so students have the opportunity to see what life is like for different people. “I’m not putting forth an agenda,” she says, “but life doesn’t happen in a vacuum.” Paige Jackson, a senior from Locust Grove, took Bennett-Alexander’s employment law class and says she benefited from the experience. “As a minority student, it’s especially important to me” to have a diverse faculty,” says Jackson, who notes how willing Bennett-Alexander is to talk to students. “Everybody will bring something different to the table, making my education more thorough and complete.” Bennett-Alexander is in the process of writing more textbooks. “I have never regretted the decision to come here,” she says. ■ A similar article appeared in a recent issue of The Red and Black, which granted reprint rights. Spring 2008 • 49

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Terry School of Business - Spring 2008 Contents Quick Bites Research & Innovation Gatherings Best CEO in America An Unlikely Rock Star Fire & Flavor Beyond the Bench Terry Memo Economic Scorekeeper Class Notes

Terry School of Business - Spring 2008

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