• EEO/AA Home
• EEO/AA Related Policies
• Voluntary Compliance Forms
• Diversity Recruiting Resources

Preventing Sexual Harassment: An Online Program

• Search Materials:
• Faculty
• Civil Service
• Executive
• Administrative, Professional, and Technical (APT)

Jobs at UH Hilo

UH Hilo Human Resources

Contact the EEO/AA Office

Email:
eeoaa
@hawaii.edu

Telephone:
(808) 933-0824

Fax:
(808) 933-0728

Office:
Trailer E (Located Behind the Business Office)

Mail:
EEO/AA
University of Hawaii at Hilo
200 W. Kawili St.
Hilo, HI 96720-4091

Did You Ask Me if I Loved My Job?: The Precarious Position of the EEO Officer in Higher Education

By Myrtle Reul, Ph.D.

Since 1964, a brand new profession has come into being. And only America has it. It has become sophisticated and complex over the past 15 years. It has acquired its own esoteric terminology, given impetus to various national associations, and created the need for professional journals and newsletters. It has, in a very real sense, become an industry. Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action; EEO/AA. These terms are only buzz-words to some, but they're Monday-thru-Friday career concerns for a growing number of American professionals.

Just like the career disciplines born from computer technology and space-age research, EEO/AA is a new world of working ideas and incredibly impressive objectives. It offers room for excellence to those with appropriate expertise and sufficient career commitment.

Revised Order Number 4 is, in today's world of EEO, the key to operation. It is the blueprint for implementation of Executive Order 11246 and the guide for preparing a written affirmative action plan. It states simply that "an executive of the contractor should be appointed 85 director or manager of company Equal Opportunity Programs,"

This director is commonly referred to as the institution’s EEO Officer. Revised Order Number 4 implies that this professional be a top administrator, appointed from within the organization rather than recruited from without. There are no federal requirements for advertising the position, unless the institution identifies such an obligation in It's own written affirmative action plan.

Section 60.2:22 of the Revised Order states that the EEO Officer "should be given the top management support and staffing to execute the assignment." If top management support means sufficient staff and budget to meet minimum compliance requirements for equal employment opportunity, then Section 60.2:22 is alive and struggling to be well-implemented throughout the colleges and universities of America. But if the goal is sufficient staff and budget to really carry out affirmative action, then Section 60.2:22 has been ignored by almost every institution of higher education in this country.

This lack of commitment to affirmative action on the part of top administration accounts for why there are some good non-discrimination endeavors in higher education but almost no real affirmative action programs on any campus.

While the duties of the EEO Officer are detailed in Revised Order Number 4. no qualifications for the job are identified. Amount and type of educational background, training, and prior work experience - these are hazy areas without guidelines or regulations. The Federal Government has completely failed to fill in the criteria that the Revised Order left out. The result is a disturbingly unorganized, non-uniformed EEO personnel pool. The training, experience and personal commitment of individuals holding university EEO Officer positions vary from campus to campus.

Training institutions have notoriously advised those interested In an EEO or affirmative action career that any problem-solving experience or decision- making practice is relevant (or even adequate) preparation for career objectives in these disciplines. In reality, specialized training and specific work experience are essential. Perhaps more than any other academic administrator.

Clearly, this can close the channels to informal negotiation with the administration. And in higher education, this Informal negotiation process is a more effective and much faster way to resolve problems than the formal grievance procedure.

The operational territory of the EEO Officer is the middle ground betweel1 management and labor. This unique position must be endorsed and understood by the president of the institution if that Officer is to escape the immobility of being caught between conflicting expectations.

While demonstrating empathy for all employees, students, and those claiming discrimination, the EEO professional must be able and willing to disagree with any member of administration, employee population, student body, or complainants, should that need arise.

The job demands a strong identification with the institution as an instrument of higher education, a high degree of professionalism, and a deep personal commitment to the equality of people.

And above all, the still evolving field of Equal Employment Opportunity calls for sensitive professionals who can confront the gut-level intensity of a subject that often seems blurred by technical definitions and legal regulations.

There is no job so demanding in higher education today. There is no job so thankless, none that requires a higher level of expertise and interpersonal skill. But undeniably, there is, at this point in American history, no job so gratifying or as important to the concepts of good Institutional management as that of The EEO Officer.

Myrtle Reul is a retired Professor of Social Work from the University of Georgia at Athens. She was an Equal Employment Opportunity Officer for five years. This article was previously published in the Affirmative Action Forum, March 1980 and Affirmative Action News, May 1984.