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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 [First Page] [48], (1) Lines: 0 t ——— 1.0755pt ——— Normal P PgEnds: T [48], (1) 3. corrupt state university The Organizational Psychology of Native Experience in Higher Education Keith James A particular university department with one Native faculty member had a faculty position to fill. A search committee was duly formed, applications solicited, and a short list of candidates selected for interview. After the last of the interviews had been conducted, a meeting was called to discuss perceptions of the candidates and decide whether to seek administration approval to make an offer to any of them. The chair of the search committee began the meeting by announcing that he had talked to all of the department faculty members in their offices or in the halls and all had agreed to make an offer to a certain candidate. Neither the search committee chair nor any of the committee members had, however, discussed the candidates prior to the “decision” meeting with the one Native member of the faculty. The Native faculty member pointed this out. The search committee chair acknowledged having missed the Native faculty member in advance of the meeting, but argued that this violation of procedures did not matter because, since everyone else was in agreement, the decision would have ended up being the same in any case. The chair further argued that getting fast approval to make an offer ahead of potential competing universities needed to be the most important consideration, and he forwarded the name of the applicant who had been selected in advance of the decision meeting to the university administration. Events like that just described do not seem to be aberrations, according to discussions I have had over many years with Native faculty and staff at a number of mainstream higher education institutions. While the specific details may differ, Natives in academe often seem to find themselves excluded from access to important information, excluded from important decisions, and excluded from important resources. There is a logical argument to be made for discussing options and analyzing facts outside of the temporal and structural constraints of formal meetings. corrupt state university 49 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 [49], (2) Lines: 44 to 52 ——— 0.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [49], (2) When some groups or individuals who supposedly have a right to participate are systematically excluded, however, informal decisions pervert the official organizational system. When lines of inclusion and exclusion are based on social group membership, friendship, or conjoint cover-ups of unethical or unfair practices, the result is a corrupt, discriminatory system. What causes such a system to develop and what sustains it? Why, moreover, are the goals and needs of Native students and Native communities often given little attention by colleges and universities? How should Native people, individually and collectively, deal with corrupt academic systems? In this chapter, I attempt to answer those questions by turning theories and research on the dynamics of social identities and institutional systems reflexively onto academe and the experiences of Native individuals and Native communities with it. I also offer some suggestions for how Native students, staff, and faculty can overcome social and institutional barriers to success in academe,as well as suggestions for how Native communities might get colleges and universities to better serve their needs. Cultural, Genetic, Identity, and Psychosocial Causes The image of an institution of higher education that many of us have internalized includes ideals of dominance of reason,meritocracy,free exchange of ideas, and humanistic support for the downtrodden. In higher education,as in organizations of other types,however,emotion,informal identity, and culture- and social-group-based norms frequently trump formal institutional ideals, goals, and policies. While colleges and universities have the stated missions of education, research, and service to the community, the reality is that they often put much more effort into rule making,paper shuffling,internal politics and game playing,resource grabbing and hoarding, rewarding of friends, and empty gestures than into any activities directly related to their mission. Procedures for decision making and...

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