Content area
Full Text
Institutions must go beyond vying for the same small group of minority scholars.
[Image Omitted]
Colleges have promised for years to do more to expand the number of Black faculty members in their ranks. The numbers are stark. While 14 percent of undergraduate students are Black, only 6 percent of full-time faculty members are. The National Science Foundation reports that the percentage of total doctorates awarded to Black students increased by only one percentage point from 2006 to 2016, to 7 percent. The data suggest that it will be a long time before faculties look like the rest of America.
At institutions across the country, faculty members have increasingly indicated that they aren’t willing to wait. At the University of Kentucky, the program in African American and Africana studies sent a letter to the president calling for an increase in Black instructors from their current 3.7 percent of the faculty to 15 percent, reflecting the Black population of Lexington, Ky. Similarly, at Georgia State University, which has about 54,000 students, more than 200 Black faculty members signed a letter advocating for better representation.
The good news is that colleges have shown a willingness to take meaningful steps. At our university, for example, the president announced the formation of a Task Force on Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence. George Mason, for whom the university is named, enslaved more than 100 people, so...