Protesters at the University of Missouri acted to highlight racial bias on campus, but they stumbled onto a nationwide problem.
Students called for the university to ensure 10 percent of faculty are black, which would more than triple the current number on a campus where 7 percent of students are black. As the Christian Science Monitor wrote, Missouri isn’t unique in that situation:
One concern is that, when students don’t see professors who were or are in a similar economic, social, or racial situation, they don’t perform as well. Missouri has seen falling retention rates for black students since the late 1990s, which has been a focus for activists concerned about racial disparities.
In higher education, part of the issue might be a selection bias. Some smaller liberal arts colleges have less of a disparity in their proportion of black faculty relative to their student body. A focus on humanities and social sciences, and an emphasis on teaching instead of research like many large research universities have, could explain part of the difference, the Christian Science Monitor noted. For the University of Missouri, white faculty are underrepresented along with black faculty. The greatest disparity is with Asian faculty. To reduce racial disparities, even if perfect racial balance isn’t the goal, Asian faculty would have to be fired in favor of black faculty.
Undoubtedly, racial effects and the history of legalized racism have helped create a disparity. The political views on campuses don’t seem to make a difference, either. Red Alert Politics has noted that “The higher education industry — which preaches about inclusion and diversity — is among the least diverse professions in the country.” Tenured black faculty are almost wholly concentrated in historically black colleges and universities.
Focusing on tenured professors, however, misses a large swath of professors. The rise of adjunct faculty and part-time instructors have slightly better numbers for black professors. In a competitive environment with fewer tenure-track positions, a narrow focus on them can obscure the full picture.
Despite campus rhetoric about diversity and inclusivity, higher education continues to produce unequal racial outcomes. Whether the industry can overcome economic, social, and racial outcomes, along with a population with a diversity of interests, is unclear. Whether building a racially balanced student and faculty body would benefit those students, as the college degree premium shrinks and the costs of a degree rise, is equally unclear.
