U.S. colleges and universities have the racial diversity of their faculty.
And after they are hired, that their qualifications and scholarship are subjected to greater scrutiny, or that they do not feel valued by their colleagues and schools.
, I have studied these barriers, and I think that it is helpful to understand what universities, students and academic research all stand to gain from a more diverse faculty.
The search for diversity
While college faculties have become more racially diverse since the 1970s, the diversification of the faculty has not kept pace with changes in the college student population.
Overall, approximately were of color in 1970.
In 1975, approximately 8% of full-time faculty at U.S. colleges and universities were people of color. , 2% were Asian, and 1% were Hispanic.
In 1976, meanwhile, nearly 16% of U.S. college students .
of all full-time college students in 1976, Hispanic students about 4% and Asian or Pacific Islander students about 2%.
By 2022, across universities and colleges nationwide were white, while Asian professors made up 13%, Black professors 7% and Hispanic professors 6%, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
By 2022, for 21.5% of U.S.-resident students at colleges and universities, Black students 13.2% and Asian students 7.8%.
Overall, in 2022, people of color 41% of the U.S. population.
Promises not kept
Diversifying college faculties has not been a straightforward journey in recent years.
After a white police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, , in 2014, erupted .
Amid this student activism around racism, some .
By 2015, at least 88 of the country’s 187 leading research universities had .
Another 96 schools made similar commitments over the next few years, including after the , a Black man living in Minneapolis.
Among a group of selected , the share of Black, Hispanic and other underrepresented faculty rose from 9% in 2015 to 12% in 2024.
But many of those public efforts have since been scaled back or abandoned. Of the 184 universities that had made faculty-diversity commitments, them back by early 2026.
Separately, in 2023, diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education were introduced in state legislatures. By late that year, eight states had enacted anti-DEI laws.
These measures on schools’ DEI offices and programs, diversity statements and spending on DEI-related initiatives.
Some scholars argue that these policies, along with other restrictions on racial-equity programs and initiatives, as the “resegregation” of higher education.
Isolation at universities
Some faculty of color have said that they have seen evidence of in higher education. Some feel that they are expected to represent, exemplify, teach and do research with a focus on race and ethnic studies programs.
“Apparently, my colleague had assumed that because I am Black, I must be an expert on the African diaspora,” wrote Tyler Austin Harper, a former environmental studies professor at Bates College, in The Atlantic, which detailed his decision to leave his tenure-track position.
“The school’s culture encouraged us to see professors of color as vehicles for achieving the college’s diversity goals. The inescapable conclusion I arrived at was that I had been hired to be visibly Black first and a scholar second, if at all,” Harper wrote.
Other have reported feeling like they and their by their schools and peers.
Some faculty of color also report that scholarship focusing on marginalized populations or social problems is or less central to their disciplines.
Faculty of color across American colleges and universities , including feeling isolated or like they are .
Some faculty of color also report feeling like they should . This work can add to their workloads and, they say, sometimes come at a cost to their own careers.
Some research has found in , although those disparities vary considerably by discipline, school, gender and racial or ethnic group.
LGBTQ+ faculty of color, in particular, feeling isolated or intimidated, and experiencing delayed tenure or other .
A diverse faculty benefits everyone
Having students and universities in several ways.
to a range of positive outcomes for students, and college completion, particularly for Black and Hispanic students.
Exposure to professors with and perspectives students’ educational experiences.
Having a diverse faculty at universities can also strengthen academic research.
Researchers’ backgrounds can influence the questions they ask, the populations they study and how participants respond to them.
More diverse research teams can also bring different experiences and perspectives to the design and interpretation of research.
Research teams and study populations that important perspectives and produce findings that are less applicable to broader populations. Conversely, more diverse teams can bring a wider range of perspectives and approaches to research.
An important mission
I believe that continuing to is essential for higher education.
This is not simply a matter of making professors more closely resemble the students they teach. It is about broadening the perspectives represented in classrooms and research, and ensuring that universities draw on the widest possible pool of scholars and ideas.
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