Perspectives: Diversity and the Future of the Professoriate – A Call to Action: In 1981, the U.S. Department of Education reported that 4.2 percent of full-time faculty positions in higher education were held by African-Americans. In 2003, more than two decades later, the numbers had increased slightly, to 5.6 percent. If this rate remains constant, it will take more than 180 years for the Black faculty percentage to reach parity with the Black percentage of the U.S. population. Compelled by these startling statistics, last November I convened the “Diversity and the Future of the Professoriate” conference at Princeton University’s Graduate School.
