Black Faculty at the Nation’s Highest-Ranked Universities

Nationwide, blacks make up 5.3 percent of all full-time faculty at American colleges and universities.

New data from the U.S. Department of Education shows that there are 287 black faculty members at Columbia University, the most at any of the 30 highest-ranked universities. There are also more than 200 black faculty members at the University of Michigan and Emory University in Atlanta. The University of Pennsylvania is the only other of the 30 top-ranked universities to have more than 150 black faculty members.

Among the 30 highest-ranked universities, CalTech has the fewest black faculty at 10. There are fewer than 30 black faculty members at Dartmouth College, Tufts University, the University of Notre Dame, and Rice University.

At 6.4 percent, Emory University has the highest percentage of black faculty among the highest-ranked universities. Columbia University is second with blacks making up 6.3 percent of the total faculty. None of the 28 other high-ranking universities have a percentage of black faculty that is equal to the national average of 5.3 percent.

At Rice University, Stanford University, MIT, and CalTech, blacks make up less than 2 percent of the total faculty.

Copyright © 2009. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.