Blacks Still Vastly Underrepresented in Faculty Ranks at U.S. Colleges

A new report from the U.S. Department of Education shows that blacks are not making significant progress in gaining faculty positions at U.S. colleges and universities. The report found that in 2009 there were 13,750 black faculty with tenure at degree-granting educational institutions in the United States. They made up just 4.6 percent of the nearly 300,000 tenured faculty members in this country.

African Americans did slightly better in tenure-track positions. In 2009 there were 8,687 black faculty on the tenure track. They made up 6.4 percent of all tenure-track faculty.

In 2009 there were 9,614 full-time black faculty in non-tenure or non-tenure-track positions. They made up 5.4 percent of all full-time faculty who were not on the tenure track.

The report, entitled Employees in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2009, and Salaries of Full-Time Instructional Staff, 2009-10, can be downloaded by clicking here.

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