In Computer Science, Black Faculty Are Hard to Find

According to a survey conducted by Professor Donna J. Nelson at the University of Oklahoma, there are a mere 23 blacks teaching computer science at the 100 universities with the largest research budgets in the field. There are only three full professors among this group, one each at the University of Colorado, Texas A&M University, and Jackson State University.

Six of the 23 blacks teaching computer science are on the faculty at historically black Jackson State University. Texas A&M University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte are the only predominantly white universities among the top 100 with more than one black faculty member in computer science.

Dr. Nelson’s research shows that there are no black computer scientists at Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Stanford, Columbia, Michigan, Chapel Hill, Princeton, Yale, Duke, or Dartmouth.

Copyright © 2007. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.