Audit Finds Low Level of Racial Diversity at University of Missouri at Kansas City

The University of Missouri at Kansas City often claims that it is the most diverse of the four University of Missouri campuses. But when the university conducted an audit of the racial climate on campus, the findings did not meet expectations. The audit, conducted by Shaun R. Harper of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Pennsylvania State University, found that there were only three blacks among the 115 full professors at UMKC. All told, there are 20 blacks among the 408-member faculty. In making the report, Harper said that overall faculty diversity at UMKC “is the worst compared with any school I have visited in the country.”

Harper’s audit also found that black and Hispanic students felt isolated on campus and that they believed their professors had low expectations of their academic abilities.

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