Black Employment at U.S. Colleges and Universities Drops Over the Past Decade

A new report from the U.S. Department of Education finds that in 2003 there were 304,488 African Americans employed by American institutions of higher education. This includes blacks who hold faculty, administrative, clerical, and service positions as well as all other employment categories at U.S. colleges and universities. Blacks made up 9.8 percent of all employees at colleges and universities nationwide.

While the number of black employees at U.S. colleges and universities increased nearly 14 percent since 1993, blacks were actually a smaller percentage of the overall higher education work force in 2003 than they were in 1993. In 1993 blacks were 10.5 percent of all employees at higher education institutions.