Black College Students Don’t Realize They’re Making Impossible Demands
Many black college students want more black professors but there aren’t enough to meet the demand.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
Black college students demanding more black professors don’t realize ‘they are demanding the impossible.’
In recent weeks, America’s campuses have been on the front page. Instances of racial insensitivity and acts have caused black students primarily to protest campus climates that sometimes are hostile. The epicenter was Columbia, Missouri, but demonstrations have sprouted from coast to coast.
Among the byproducts of the protests are lists of demands by the students. They identify a number of issues they would like addressed and remedied for their overall experiences on those campuses to be not only free of harassment, but supportive of their educational pursuits. Some of the demands have called for changes in leadership, both administrators and student leaders. Some have asked for mandatory diversity training for all members of the campus community. Still others have asked for counseling and academic support targeted toward underrepresented groups on campus.
They all ask for one thing: More black faculty. There is unanimity in the belief more faculty who look like them will go a long way in solving these issues.
There is an old saying that you can’t get blood from a turnip. In the same regard, you cannot hire black faculty that do not exist.
Over the years studies have consistently presented data which indicate the number of black doctorates awarded, the standard credential required for most faculty appointments, fails to keep pace with the number of black students attending predominantly white universities. According to the 2013 report of the National Science Foundation, for all doctorates awarded, blacks, 12 percent of the population, received only 6.4 percent of Ph.Ds. Of those roughly 2,100 doctorates awarded to blacks, 515 or a quarter of them were in education.
That means, outside of education, there is approximately one new black Ph.D. per every three college campuses nationwide. Digging deeper, students will understand they are demanding the impossible. In 2013, blacks earned 252 doctorates in the biological sciences, 206 in psychology, and 172 in engineering. There were 61 in chemistry, 49 in history, and 26 in math. In foreign language and literature? Nine.
Black college students demanding more black professors don’t realize ‘they are demanding the impossible.’ (The Atlanta Journal Constitution)
Comments
Sounds like there is plenty of opportunity for people who are suffering from identity issues. How will people respond when all of a sudden there is a flux of people who suddenly realized they have been misidentified. I can think of 4 examples where this has recently happened.
and how many Ph.D.s are competent? I can remember my graduate training and even in my program that is top in my area, we had several students (varied nationalities) that managed to barely get their degree that I would not let train a dog. Granted I have high standards for dog training but i would never let them train a child of mine.
Also very few of the entire student population (competent and incompetent) ended up in academia, most found jobs in industry and it was only the very dedicated or the incompetent that ended up in academia (as associate faculty).
So depending on the degree there will only be X amount of Ph,D.s that will be available for academia. The STEM graduates will have far better opportunities in industry. Industry is also being pushed to be diverse so any highly competent engineer would have the red carpet rolled out for them – so why would they want to teach even in a prestigious university?
If the numbers of available black Ph.D.s are down adjusted for potential industry jobs, I think you would find the available engineers to be far less than 172 (maybe 5?). Also if you consider that X percent of Ph.D.s overall are not the best of teachers for whatever reason, the number is even less.
The only Ph.D.s that would be availble in mass for hire are the ones that were routed down the progressive training road with Ph.D.s in things like porn studies or Lady Gaga where there are no real industry jobs.
You make excellent points. I have to add that blacks saying and thinking it’s a “whitey” thing to be studious or academically accomplished greatly decreases the likelihood that blacks will want to go into academia in significant numbers. “Black studies” and “ethnic studies” don’t count.
The concerted effort to demand racial equality or parity everywhere is nonsensical. Everyone I know (I’m several decades past college age) had professors and t.a.’s of varying races and ethnicities. I attended UCLA, which long ago implemented quotas to keep Asians numbers down in certain majors that they were prominent in and excelled in, such as computer science (English was not required – and I had 2 compsci t.a.’s who spoke NO English)and medical majors.