U.S. colleges and universities have long struggled to increase the racial diversity of their faculty.

And after they are hired, some faculty of color say they feel that their qualifications and scholarship are subjected to greater scrutiny, or that they do not feel valued by their colleagues and schools.

As a scholar of critical race theory, I have studied these barriers, and I think that it is helpful to understand what universities, students and academic research all stand to gain from a more diverse faculty.

The search for diversity

While college faculties have become more racially diverse since the 1970s, the diversification of the faculty has not kept pace with changes in the college student population.

Overall, approximately 16% of the U.S. population were of color in 1970.

In 1975, approximately 8% of full-time faculty at U.S. colleges and universities were people of color. Approximately 4% were Black, 2% were Asian, and 1% were Hispanic.

In 1976, meanwhile, nearly 16% of U.S. college students were people of color.

Black students specifically accounted for about 9% of all full-time college students in 1976, Hispanic students about 4% and Asian or Pacific Islander students about 2%.

By 2022, 72% of full-time faculty across universities and colleges nationwide were white, while Asian professors made up 13%, Black professors 7% and Hispanic professors 6%, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

By 2022, Hispanic students accounted for 21.5% of U.S.-resident students at colleges and universities, Black students 13.2% and Asian students 7.8%.

Overall, in 2022, people of color made up approximately 41% of the U.S. population.

Promises not kept

Diversifying college faculties has not been a straightforward journey in recent years.

After a white police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, a Black teenager living in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, student protests erupted across college campuses.

Amid this student activism around racism, some U.S. research universities publicly committed to making their faculties more diverse.

By 2015, at least 88 of the country’s 187 leading research universities had promised to take this step.

Another 96 schools made similar commitments over the next few years, including after the 2020 police murder of George Floyd, a Black man living in Minneapolis.

Among a group of selected research universities examined by The Washington Post, the share of Black, Hispanic and other underrepresented faculty rose from 9% in 2015 to 12% in 2024.

But many of those public efforts have since been scaled back or abandoned. Of the 184 universities that had made faculty-diversity commitments, at least 108 had fully or partially rolled them back by early 2026.

Separately, in 2023, more than 45 bills meant to restrict or ban diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education were introduced in state legislatures. By late that year, eight states had enacted anti-DEI laws.

These measures have included restrictions on schools’ DEI offices and programs, diversity statements and spending on DEI-related initiatives.

Some scholars argue that these policies, along with other restrictions on racial-equity programs and initiatives, are contributing to what they describe as the “resegregation” of higher education.

Isolation at universities

Some faculty of color have said that they have seen evidence of a kind of tokenism in higher education. Some feel that they are expected to represent, exemplify, teach and do research with a focus on race and ethnic studies programs.

“Apparently, my colleague had assumed that because I am Black, I must be an expert on the African diaspora,” wrote Tyler Austin Harper, a former environmental studies professor at Bates College, in an August 2026 article in The Atlantic, which detailed his decision to leave his tenure-track position.

“The school’s culture encouraged us to see professors of color as vehicles for achieving the college’s diversity goals. The inescapable conclusion I arrived at was that I had been hired to be visibly Black first and a scholar second, if at all,” Harper wrote.

Other faculty of color have reported feeling like they and their scholarship are undervalued by their schools and peers.

Some faculty of color also report that scholarship focusing on marginalized populations or social problems is treated as less rigorous or less central to their disciplines.

Faculty of color across American colleges and universities face other challenges, including feeling isolated or like they are being watched.

Some faculty of color also report feeling like they should mentor students of color. This work can add to their workloads and, they say, sometimes come at a cost to their own careers.

Some research has found racial disparities in tenure and promotion outcomes, although those disparities vary considerably by discipline, school, gender and racial or ethnic group.

LGBTQ+ faculty of color, in particular, also report feeling isolated or intimidated, and experiencing delayed tenure or other promotion opportunities.

A diverse faculty benefits everyone

Having diverse faculty can benefit students and universities in several ways.

Research has linked greater faculty diversity to a range of positive outcomes for students, including student retention and college completion, particularly for Black and Hispanic students.

Exposure to professors with different backgrounds and perspectives can broaden students’ educational experiences.

Having a diverse faculty at universities can also strengthen academic research.

Researchers’ backgrounds can influence the questions they ask, the populations they study and how participants respond to them.

More diverse research teams can also bring different experiences and perspectives to the design and interpretation of research.

Research teams and study populations that lack diversity can overlook important perspectives and produce findings that are less applicable to broader populations. Conversely, more diverse teams can bring a wider range of perspectives and approaches to research.

An important mission

I believe that continuing to make university faculty ranks more diverse is essential for higher education.

This is not simply a matter of making professors more closely resemble the students they teach. It is about broadening the perspectives represented in classrooms and research, and ensuring that universities draw on the widest possible pool of scholars and ideas.

Rodney Coates does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.