Champions of diversity in higher education collectively celebrate the rising young academic stars featured in Diverse magazine’s annual Emerging Scholars issue (see Diverse, Jan. 12). 

Sadly, however, much remains to be done to open the doors of opportunity for these and other minority scholars. Each year, recruitment and retention studies show a pervasive lack of diversity across academic disciplines. It’s more than disappointing. Those with long careers in higher education know that the persistent underrepresentation of minority faculty undercuts the goal of academic excellence itself. 

Diversity delayed is excellence denied.

This is especially true in fields where knowledge and “truth telling” hinge on the presence of a broad and diverse range of scholarly perspectives. After all, the storyteller, or the professor in this case, tells the story and, therefore, determines what is told and taught — what truths are included, illuminated or ignored.

Higher education officials from theological schools and seminaries across the country met recently in Atlanta for a candid conversation about key strategies to strengthen diversity efforts. That conversation explored some troubling facts. Although an increasingly diverse America needs multiracial academic and religious leaders, diversity in theological education has not kept pace with population trends.  More than one-third of the 251 member institutions of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) report that they do not have a single minority faculty member. And although people of color comprise approximately 30 percent of the U.S. population, they are only about 13 percent of faculty and 22 percent of students enrolled in ATS member schools are minorities.

These trends are also reflected in the chronic underrepresentation of minority faculty in graduate religion and theology programs at higher education institutions nationwide. According to data published in 2003 by the American Academy of Religion (AAR) based on statistics from the 2001-2002 academic year, 90 percent of faculty and 75 percent of students enrolled in religious studies doctoral programs in the United States and Canada are White.