Although the number of ethnically diverse students and faculty is not as high at Virginia Tech as some would like, the numbers do correlate.
Out of 27,572 students, 19,092, or 69.1 percent, are white. Of the 3061 total instructional faculty, 77.62 percent represents the number of white faculty members. This figure shows the most discrepancy. Of all students at Tech, 4.6 percent are black, while 4.57 percent of instructors are black. Of the faculty members, 6.31 percent are Asian, while 6.5 percent of students are Asian. As for the Hispanic population, 2.4 percent of students fit that description, compared with 1.93 percent of faculty. Native American students make up 0.3 percent of Tech students, compared with 0.39 percent of instructors.
But the parallel may only be prevalent in the statistics. Associate Provost for Academic Administration Patricia Hyer said it would be fairly easy for a Tech student to never be taught by a black faculty member, for example. Among the 1,382 tenured and tenure-track instructional faculty, only 44 are black, a number that cannot spread evenly throughout Tech's 75 academic departments.
"Some of the people in that group do work with students for sure, but not every student would see some of those people, so there's some sense that there are not as many faculty of color as we would certainly like to have," Hyer said.
Also, the university's percentages show less diversity than the national sums, as there are 12.2 percent of full-time minority faculty in America. However, 29.3 percent of undergraduate students are now minorities, showing a 17.1 percent misrepresentation among faculty members. Tech shows much less of a discrepancy, but also much less variety.
According to Hyer, Virginia's population is close to 20 percent black. She said the big gap lies in the difference between the faculty and student body compared to the state population.
"There's lots of concern and there has been for years," Hyer said. "These are not new issues for Virginia Tech."
She added that even though the numbers are small, they are increasing.
Christina Brogdon, Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action coordinator and human resources analyst for the Task Force on Race and the Institution, said the university is "trying to address diversity on all levels and in all areas on campus."
"I think the university's very concerned, and I think there are a lot of conversations and a lot of work going on to address the issue of diversity," Brogdon said.
In a written message dated Aug. 24, 2006, University Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Mark McNamee noted, "the university has developed and implemented a wide array of programs, policies, and practices designed to promote and support diversity and multicultural opportunities for all faculty, staff, and students."
However, he added that the university still struggled in addressing race-related issues. To further examine these issues, he wrote to inform others about a two-part process of diversity enhancement. First, the Taskforce on Race and the Institution was formed and the Diversity Strategic Plan, issued in 2000, was updated to provide ways to measure growth.
Brogdon, who said the taskforce is currently in its second phase of looking at the feasibility of the recommendations it has made, referenced a variety of other attempts to boost diversity, such as the Commission on Equal Opportunity and Diversity, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and colleges' diversity committees.
Rianka Urbina, director of diversity and multicultural affairs for the Student Government Association, is involved in another diversity-related group. Alliance of Concerned Students holds student forums once a month for students to discuss what they would like to see changed regarding diversity and multicultural affairs.
"Tech is moving forward with that issue and working hard to get the yield of more minorities here at Tech," Urbina said. "This is an issue, but I believe Tech is doing the proper steps and going the proper way of making Virginia Tech more diverse."
Urbina added that there is always room for improvement as far as what the administration could do to boost diversity in admissions.
"We can outreach to high schools that are more in the urban areas and try to adhere to them and ask them why they are not coming to Tech," Urbina said.
Brogdon stated that any problems with a lack of diversity on campus are not restricted to Tech.
"We feel like we're (not) the only ones suffering, but last I checked, there's no college that's come up with a solution to the problem, because it's very complex," Brogdon said.
The next forum for the Alliance of Concerned Students will be held Tuesday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. in Squires' Black Culture Center.