WASHINGTON — Though the discourse of diversity on campus has been subsumed by a “bigger political landscape” as of late, America’s colleges and universities must still fight to make the nation’s professoriate more reflective of the nation as a whole.
That was one of the key arguments that UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski III made Tuesday as he spoke to attendees at the annual conference of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, or NADOHE.
“I want you to keep in mind that the reason we’re doing this work is not to give a person of color a job,” Hrabowski said during the keynote speech at the conference as he lamented how the professoriate is 85 percent White and not reflective of American society.
“This is about changing the very culture of American higher education, which means changing the culture of American society, and at a time when we are having to question who we are,” Hrabowski said.
Speaking in what could have easily been seen as thinly veiled barbs against President Donald J. Trump, Hrabowski said a paramount concern for colleges and universities is to “prepare people to be responsible citizens, who first of all will vote, who will ask the right questions, who will not allow a reality show to influence who they are, who will determine that the values will be truth, seeking the truth, analyzing the data, being fair to all people, and not allowing oneself to assume that I have all the right answers.”
At the same time, Hrabowski said, “a part of diversity has to be teaching people how to find common ground.”
“We must be able to help some people who voted differently from us to talk about, why did you do that? What is important to you? What can we work on together where we can find ourselves in a position we’re all proud to have, whatever the situation is in our country,” Hrabowski said.
