Mizzou has been slow to recruit Black faculty. Will a Missouri Republican bill make it harder?

For Carrington Peavy, a Black sophomore journalism major at the University of Missouri, the small number of Black faculty at MU is concerning.

But, she said, it’s not surprising.

“We’re not currently seeing Black people in those positions of power,” she said. “Even just a Black person as a teacher, a Black person as a faculty member, dismantles people’s preconceived notions about Black people. So I think that we’re really missing that representation on campus.”

In the fall of 2015, student-led protests erupted on the University of Missouri campus, criticizing inaction by university leaders after a string of racist incidents.

The protests thrust the state’s flagship institution into the national spotlight as students called on MU to improve the racial climate on campus, to be more inclusive of minority students and for faculty to be 10% Black by 2017.

While MU has made efforts in the nearly eight years since to add more diverse faculty members, progress has been slow. As of 2022, Black employees make up a dismal 3.7% of the university’s ranked professional faculty compared to 67.5% white.

The percentage of Black faculty is well below the percentage of Black people in Missouri, which hovers just below 12%. Ranked professional faculty typically includes professors, including assistant and associate professors.

University employees and students who spoke with The Star now worry that Missouri legislation aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring standards at public colleges would further threaten efforts to attract and retain diverse candidates. And they fear the proposed legislation will drive students away, sending a message to prospective minority students that the university is not a place of acceptance and diversity.

A DEI statement is a tool typically used when hiring to address a commitment to diverse and inclusive working environments.

For example, a job posting for an MU visiting assistant professor of sociology requires applicants to submit a DEI statement “addressing contributions to diversity and inclusivity through teaching and service.”

Opponents of the legislation say similar statements can be useful to figure out whether job candidates can reach a diverse student population.

“Without that tool we have no idea how a potential new professor will fit in — be they with students of color, LGBT+ students or folks from different political persuasions,” said Chris Conner, an assistant teaching professor of sociology who serves on the MU Faculty Council’s Inclusion, Diversity & Equity Committee.

One of the Missouri bills, filed by state Rep. Doug Richey, an Excelsior Springs Republican, would prohibit colleges from requiring DEI statements from applicants during the hiring process, and those violating the legislation could be fired. Among the rules, it would prohibit requiring applicants to disclose their “views on or experience with race, color, religion, sex, gender, ethnicity.”

Richey, in an interview with The Star, painted the hiring practice as politically-motivated, saying DEI statements prioritize activism over merit and achievement. The Republican lawmaker rejected the idea that his legislation would hurt MU’s efforts to hire more diverse faculty.

“We shouldn’t care who is the professor of a particular course based on the color of their skin or their background,” he said. “We should first and foremost be concerned with — they know the content area well. Are they an expert in that field? Do they know how to teach and teach well?”

Another Missouri bill, filed by state Rep. Ben Baker, a Neosho Republican, would ban licensing boards, medical providers and medical schools from having DEI requirements.

Students and staff say legislation threatens campus diversity

Bryson Ferguson, a junior at MU, is the president of the Legion of Black Collegians, which touts itself as the only Black student government in the nation. He said the Missouri legislation could potentially have significant negative impacts on both faculty and staff at MU.

“Being a higher education institution, it is fundamental to most job responsibilities that you’re going to be dealing with diversity and inclusion in some way, shape or form,” Ferguson said.

He said eliminating DEI standards could potentially hinder efforts to hire more diverse faculty, but if the bill passes, Ferguson said he would be more worried about how to assess a “non-diverse” applicant’s views of diversity as it relates to a secondary education role.

“How do you gauge their impact on the environment that they’re in, from both student and colleague’s perspective, if you can’t speak to that, as straightforward as diversity statements?” Ferguson said.

The percentage of Black students at MU has decreased steadily since 2015 when the student population was just more than 7% Black. In 2022, 5.5% of MU’s students were Black. Hispanic and Latino students make up 5.3% of the student population while Asian students are just below 3% as of 2022.

However, MU data does show that the number of Black, Hispanic and Asian faculty members have increased since 2015. Asian employees make up 18% of ranked professional faculty, while Hispanic or Latino employees are at 5% as of 2022. Just more than 4% of ranked faculty did not specify their race and .1% were multiple races or ethnicities.

The percentage of white faculty has decreased about 8.7% since 2015, when 76% of MU’s faculty was white.

Christian Basi, a spokesperson for MU, did not comment on the legislation because it is pending but said in a statement that the university does not have a policy regarding DEI statements and does not discriminate based on any status protected by state or federal laws.

“When hiring, we advertise our positions broadly to encourage as many qualified candidates to apply as possible,” the statement said. “The University of Missouri hires talented faculty from all over the U.S. and the world to achieve excellence in student success, research breakthroughs and meaningful engagement. Our faculty are also committed to an inclusive and welcoming environment for everyone. We do not compromise on quality.”

Conservatives in red states across the country have targeted DEI standards, arguing that the policies treat white people unfairly. Last month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state agency and public university leaders to ban DEI hiring policies, arguing they violate federal and state employment laws.

Lawmakers in other states, such as Florida, have filed bills that would ban all DEI initiatives at universities, including curriculum. The Florida legislation would remove “any major or minor in Critical Race Theory, Gender Studies, or Intersectionality, or any derivative major or minor of these belief systems.”

Rebecca Graves, an MU librarian and former chair of the Inclusion, Diversity & Equity Committee, said the Missouri legislation would be detrimental to the university’s efforts to hire diverse staff.

“It’s basically saying we only want to hire people who look a certain way and think a certain way and follow a certain line,” said Graves, who was not speaking on behalf of the university or the committee.

Graves said that she thinks the legislation will cause people to think twice about coming to Missouri.

Ferguson, the Legion of Black Collegians president, acknowledged that there are challenges to recruiting Black faculty to MU, such as drawing them to mid-Missouri. However, he said efforts could be stronger.

“It is disappointing and disheartening. Because it feels like it’s not as much of a priority, and the impact that diversity has on the student experience is important,” Ferguson said.

Connor, the assistant sociology professor, said he’s heard some criticism that institutions that require DEI statements don’t actually read them or, if they do read them, they evaluate them differently. But, he said, the statements are useful when hiring at a university that represents such a diverse population.

“As an educator, you have got to be able to speak to a wide audience and that’s hard,” he said. “That statement, when done correctly, I think can communicate how you teach, how you navigate these complex issues.”

Basi, the MU spokesperson, said the university always casts a wide net when hiring.

“We always want to make sure that we find the very best candidate and we’re doing that by reaching out as far and as wide as we can,” he said.

He said diversity includes a variety of attributes and the university wants to have a broad representation on campus and provide a welcoming environment for everyone on campus.

Minority faculty members are underrepresented nationwide. In fall 2020, nearly three-quarters of full-time faculty at degree-granting postsecondary institutions were white, according to data released in 2022 by the National Center for Education Statistics.

Mizzou has a slightly larger percentage of Black faculty members than Kansas’ two largest universities. Black faculty members accounted for 3.1% at the University of Kansas, including its medical center, compared to white faculty members at 72.5%, according to 2022 data.

Meanwhile, Kansas State University’s percentage of Black faculty in 2022 was 2.1%, while white faculty members accounted for 75%. Black people make up just more than 6% of Kansas’ population.

Republicans target diversity efforts in state agencies

Mizzou students and faculty members who spoke with The Star said they fear the legislation would also hurt efforts to attract other communities, including LGBTQ employees and students.

May Hall, a transgender senior at MU, said when there are problems in hiring a diverse staff, it will inevitably affect student behavior.

“I wouldn’t want to come to a school that had no one like me, like if it was an un-diverse campus. (...) As a trans person, I wouldn’t feel safe within a campus that had no rep. whatsoever,” Hall said.

Hall, who uses she/they pronouns, said as a transgender and disabled person on campus, she feels tolerated at best. Hall said the university’s support feels tenuous and accommodations for their disability can be difficult to navigate or slow to be approved.

Hall said if the effort to increase diversity in faculty was hindered, it would surely affect the culture of inclusion on campus.

“There’s a really wide splash zone on the people affected by removing these protections,” Hall said.

The focus on university DEI efforts comes as some Republicans are also beginning to target diversity efforts within state government. Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a Republican expected to run for governor, last week criticized a job posting for a “Diversity, Belonging and Inclusion Leader” within the state Department of Natural Resources.

“Jobs designed to push left-wing indoctrination in the workplace are the wrong use of taxpayer dollars,” Ashcroft tweeted along with a screenshot of the posting.

A state jobs database indicates a few executive branch agencies, including the Missouri Department of Transportation, have diversity-oriented positions. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is currently advertising for a “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Specialist.”

According to the posting, the DEI specialist will co-lead DESE’s standing DEI committee. “We are an organization with a good foundation in diversity, equity and inclusion that wants to continue to grow,” the posting says.

Connor, the MU assistant professor, said there’s a lot of diversity in Missouri but the proposed legislation – and similar actions by local governments and state agencies – reinforce stereotypes about the state.

“It looks really bad for the state and for the university because it kind of reifies that image that some people have about Missouri,” he said.

Star reporter Jonathan Shorman contributed to this story.