UF has continued to make known its desire to become one of the top 10 national institutions of higher learning. I commend the university for desiring to achieve this level of distinction. However, UF's administration seems to have eradicated the university's low number of minority faculty members. In 2008, less than 10 percent of our faculty body was black or Hispanic. While seeking to employ faculty members at the top of their fields at this institution, racial diversity must become a component.
As the university prepares to hire 100 additional faculty members, it should consider more minorities for these positions. If something is not done to recruit more minority faculty members, the top minority students will apply to other institutions that employ faculty members who look like them, thus putting on hold this university's rise to the top.
What good is a university when it cannot provide a racially diverse campus? This alone fails to prepare students for a multicultural society. From my perspective, it is fair to say that there is no university without diversity. Research indicates that when we improve the structural or racial diversity of an institution, we have also significantly improved the institution's climate.
We must provide all resources possible to focus on programs like the Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program, which seeks to encourage and prepare first-generation minority college students to earn their doctorates in hopes of one day becoming professors. In reiteration, racial diversity must be a priority if we are to serve as one of the leading institutions in the nation.
