More than one-third of the nation’s workers are people of color. So are more than one-fourth of America’s college students. But the percentage of racial/ethnic minorities who are faculty in higher education is a small fraction of the total. Nationally, about 5 percent are African-American and about 2 percent are Hispanic.

The primary reason that there are not enough racial/ethnic minority faculty members is that too few minorities earn doctoral degrees and choose to become members of the teaching and research staffs at colleges and universities.

The Southern Regional Education Board’s Doctoral Scholars Program is part of a nationwide initiative, the Compact for Faculty Diversity, to produce more minority Ph.D.s and to encourage them to seek faculty positions. The compact provides minority doctoral candidates with academic and financial support as well as personal guidance, support and counseling.

We begin this report with a brief description of the long-standing problem. More importantly, we highlight what SREB states and the SREB are doing to solve it and what state leaders can do to support their state’s efforts.

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