Progression of Black Faculty

Historically the University of Georgia has been known as a predominantly white school in both their faculty and students.

Seven years after the desegregation of UGA, Richard Graham became the first full-time African-American faculty member. He began his career at UGA as a visiting professor at the School of Music and after a year became part of the faculty. He later became director of the school in 1994.

In 1980, the Black Faculty and Staff Organization was formed to create a positive environment for minority students. The idea of the organization was to help students appreciate African-American History while giving them an environment to grow in their culture.

“Considering history and the civil rights movement during that time period it’s amazing that he was hired in the 1960’s at all, especially in such a conservative state like Georgia,” says Danielle Davison a black UGA sophomore.

Black faculty have an important role in recruiting and encouraging minority students. According to the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (JBHE) Research Department, only five flagship state universities out of the nation’s 50 have more than 100 black faculty members. UGA can be found with 167 black faculty in 2006.

“I am the only African American faculty at Grady which is really disappointing, and I think something should be done about it obviously,” said Valerie Boyd, Associate Professor at UGA.

According to the Office of Institutional Research at UGA, the black faculty percentage in Fall 2000 was 4.9% compared to 5.3% in Fall 2010.

“If we make an intention to make the faculty more diverse then we would recruit differently,” said Boyd, “We would be more aggressive about trying to find a diverse faculty to reflect the diverse demographics of the state.”

The US Census Bureau indicates that the black percentage for the state of Georgia in 2009 was 30.2% which is well above UGA’s black faculty percentage.

“It is important to let people know that the UGA is more than an educational institution it is also an employer,” says Director for Programs and Outreach, Vanessa Smith who has spent the last 26 years working for UGA.

Smith has seen UGA make efforts to improve faculty of color on campus at career fairs, but has noticed people of color are just not applying. “If there were no people of color applying then you can’t hire if they don’t apply,” states Boyd.

Progression in black faculty can be found, but still needs to be improved. “I think their have been efforts made,” says Smith, “I still think we have a ways to go.”