As a school in the prestigious University of California (UC) system, UCI holds achievements such as being named a Hispanic, Asian American and Native American/Pacific Islander-serving institution, as well as ranking third among top colleges in the Western United States for diversity. However, the university’s faculty diversity does not reflect UCI’s diverse student body.
With multiple culture-specific organizations and resources, UCI leads the way in diversifying higher education institutions. With roughly 27,000 undergraduate students enrolled for the 2022-23 school year, UCI’s diversity statistics for the year were reflective of its efforts toward inclusivity. According to a graphic developed by the UCI Advance Program for Equity and Diversity, 28.8% of undergraduates were underrepresented minorities (URMs). This includes students that identify as American Indian or Alaskan Native, Black, Hispanic/Latino, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. By comparison, 58.2% of undergraduates were defined as non-URM, meaning they identify as Asian/Asian American, White (non-Hispanic), two or more ethnicities or unknown/declined to state. The remaining 13.1% was defined as international or those without domestic citizenship status.
Photo from UCI ADVANCE Program for Equity and Diversity
These statistics helped to showcase the results of inclusive action amongst UCI’s undergraduate student body, a main goal and key role of the Office of Inclusive Excellence (OIE). But, despite the diversity of the student population, faculty statistics at UCI do not meet this same level.
During the fall 2021 quarter, UCI held 1,551 ladder-rank faculty, defined by the UC as those that can be promoted to tenure or equivalent status. UCI also recorded having employed 1,264 other teaching staff, 3,328 non-teaching academics and 12,825 non-academic staff. Out of 2,610 faculty members, only 10.9% of them were defined as URM during the 2021-2022 school year, with that number increasing only slightly to 11.5% in the 2022-23 school year. By comparison, 87.6% of faculty at UCI were defined as non-URM in the 2021-22 school year with the remaining 1.5% being defined as international with those numbers decreased to 87.2% and 1.2% respectively.
Photo from UCI ADVANCE Program for Equity and Diversity
Faculty members consist of lecturers, professors, researchers and more, each employed to assist students on their journey through higher education over the course of their attendance at UCI. Yet, there exists a diversity gap between the student body and faculty despite UCI’s inclusivity and diversity efforts.
To address and mobilize their inclusive efforts, the OIE, which is currently overseen by Interim Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Rodrigo Lazo and Assistant Vice Chancellor Marguerite Bonous-Hammarth, work to find solutions for diversity and equity at the institution. The main responsibility of the office is to serve as the principal supervisor and reference for all matters regarding diversity amongst the undergraduate, graduate and professorial populations. To gather a better understanding of OIE, the New University spoke with Lazo, who explained the approach the office takes for diversification from an administrative level.
“UCI is a large university, and a lot of what goes on, particularly once you get to the level of faculty and graduate students, is very specific to departments and schools,” Lazo said. “So, we are often trying to support people who are making a [real] change on the ground because there is no way that one office operating at [an] administrative level can have an effect on every single part of UCI.”
OIE supports inclusive efforts through the implementation of programs like Diverse Educational Community and Doctoral Experience (DECADE), the ADVANCE Program and its subset, the Equity Advisors program, which appoints an equity advisor for each school as an assistant to the dean in diversifying the candidate process for new hires. These programs try to ensure that the efforts of inclusivity extend beyond the undergraduate population. When asked about the goals OIE had for further diversifying the faculty population, Lazo discussed the roadblock that OIE must consider when discussing further diversification.
“Some years ago, the people of California voted for something called Proposition 209…That proposition prevents us from focusing on specific groups so because of that, we often talk about the need to diversify the population, […improving] how we look demographically without [explicitly stating] a target number,” Lazo said.
Proposition 209, titled the Affirmative Action Initiative, was approved by voters in November 1996, adding Section 31 to the California Constitution’s Declaration of Rights. It is designed to “eliminate state and local government affirmative action programs in the areas of public employment, public education, and public contracting to the extent these programs involve ‘preferential treatment’ based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin,” as defined by the California Legislative Analyst’s Office. While implemented to avoid discrimination in the workplace, it also legally limits or eliminates affirmative action programs in the process. So though these implemented programs make sure individuals from underrepresented groups reach candidacy, it is clear from faculty statistics that efforts beyond this point begin to contend with the limits of the law.
To gather a student’s perspective, a New University reporter distributed a survey via Instagram allowing students to detail their experience on campus with the lack of diversity amongst university faculty. Out of a sample of 20 volunteers, 75% stated that they interacted with on-campus cultural organizations and resources after not seeing themselves reflected in the classroom.
“[Joining a cultural organization] has definitely contributed greatly to my enjoyment and feelings of belonging here on campus. Last year I was not as involved with cultural organizations on campus and I felt on my own. This year I feel that I have found more people with whom I can identify with and relate to shared experiences,” an anonymous response read.
Though with numerous cultural resources available, some students still look for further change amongst the diversity of the faculty population. One student specifically discussed their hope to see more diversity amongst faculty outside of culture-specific studies departments as well.
“[Interacting with cultural organizations] has impacted my experience on campus because there is this feeling of these professors not truly understanding how isolating this campus can be. However, the resources that we have definitely help with that isolating feeling,” another response read. “It would be good to see myself in classrooms with Black professors more often. The two Black professors that I have had were in the African American Studies Department. Maybe we should think about why that is the case.”
Makyla McLeod is a Campus News Intern for the fall 2022 quarter. She can be reached at msmcleod@uci.edu.
