Roberto Castillo and Sabrina Perez
CSUSB proudly wears its designation as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, a reflection of its vibrant, majority-minority student body. But a Coyote Chronicle analysis finds this diversity hits a stark ceiling: the professorial ranks. Despite years of initiatives and promises, a significant “representation gap” persists, where the ethnicity of the faculty standing at the front of the classroom fails to mirror the students sitting in it, raising critical questions about who gets to teach, mentor, and lead at one of California’s most diverse universities.
CSUSB is a centrally located University in the Inland Empire that has always been touted for its diversity and its accessible campus location. A walk around campus and anyone can see the vibrant presence of students from all regions and walks of life with similar goals and ambitions.
CSUSB is located in the heart of the Inland Empire which means that most of the students on campus are of Hispanic descent with White students coming in second. According to the CSUSB website database, Between 2016 and 2022 Hispanics have consistently accounted for about 70 to 75 percent of students on campus while the rest of the ethnicities fall short.
Compared to Faculty demographics, Whites account for most of the positions on Campus with almost no Hispanic faculty present between 2016 and 2022. Hispanic remains the leading student demographic over the course of 8 years , while the Hispanic demographic remains the lowest in faculty, reaching zero in 2022.
While looking across differing stats in ethnicities and genders among faculty, it definitely tells us a lot about the faculty demographic as well as how they intertwine with student demographic, and in which ways they may be lacking when it comes to representing different groups. When certain groups are underrepresented, it raises questions of whether both students and faculty are receiving adequate resources in higher education. A number of studies have shown a strong correlation between student performance and faculty representation. Accordingly these studies suggest that there is a likelihood of understanding of various behavior and culture among shared ethnicities and demographics. For example, a female teacher is more likely to understand a female student that a male teacher would. Not only are there clear gaps among student demographic categories, but there is also an obvious gap between gender demographic in faculty with males taking the reign over females. However, interestingly enough, women have been on a steady incline while the male demographic have seen changes throughout the years.
We can also see in the graph the impressive presence of Asian Scholars although they are underrepresented in the student population. African Americans are also moderately represented with 7 black faculty members on staff. Compared to the Hispanic population, African Americans are much represented by faculty.
The lack of Hispanic professors on campus may be due to the low percentage of Hispanic educational presence in California colleges in general. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics Hispanics only account for 3 percent of full-time faculty at degree-granting postsecondary institutions. In general, Hispanics don’t account for many college professors in California. Hispanics Professors are a rare breed and just difficult to come across.