A new survey of faculty at the University of Missouri conducted by the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education at Harvard University, finds that Black and other minority faculty members are less satisfied with their jobs than their White peers.
Only 57 percent of faculty of color said that they were “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with the jobs. Nearly one fifth of all faculty of color said they were “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied.”
In contrast, 70 percent of White faculty were “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with the jobs while 14 percent were “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied.”
Craig Roberts, a professor of plant science and chair of the Faculty Council, stated that the University of Missouri “needs to look at what is causing this dissatisfaction and see if they can address it. I don’t detect it as racism in the university’s faculty; it’s something else, and we need to figure out what it is. The Ivory Tower is not the Ebony Tower. We need to find out why and fix it.”
