A new study by Helen Brown-Liburd of Rutgers University and Jennifer R. Joe of the University of Delaware offers data on the number of faculty members from underrepresented groups who are teaching accounting at the nation’s leading business schools.
The data shows that there are 211 Black faculty members teaching accounting at the nation’s business schools. They make up just 3.2 percent of all faculty at these schools. Of the 211 Black faculty members, 107 are women and 104 are men.
Among the 60 highest-ranked business schools, Texas A&M University led all schools with 5 accounting faculty from underrepresented groups. They made up 12 percent of the total accounting faculty. The University of Virginia and Cornell University had higher percentages of accounting faculty from underrepresented groups but a smaller total number. Some 36 of the nation’s leading business schools had no faculty members from underrepresented groups who were teaching accounting.
Of the business schools at R1 universities, there were 189 accounting faculty from underrepresented groups. Of these 12 had earned their Ph.D. at Texas A&M University. No other business school had graduated more than eight faculty members from underrepresented groups who currently teach accounting at R1 universities.
Dr. Brown-Liburd is an associate professor of accounting and information systems at Rutgers Business school. She a graduate of Baruch College of the City University of New York and earned a Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Jennifer R. Joe is the Whitney Family Professor of Accounting at the business school of the University of Delaware. She is a graduate of Baruch College of the City University of New York and earned a Ph.D. in accounting at the University of Pittsburgh.
More than most subjects, Accounting is time-consuming and requires persistence and self-discipline, as well as above-average cognitive ability.
Until recently, many, if not most Accounting faculty seemed to have the attitude that only certain kinds of students would “fit in” at major Accounting firms and in Accounting departments. So they found ways to discourage “unsuitable” individuals.
The profession has a high percentage of entrants from blue-collar families, and from upwardly mobile families that have been middle class for no more than one generation. Get the picture?
I don’t see blacks ever accounting for more than 5% of the certified accountants (CPAs) in this country. As for blacks who have the fortitude to apply to doctoral programs, good luck finding a dissertation committee that isn’t out to make trouble for you.
In other words, so long as a so-called Black American is clever and deceptive enough he/she can manage to successfully navigate a doctoral program at the institutionally racist PWIs. Further, it appears that some people are accustomed to presenting themselves as a non-people in majority White environments. Sad.