A new report from California’s Legislative Analyst Office has outlined demographic information regarding the state’s higher education workforce, including data on racial diversity trends among faculty and staff at three public state systems: the University of California system (UC), the California State University system (CSU), and California Community Colleges (CCC).
While there was an increase in Latino and Asian workers at the state’s three higher education systems, the overall share of Black faculty and staff at UC and CSU slightly decreased over the past decade. However, Black worker representation at CCC experienced a small increase since 2013. The share of White workers at all three systems decreased over the same time period.
Among tenured and tenure-track faculty at California’s public postsecondary institutions, Black, Latino, and Native American representation increased. The share of non-White faculty members was the smallest at UC and the most at CCC. Among CCC institutions, Black, Latino, and Native American early-career professors represented a combined 30 percent of tenure-track faculty hires in 2022.
The report found the largest increases in racial diversity at UC and CSU were at the assistant professor level. In 2012, the majority of tenure-track faculty hires at CSU were White. Ten years later, White assistant professors’ share of CSU tenure-track hires dropped to about one third.
The report also uncovered increases in racial diversity among UC’s medical resident staff. From 2013 to 2023, the share of UC medical residents who were White decreased, while the share of Latino and Black residents increased. Despite this progress, these two groups remain significantly underrepresented, with 12 percent of UC’s medical resident staff identifying as Latino and 5 percent identifying as Black.
