Ethnic Disparities Plague Universities

A University of Oklahoma (OU) study released last week found that minorities are underrepresented at major research universities across the country.

The study—based on a survey of the National Science Foundation’s top-100 universities in each of the 15 academic disciplines—also predicted that the gap between minority representation in the general population and in academia will have a direct effect on the thinking and scientific practices of future generations.

“We’ve been looking at the diversity in faculties for several years now, originally we were doing this but focusing on women because there seemed to be more interest in that,” said the study’s principal author, Donna J. Nelson, a professor of chemistry at OU. “We felt like, from our previous studies, minorities are a little farther behind.”

Undergraduate leaders of minority student groups said that the lack of minorities in the sciences can be felt in the lecture halls of the Science Center.

A J Garcia ’09, president of the Harvard College Latinos in Health Careers (HCLHC), said that between a quarter and a half of all Latino freshman have an interest in science, but only 5 percent of them choose the pre-medical track.

“We are trying to give people the tools to stick with it and pursue careers in medicine,” Garcia said.

The OU study also found that there were proportionally more minorities in associate professor positions than there are full professors, which Garcia suggested makes it difficult for interested minority students to find mentors within the field.

“I don’t believe that Harvard necessarily promotes the mentorship between Latino faculty and students,” he said. “There aren’t a lot of Latino faculty members.”

Harvard Society of Black Scientists and Engineers President Devin D. Smith ’09 said it was important to put minority students in touch with science professionals to serve as role models.

“Mentoring is on of the most important things because you need to see yourself in that position,” he said. “They can offer advice to you that other people in that position cannot.”

Smith said that he has seen an increase in the number of black students in his classes over the course of the past two years.

“It is very hard to be a black student and sit in a large lecture and see like two other black students in that setting,” he said. “But in the last two years I have seen the number of black students in my science classes double.”

Nelson’s study is a way of planning for important changes in the future, she said.

“I think you need to know where you are and where you want to go before you can plan a path,” she said.

—Staff writer Noah S. Bloom can be reached at nsbloom@fas.harvard.edu.