Lack of Diverse Hiring: To The Detriment of Students

Recent reports have suggested a sharp disparity in the diversity efforts of many of the country’s community colleges. It has been found that a majority of the positions of leadership at community colleges are filled by administrators with little to no commitment to increasing diversity among staff members. As a result, many of the country’s community colleges have failed to create a diverse and equitable workforce.

This troubling lack of diversity has been has been compounded by the fact that the majority of positions within the educational field are highly competitive. This has created a situation in which those with diversity credentials are often overlooked for more established candidates. Furthermore, many of the hiring practices used by community colleges have been found to favor certain types of applicants over others. These practices, when coupled with a lack of commitment to diversity, have led to disproportionately low numbers of racially diverse administrators and faculty members in many of the country’s community colleges.

This failure in diversity efforts by these institutions has far-reaching implications. A workforce that is not diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, and gender can have detrimental impacts on the educational environment. Students of marginalized backgrounds may feel unwelcome in environments where they are continually underrepresented.

In order to make progress on this issue, community colleges must take steps to ensure that individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds are represented in positions of leadership. Creating a workforce that is more reflective of the communities they serve can have a positive impact on the educational opportunities available to students of all backgrounds.

It is vitally important that community colleges work to foster an environment in which diversity is embraced, rather than ignored. Without significant progress on this issue, many of the issues associated with inequality in higher education are likely to persist. It is the responsibility of community colleges to prioritize the recruitment of diverse administrators and faculty members in order to ensure equitable learning opportunities for all students.