Jackie McClain
Vice Chancellor
Human Resources
California State University
Long Beach


In response to the AP story about minority representation among CSU faculty (June 26): The California State University system is proud of its steady growth in minority faculty hiring. Of 950 tenure-track appointments made in fall 2002, 269 -- 28% -- were ethnic minorities. That greatly exceeds the national pool of recent Ph.D. recipients, which is 19% minority.
At CSU campuses, faculty recruitment is conducted by faculty. Peers put much thought and effort into candidate research and selection. Stringent requirements are followed so that a qualified and diverse pool can be obtained, which can be difficult considering the limited number of underrepresented minorities with doctorates. For example, although Hispanics make up 31% of California's population, in the last five years, only 5% of the doctorates granted by California colleges and universities were awarded to Hispanics. Nationally it is 4%.

In spite of the challenge, Hispanic faculty appointments at CSU campuses at Los Angeles, Pomona, Northridge, Monterey Bay and Channel Islands were above 12% in 2002. The real challenge for the state and nation is to produce higher numbers of Ph.D.s among ethnic communities.

CSU's strong commitment to diversity will continue to yield higher numbers of minority faculty in the future.