LONG BEACH -- Black and Latino teachers at California State University are underrepresented despite an increase in minority hiring by the nation's largest public university system over the past 16 years, according to a report released Wednesday.

The study, prepared by the California Research Bureau, examined the gender and ethnic makeup of CSU between 1985 and 2001.

Overall, the report said, the CSU has increased its number of minorities and women but still struggles to raise the numbers of traditionally underrepresented minorities to a level that reflects the state's population as a whole.

A separate report released by the California State University Office of the Chancellor in March 2003 showed that California State University, Monterey Bay, actually hired the largest percentage of African-American and Latino tenure track faculty of all the California State universities.

Twenty-five percent of CSUMB's appointments made in fall 2002 were members of underrepresented minorities and 6.3 percent were Asian. Just 12.3 percent of the new faculty hires by the entire California State system were African-American and Latino.

But those numbers can be deceiving said Holly White, the school's spokeswoman, because the school only hired 16 new faculty - of which two were African-American, two Latino and one Asian - and the other California State University campuses hired 43 new faculty on average.

"For the traditionally underrepresented groups ... the challenge of recruitment still remains, judging by the small number recruited and the low percentages," the report said. "The challenge for the CSU system is how to keep up with the rapidly changing demographics in California and at the local level."

With more than 400,000 students, the 23-campus system is the largest public university in the nation.

The report found the number of female faculty members increased from 31 percent in 1985 to 44 percent in 2000. It also found American Indians increased from 0.5 percent to 0.7 percent in 2001. They make up 1 percent of the state's population.

State Sen. Richard Alarcon, who chairs the Senate Select Committee on College and University Admissions and Outreach, ordered the report two years ago to gauge the makeup of CSU's faculty.

It was completed in April and made available Wednesday.

"We are one of the most diverse states in the union. We should have higher numbers," Alarcon said. "The CSU has to have more aggressive policy statements that are very strongly and clearly focused on diversity."

The San Fernando Valley Democrat said he plans to ask for similar reports on the University of California and the state's community colleges.

CSU spokeswoman Clara Potes-Fellow said the CSU system has made strides every year, adding that in 2002, which was not included in the report, 28 percent of new faculty hires were minority.

"We have made significant progress in increasing the representation of ethnic minority and women faculty, and want to see this trend continuing," she said.

Potes-Fellow said the CSU system also requires its faculty applicants to have the highest level of education, which typically means doctorate degrees.

Californian staff writer ETHAN DANIEL LINDSEY contributed to this report.