Within the past few months, the university and campus culture shifted. There are voices speaking and students working in ways that the administration can no longer ignore. Now change is happening, or so we are inclined to believe.

Aside from all of the town hall meetings, steering committees and replacement COPA shows, there is another problem that has already been identified, but that has left without answers.

There is a noticeable lacking in faculty diversity.

Students of color have endured class after class with very few professors with whom they can identify. When the campus-wide conversation shifts to equality and inclusion, the lack of diversity within the faculty should be a more prominent issue.

At President Hennigan’s first town hall meeting, hosted right after the cancellation of “Adding Machine,” students asked if diversifying the faculty would be possible. However, very little answers were provided. In short, students were told that this process would take quite a while. And this may be true. Since this meeting, there has been relative silence on this issue. Committees are being formed and Playhouse seasons are being changed, but diversity still remains an issue.

Students brought up another problem, saying that it would be unfair for the university to add faculty of color in an environment that is not supportive of people of color. This creates a circular issue – more faculty of color are needed for the well-being of students, and yet, adding faculty of color may be harmful to those individuals.

So, there is much to consider when working to solve this problem, but we aren’t going to get anywhere unless we begin to solve it in the first place.