Few minorities in Wharton faculty

Nationally, the number of minority faculty in business schools is lagging behind, and the Wharton School is no exception to the trend.

BusinessWeek reported last month that only 3.5 percent of business-school faculty are black, Latino or American Indian. Wharton’s percentage of underrepresented minorities is only slightly better at 5 percent.

According to the Jan. 27 article, the only minority group that has been well represented in business school faculties are Asians, a fact that holds true at Wharton. While blacks constitute roughly 2.8 percent of the faculty and Hispanics are 2.3 percent, Asians make up 11.9 percent of Wharton’s faculty.

These numbers are not unusual for a top business school. At the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, there is an even larger discrepancy — underrepresented minorities make up only 3.7 percent of the faculty, while Asian Americans constitute 18.7 percent.

Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management have slightly higher percentages of underrepresented minority faculty members, with 6.3 percent and 9.4 percent respectively.

At Wharton, these figures are a cause for concern.

“There certainly should be a greater number of people of color and women on Wharton faculty,” Wharton professor Kenneth Shropshire said.

“There’s no academic in the President and Provost’s office that is African American or Hispanic. We need to have a more diverse presence of leadership,” he added.

“I don’t know a single Hispanic faculty member,” Natalie Garcia said, a second year Master of Business Administration student. “Both in students and professors, Wharton absolutely should be more diverse.”

However, despite this complaint, Wharton students claim that their school welcomes diversity.

“People are not at all prejudiced. Everyone is very open-minded,” said second year MBA student Alain Saade, who is co-president of the Wharton Arabia Club.

“We are one big happy family at Wharton,” second year MBA student, Rashad McCloud said, although he would like to see more black faculty.

“I’m sure that it’s only a matter of time before it happens,” he added.

Shropshire said he is already seeing signs of progress.

“In the past couple years, the school has been focused on the issue. There are some signs that progress is being made in this recruiting year,”

The way to recruit minority faculty is the same for all ethnicities, Shropshire said, adding that Wharton must appeal to individuals.

“We need to take the time to find these people and target them. We need to figure out what it takes to recruit them,” he said. “There is no universal strategy for all Hispanics, or all blacks.”

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