This community college has 1 full-time Black faculty member out of 165. Why campuses struggle with diversity

Cal Matters ^ | January 4, 2024 | Adam Echelman

[artichokegrower]

At Cabrillo College near Santa Cruz, Nikia Chaney stands out. You can spot her bright pink hair from a distance. She’s also the only Black professor out of the community college’s 165 tenured or tenure-track faculty.

“When I first got hired in 2019, I didn’t look up the demographics of the school or anything like that. I was just really happy I had a full time job,” she said. But after arriving on campus, she started to feel isolated. “You don’t have faculty members who look like you,” she said.

[artichokegrower]

For Chaney, the experience was untenable. She said her daughter was one of only a few Black students in her elementary school and was often bullied by other students. After living in Santa Cruz County on and off for two years, she decided to move back near friends and family near San Bernardino, where the Black community is also much larger.

“I need to be in a town where people look like me,” she said. Now, she flies in once a week for classes and campus programs.

She flies in once a week to teach a class. Hope we aren't paying her too much to do this

Nikia Chaney Umoja Coord (191) Cabrillo College, $183,194.12

Never mind.

[TheDon]

In kind preference. I’m the same way.

[Jonty30]

Because we aren’t letting people go with their talents. The education community wants every department and every class to represent everybody, when it cannot do that and still teach competence.

[Lurker]

“I need to be in a town where people look like me,” she said.”

How very racist of her.

L

[V_TWIN]

The nfl and nba is predominantly made up of blacks......sounds like they struggle with diversity as well

[oil_dude]

And I’ll bet people actually get educated there, not indoctrinated.

[dfwgator]

“I need to be in a town where people look like me,” she said.”

---

Segregation Today
Segregation Tomorrow
Segregation Forever

[Lurker]

When white people do it it’s racist.

When black people do it it’s okay.

L

[Sacajaweau]

White is the enemy. That’s what they’re being taught.

[Liz]

I hear Claudine Gay is applying for the black pink-haired lady’s job.

[eyeamok]

Compton could use somebody with her skills...

[caver]

I worked in a large corporation that was full of engineers. There were only a handful of American blacks, probably less than one out ten whites, yet there were many orientals and latinos and african blacks.

[dfwgator]

Does she speak Spanish? Because Compton today is primarily Hispanic.

[Responsibility2nd]

In a world where blacks are kept tied to poverty, ignorance and infighting on the black plantations, it’s hard for pink haired professors to advance.

If only there was some way to resolve this.

(enter Trump)

[SauronOfMordor]

Colleges are desperate to hire black faculty, to where any moderately literate black gets tenure track.

Or becomes president of Harvard.

[Responsibility2nd]

 “You don’t have faculty members who look like you,” she said.

 

Really? The faculty members don't look like this? They must be raycis

[babble-on]

Well-behaved, educated blacks can all get better jobs than working at a community college. Exception being an Umoja Coordinator who gets 183k a year for 1 day a week. That’s a really good job.

[Responsibility2nd]

Nikia Chaney Umoja Coord

“Does she speak Spanish?”

My guess is she’s fluent in Wakandan.

[Karliner]

There aren’t that many blacks in Santa Cruz county. Maybe Wilkes circle and Seaside. It has always been whites, hispanic and Japanese.

[texas booster]

“I need to be in a town where people look like me,” she said.”

And other races get criticized on everything from family makeup to family gatherings, as being to "mono-culture".