It’s no secret that UO has struggled with diversifying its student population. It’s a predominantly White university that likes to promote itself as being diverse, when in actuality it isn’t. The majority of the undergraduate student population is White. UO consists of 59.2% White students, while students of color make up 33.7%, according to the Office of Institutional Research. It’s no different for graduate students. Only 23.2% of grad students are students of color, while 64.1% are White. It doesn’t help that students of color lack representation in their classrooms when the majority of UO staff is white. Only 17% of UO’s staff are People of Color. 

Related: “Guest Viewpoint: UO’s diversity is a lie”

Diversity in the classroom is very important for students. The teaching force for public and private elementary and high schools in the U.S. was 80% White and 77% female in 2016, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. This leaves a lot of room for implicit and explicit bias in the classrooms where Black and Brown children are treated harshly in comparison to their White classmates, and their potential goes unrecognized. According to an article from Vanderbilt University, they’re less likely to be encouraged to go into advanced programs in math and reading even if they have high standardized test scores. This has extremely negative impacts on the way students perform in the classroom and discourages them from advancing further in their education. 

The only solution to this problem is to start diversifying our teacher force. A 2017 John Hopkins University study found that students of color benefit greatly when they have teachers that look like them. By just having one Black teacher in third through fifth grade, Black students’ probability of dropping out of school reduced by 29%, and for low-income Black boys, odds of dropping out fell by 39%. It’s been shown that Black students who have Black teachers tend to have higher test scores and are more likely to be interested in pursuing college. Specifically, low-income Black students that had at least one Black teacher in third, fourth or fifth grade were less likely to drop out of school and 19% more likely to show interest in going to college. 

It’s obvious that representation in the classroom has a profound effect on students of color which is why it’s important that UO works to diversify its staff. This past October, UO Provost and Senior Vice President Patrick Phillips announced a new diversity plan, which includes an $11 million research and policy plan that will focus on racial disparities and resilience. The center will open 12 faculty positions spread across campus. The center’s research will focus on racial disparities in health, education, housing, employment and wealth. On top of this, departments that are historically underrepresented will open up six new positions for Black and Brown faculty members. 

As of right now, there are no Black faculty in UO’s science department, which shows how important representation should be in each department, not just Black Studies or Indigenous, Race and Ethnic Studies. Alex De Vertuil was the first Black PhD student in Phillips’ biology lab in 2020. She recognized how White UO’s science department was and created Students of Color, Opportunities for Research Enrichment. She created an environment where students of color could ask questions and talk about science while also feeling like they belonged. They also were able to learn from someone that represented them. 

It’s empowering for students of color to have representation in the classroom. Through this research and policy plan, UO will address systemic racism and biases that affect staff and students of color on campus. For once, UO will actually work toward creating a more diverse and inclusive campus that will address and slowly diminish the opportunity gap for students of color. Representation truly does matter when it comes to students’ academic success in elementary school, high school and college. All students deserve classroom representation. UO is notorious for being a predominantly White campus that has done little to nothing to solve the issue of racial disparities on its campus. Now, it’s finally doing something right and taking the necessary steps toward inclusion and diversity.