Most Americans Support a Diverse Faculty

Most Americans support the hiring of more faculty and staff members from diverse racial and ethnic groups. This finding holds true for all groups when the responses are broken down by demographics, with the strongest support coming from younger Americans and Americans of color. However, there is a stark partisan divide over the issue, with fewer than half of Republicans endorsing the idea.

These polling results come from New America’s seventh annual Varying Degrees survey, which was released in August. Varying Degrees considers how Americans feel about a variety of higher education issues related to value, funding, accountability, and equity and diversity. The 2023 survey comprises the responses of 1,497 adult Americans, with oversamples of Black, Latinx, and Asian Americans, to better understand their perspectives on education after high school.

This year’s survey included a question, for the first time, gauging Americans’ support for the hiring of diverse faculty. Nearly seven in ten (68 percent) Americans agreed that colleges should hire more faculty and staff of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, compared with just 29 percent who disagreed. Nearly one-third (30 percent) strongly agreed that a more diverse faculty is needed, while only about one-tenth (11 percent) strongly disagreed.

When the responses to this question are broken down by various demographics, we find that some groups of Americans support the increased hiring of diverse faculty at even higher rates. Generation Z is especially supportive of this idea, with 86 percent believing that colleges should hire more faculty from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Considering that Generation Z is more racially and ethnically diverse than previous generations, and that its members tend to have more positive views about societal change than older Americans, this is not surprising. Approximately seven in ten Baby Boomers (70 percent) and Millennials (69 percent) also support the hiring of diverse faculty.

Breaking responses down by race, the survey also finds that Black (85 percent) and Asian Americans (83 percent) agree at the highest rates that colleges should hire more racially diverse faculty and staff members. These rates of agreement are upwards of 20 points higher than the agreement rates of white (63 percent) Americans.

Despite the widespread support for faculty diversity, we find that there is a stark partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans on the issue. Nearly nine in ten Democrats (88 percent) agree that colleges should hire more faculty and staff from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, compared with less than half of Republicans (46 percent). It is not too surprising that more than half of Republicans oppose greater faculty diversity given that conservative governors and lawmakers have been attacking diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts at colleges.

Nearly two-thirds of Independents (64 percent) agree that colleges and universities should hire more racially diverse faculty and staff, while one-third (34 percent) disagree.

Colleges should take note that most Americans believe they should hire more faculty and staff members from diverse racial and ethnic groups. While some conservative politicians attack colleges’ DEI efforts, these individuals are clearly in the minority. Therefore, their loud voices should not drown out those of the vast majority of Americans who agree that colleges should strive to make their faculty and staff more diverse.