DOES CAL LUTHERAN NEED TO MAKE AN EFFORT TO DIVERSIFY IT'S FACULTY?

For Cal Lutheran student, Nicole Thompson, coming to a school where a range of diverse staff members were accessible was vital.

“In many years of my education, I haven’t always [had the chance] to learn from someone who looked like me,” said Thompson. “It was something I think I never saw as important because no one tried to make that difference for me.”

Thompson for most of her life grew up in predominantly white suburban areas, and nonetheless attended schools that reflected those standards. “I had one black teacher in the third grade, and haven’t had one since then.” For most students of ethnic communities, seeing a teacher that looks like them may give them the motivation to want to be involved in the academic community.

“If I had a teacher who looked like me I think they would just understand what it really is to live in my shoes a little better. Going to school is to better my life in the future, but it doesn’t help that all my teachers will never really understand me,” said Thompson.

At CLU, according to College Factual, the staff remains a strong 71 percent caucasian, while the rest is left to smaller ethnic communities. In recent years, CLU has managed to increase its diverse student population, but hasn’t budged in staff diversity.

From a student's perspective, CLU is attracting more ethnic students every year at a constant rate. In 2013, 25 percent of the student body labeled themselves as Hispanic, which ultimately designated CLU a Hispanic Speaking Institution. Today Hispanics make up 27 percent of the entire student body here at CLU.

Due to the fact that CLU has seen a great change in student diversity enrollment, it has made an effort to hire two new diverse members into the teaching force. That could be why CLU students of the ethnic community sometimes decide to transfer to other education institutions.

Both new hires came from Hispanic backgrounds, and were also first generation college graduates. They equally showed much gratitude for the university welcoming them into the school’s STEM program, which now works in correlation with the HSI. Their presence at the school, in their opinion, might now aid in positive impacts on hispanic students in the future. Whether or not the school will continue this process of diversifying the staff is something they couldn’t quite comment on.

While there are efforts in the Hispanic community, some students have taken low staff diversity into their own hands.

Former CLU student, Natriya Chinnapongse, left the school during her Sophomore year and now attends Loyola Marymount. “I was tired of seeing kids of only one community, and then having to learn with those same kids from a teacher that probably didn’t understand who I was.”

“For me, it felt like I was walking around a campus that I didn’t feel apart of, or even any connection to whatsoever. At LMU I am able to find teachers like me and students who understand my Asian customs and backgrounds without feeling like an outsider or misunderstood,” said Chinnapongse.

She expressed that she didn’t think they will truly change until they start to lose more students in the future. If they aren’t seeing a problem, in her opinion, then they won’t really try to make any big changes.

AT LMU only 52 percent of staff are caucasian, while the remaining are spread out into a multitude of differing ethnicities. So the question would be then, why does CLU have such a hard time finding a diverse staff? Is it due to their hiring board presenting a personal bias? Or is it just that the white candidates are stronger candidates?

For past graduate Ashley Thompson, racial diversity in the staff didn’t stop her from graduating with honors and getting into the computer analytical program at San Diego State.

“I think that if I [had] a black teacher it would’ve been nicer, but I don’t think it really would've changed my drive to do well in my classes at CLU. There kids like me who don’t really need guidance because my parents didn’t raise me to solely rely on black figures, because most of the time they aren’t always going to be shown to you,” said Thompson.

“For the other kids who never got the guidance [I think] it is imperative that schools make the effort to supply teachers who can actually relate and understand their struggles so they can hopefully find some success.”

CLU remains a very highly ranked academic institution, but we will see in the future if it will start hiring staff members from all backgrounds, not just from a white canvas.

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