EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was modified at 10 a.m. Monday, Aug. 15, to change two numbers that were reported incorrectly in the original story.
The changes were made to the total number of LU students last year, and the total number of faculty who are African American.
Lincoln University's faculty needs to be more diverse, President Kevin Rome told LU's faculty and staff last week during the annual Fall Institute.
"One of the things we have to deal with on our campus and in our country is this whole notion of race," Rome said during his 75-minute presentation. "And it's not an easy conversation.
"When we talk about diversity and we talk about our faculty, our faculty does not represent our student diversity.
"It just doesn't."
Rome said students ask him, "'Why don't we have more black faculty?'"
Rome's presentation included several statistics.
Of the 3,583 students enrolled at Lincoln last year, 1,421 were African American - or 39.66 percent of all students.
Another 1,725 were classified as "white," for 48.14 percent.
Among faculty, 34 of 156 teachers are African American, or 21.79 percent of all faculty.
Another 92 are Caucasian, for 58.97 percent.
Rome said: "It doesn't mean that we don't have great faculty - but it's something that our students talk about, and we can't ignore the conversation."
Among staff, Rome's PowerPoint presentation showed, 124 of 257 LU staff are African American, or 48.25 percent of all staff.
Another 115 staff are white, or 44.75 percent.
Women represent 55 percent of Lincoln's students but only 41.03 percent of the faculty, Rome said: "We have great diversity when it comes to gender.
"Now, we need to work on gender when it comes to having more female faculty members - we need to have more women teaching in our faculty."
Rome, starting his fourth year as Lincoln's 19th president, noted diversity is a subject he's "talked about since I've been here."
He noted a recent report exploring race relations in Baltimore showed: "There are two Baltimores - there's a black Baltimore and a white Baltimore."
While some may be surprised by that statistic, he said, most African Americans aren't.
"Seriously, there's a different experience" among different racial groups, he said, "a very different experience - some of us realize that. Some of us know that."
Rome said the national conversation needs to focus on the human race.
"We will see things through our own lens, and it's based on how we're socialized, where we grew up, what we believe, our religion," he said. "There are so many factors that lead into it, but it's something we have to acknowledge.
"And it's been a part of Lincoln for many, many years - and I say to people, we haven't dealt with it well. We haven't.
"We don't address it."
In the past, Rome has told the News Tribune he agrees with the comments of Wendell Rayburn - LU's 16th president - who said some 25 years ago Lincoln was perhaps the most integrated school in the nation.
During his presentation Thursday, Rome told faculty and staff: "We could be the strongest university in the country, based on our diversity. We could be a model for the world because we have diversity.
"We have the numbers. But how do we really interact and address it?
"What do we instill in our students when they leave here - are they really prepared to deal with the reality of the world?"
Rome announced the appointment of Rolundus Rice as Lincoln's new chief diversity officer and assistant provost for academic affairs and strategic initiatives.
Rice has a doctorate in history from Auburn University in Alabama and most recently has been Talladega College's dean of Humanities and Fine Arts.
When students ask why LU doesn't have more black faculty members, Rome said, "I can't do what they did at some other institutions, and say, 'There's nothing we can do about it.'
"That didn't work well for our sister institution. It didn't."
Last October, a group called "Concerned Student 1950" protested at the University of Missouri in Columbia, challenging leaders there to right the racial wrongs that existed at the school for years.
Rome said Thursday: "Our students shouldn't have to protest to get something that should just happen."
Concerned Student 1950's protests eventually resulted in the resignation of MU System President Tim Wolfe and the re-assignment of Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin.
Retired professor and former Deputy Chancellor Mike Middleton currently serves as the interim president, while the University of Missouri's curators continue looking for someone to take over the spot permanently.
Meanwhile, MU has a diversity officer reviewing the eight demands Concerned Student 1950 made almost a year ago, which include:
- Wolfe, write a handwritten apology to students and acknowledge his "white male privilege," recognizing "that systems of oppression exist."
- Wolfe be removed immediately as the UM system president. He resigned. But Concerned Student 1950 also demanded curators amend the statewide university's policies to require "all future UM system president and Chancellor positions be selected by a collective of students, staff and faculty of diverse backgrounds."
- The University of Missouri meet the Legion of Black Collegians' demands made in 1969 "for the betterment of the black community."
- MU create and enforce "comprehensive racial awareness and inclusion curriculum throughout all campus departments and units," to be mandatory "for all students, faculty, staff and administration," with a curriculum "vetted, maintained and overseen by a board comprised of students, staff and faculty of color."
- By the start of the 2017-18 academic year, MU increase the percentage of black faculty and staff campuswide to 10 percent.
- MU compose a strategic, 10-year plan by last May 1 to increase "retention rates for marginalized students, sustain diversity curriculum and training, and promote a more safe and inclusive campus."
- MU increase funding and resources for the University of Missouri Counseling Center for the purpose of hiring additional mental health professionals - particularly those of color - to boost "mental health outreach and programming across campus, increasing campuswide awareness and visibility of the counseling center, and reducing lengthy wait times for prospective clients."
- MU increase "funding, resources, and personnel for the social justices centers on campus, for the purpose of hiring additional professionals - particularly those of color - boosting outreach and programming across campus, and increasing campuswide awareness and visibility."
Rome said Thursday: "As I look around the country and I see the number of protests on college campuses and the amount of unrest of students - they're demanding the same things.
"Let's be pro-active on our campus. Let's not find ourselves in the news for reasons that we don't want to be in the news."
Rome welcomed Rice to his new job, telling him: "You have a hard job to do.
"We believe you can do it."
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