Bill mandates diverse faculty

By Melissa Mixon

A bill that would ensure public universities in Texas employ faculty and staff that are reflective of the state population was left pending Monday during a Senate subcommittee meeting on higher education.State Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-Mission, authored Senate Bill 1643 to require the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to develop a strategy for universities to use in recruiting and hiring minorities.Universities would then be required to implement strategies for recruiting and retaining minority faculty and staff. Each year universities would be required to report to the board how they are implementing their developed strategies. In a statement read by state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, Hinojosa said Hispanics make up 30 percent of the Texas population. Out of this number, he said Hispanics make up 4.8 percent of the faculty and 10 percent of the staff at institutions of higher education. His statement said blacks make up 10 percent of the Texas population while only 4 percent are employed as faculty and 2 percent as staff at universities in Texas.In support of the bill, Javier Olguin, vice president of the Texas Association of Chicanos on Higher Education, said universities need faculty to reflect the state's demographics in order to achieve success.

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