UNM Diversity Office Audited

The University of New Mexico has launched an internal review of its diversity office after learning that many black students and faculty feel the school is a hostile environment.

The review of the university’s Division for Equity and Inclusion was begun last month and should be done by semester’s end, UNM spokeswoman Cinnamon Blair said. The division is in charge of promoting and fostering diversity on campus.

The review was launched after a study, commissioned by President David Schmidly and released last year, found most of the 69 African-American students, faculty and staff interviewed believe the campus black community is not treated fairly. The study also found that UNM had trouble retaining black faculty, and that many felt there were gaps in compensation when compared with other races or ethnicities.

About 2.8 percent of students and 1.6 percent of faculty at UNM are black, according to school statistics.

Meanwhile, a federal civil rights complaint filed against UNM by a group of black ministers is still under review, according to a U.S. Department of Education spokesman. The ministers accuse UNM of practicing “systematic and institutionalized” racism against black faculty and staff. The Department of Education will soon determine whether to launch a full investigation. If it finds any fault, UNM could lose millions in federal funding.

Schmidly has adamantly denied the claims.

“We do not discriminate against African-Americans. We do not discriminate against any individual or group based on race, religion, sexual orientation, age, gender or ability,” Schmidly said in a statement in November, when the civil rights complaint was filed.

Still, the treatment of blacks on campus is a contentious issue. A group of faculty and staff discussed the study during a forum last week.

Jamal Martin,an adjunct faculty member in Family and Community Medicine and Africana Studies, led the talk and focused on the health effects of discrimination against blacks on campus. He said the feeling of disenfranchisement among students and faculty could lead to serious health problems.

Martin, who has a master’s in public health and was interviewed for the study, said social environment is “60 percent of the reason people get sick.”

“We’re both biological and social beings.”

Martin emphasized the need for more black faculty and staff. “If you don’t have people who look like you in universities, than you have no mentors,” he said.

According to the study, blacks on campus feel a disconnect from the Division of Equity and Inclusion.

“There is a perception that UNM has not done well with diversity, but has done less well with African-American administrators, faculty, staff and students,” it states. “Many blacks consider themselves as the minority of the minority at UNM, because New Mexico is considered to be a tricultural state” comprised of Hispanics, Native Americans and Anglos.

Student Christina Foster, who works at African American Student Services, said her only black professors have been in the Africana Studies program and not in any general courses. Her professor for an African-American history class was a white woman, she said.

Being a black student on campus has been “very, very trying at times,” Foster said.

UNM has begun taking steps toward change, officials say. For example, it formed a Diversity Council composed of 29 students, faculty and staff who will advise the president and provost, Blair said.