Thursday, February 23, 2012

Students Demand More Diversity At Marquette University

Photos: HNG

Student rally targets the lack of diversity programs and faculty at Marquette University.

By H. Nelson Goodson
February 23, 2012

Milwaukee - On Thursday, more than 25 Marquette students composed of Hispanics, Native Americans, Whites and Afro-Americans gathered at a rally on the Marquette campus to demand a more diverse university, including faculty. The rally focused on "Open Up Marquette" calling for the Marquette administration to create a social justice center at the Sensenbrenner Hall to house existing social justice programs, to increase multicural faculty and to increase support for ethnic and gender studies.
The students at the rally are pushing for a more diverse faculty to deal with the projected 25% of upcoming freshmen who don't consider themselves as White. Sean Orr, a sophomore student at Marquette said,  that there is an "overwhelming dominance of White male educators on campus." Orr told students, "There is only one tenure African-American male professor at Marquette" and no mention was made of Latino professors with any tenure at the university. The university has minorities working on campus, but lacked high percentages in faculty and administrative positions to reflect the changing influx of a diverse group of students enrolling at the downtown campus.
Another issue raised by the students during the rally was that Marquette lacked involvement in partnering with the neighboring Black and Hispanic communities to help solve Milwaukee's most pressuring problems such as a 50% Black male unemployment rate and a 50% Milwaukee Public Schools dropout rate among minorities residing around the campus.
Orr says, a student petition drive is ongoing to establish a multicultural and social justice center on campus.
The rally was organized by a two week old student organization called Youth Empowered in the Struggle (YES), a student worker rights group, which is affiliated with Voces de la Frontera, a workers and immigrant rights non-profit organization.

Quick stats by College Prowler dot com

Marquette University is a Catholic Jesuit university and the following statistics by the College Prowler indicate a troubling overall student and faculty make up.

Student make up:

Black           6%
Asian           4%
Hispanic      6%
White          81%

About 60% of the students are from out of state.

Faculty make up:

Female Faculty        40%
Male Faculty            60%

Black               3%
Asian               7%
Hispanic          4%
White             81%


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