Paul Ellertson, online publishing coordinator

The Augsburg student body is very diverse in terms of gender, sexual orientation and race, so it seems obvious to pose the question, “Is the faculty diverse?” The student body is the backbone of this university, so I will use this as a comparison. You would think we have faculty and, more specifically, professors who at least come close to matching the diversity of the students. You would be wrong.  

In terms of gender and sexual orientation, we have a somewhat diverse group of professors. We have many male-and female-identifying professors. So while we could still do a lot better there, we seem to be doing okay so far. 

When it comes to race, however, we don’t have a very diverse group of professors. I will not even try to compare the racial diversity of the professors to that of the student body because, as most of us realize, it doesn’t come close.  

When it comes to diversity in terms of neurodivergence, students and professors seem to be on a more level stage. I’m saying this as someone who has had many neurodivergent professors 

and classmates, and I myself am neurodivergent. 

When it comes to other faculty and support staff, based on what I have seen in my four years here, they are much more diverse than our professors. I am not sure that it can be compared to the diversity of the students, but it seems to be getting closer. In terms of race, we have a very diverse support staff. We have a lot of faculty and support staff who identify as male and female. In terms of support staff who identify as another gender or are non-binary, I am not able to make an accurate assessment.  

As a student, I have had several male-and female-identifying professors as well as a few nonbinary-identifying professors. The vast majority of my professors over the last 4 years so far have been white. Seeing professors in the halls and around campus has been a similar experience. 

The surrounding community of Cedar Riverside is incredibly diverse, and many support staff live in the area which is great. Many professors that I have talked to live in other, less diverse areas of the Twin Cities. 

When I first came to Augsburg as a white, heterosexual, cisgender-identifying student, I had never truly realized the importance of diversity among professors and other faculty and support staff. That changed after my first semester. After talking to other students of other backgrounds, I had come to understand the importance of diversity, especially among professors, in terms of race and sexual orientation. 

Many friends who are not heterosexual, cisgender, and white have told me that they feel like their faculty mentors can not relate to them. This is a pretty big problem because I think that makes it much harder to stay on the same page in many aspects. Some of these students have a lot of things going on in life that can be traced to systemic injustice that many mentors can not relate to.  

If you are going to be teaching and mentoring students, you should be able to relate to them through their experiences, both good and bad. I do not think many Augsburg professors are able to do that very well, based on what students I have talked to in the past have reported. This is really sad, and Augsburg can definitely do much better.