By Cayman Watson.

While Northwestern State University seems like a diverse melting pot by one quick glance of the student body, this is not so true for the faculty.

According to the NSU fact book, which is a book of information collected by the Office of institutional research, the 2017 fall enrollment among freshman was 10,572 with 7,446 of these students being female and the other 3,126 being male.

According to Mrs. Brittany Blackwell Broussard from the office of inclusion and diversity, when asked if the student body itself is diverse she said, “about 41% of the student population identifies as a race/ethnicity other than White, non-Hispanic.”

While the number of diversity among the students is above average for the area, the faculty does not match this. According to the NSU fact book as of fall 2017, 302 faculty members are employed here, most of those employees being White.

The university employs 250 white faculty while it employs three Asian faculty, one American Indian/ Alaskan Native faculty, 15 Black faculty, 13 Hispanic faculty, and 15 Foreign faculty according to the NSU fact book.

During our interview, Mrs. Blackwell Broussard said “only 16% of the faculty identify as a member of a minority group. We are not only lacking a presence of different racial/ ethnic minorities along with those of different religious backgrounds.” The enrollment of NSU is continually growing with the school setting record enrollment highs every fall it seems, it is time that the faculty grow with it as well.

When asked if she thinks that NSU needs a more diverse faculty to continue to serve students correctly, Mrs. Blackwell Broussard responded with “yes, I think so. I am not saying that one cannot learn from someone with a back ground that is different from them. But there is research that shows that diversity among faculty will benefit the students.”