At the beginning of the semester, I thought about taking on a EURECA project.

I wanted to work on a subject that deals with race and race relations in the United States and I wanted to work with an African-American professor.

That’s when it dawned on me. I do not know any African-American professors at MSU. I decided to ask some faculty and even students and some of them said they had “heard of one” but never seen them. This is problematic. In fact, only 10 of the 332 faculty are African-American, only 3 percent, including the chief academic officer. Of the students, 14 percent identify as black or African-American.

In a world where all organizations are trying to promote diversity, this aspect has been grossly overlooked. MSU has found ways of promoting diversity in the student enrollment. Deans should parlay that same enthusiasm into making more effort in hiring African-American professors.

In the Department of History, there are no course specifically dedicated to learning about Black History or the race discourse in general. The history of African-Americans usually cover only a minute percentage of both American history classes. We need more courses that teach about black history in America and MSU needs to promote the race discourse among students at MSU. Who better to teach black history than a black man?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not negating the ability of a white individual to understand black history and race problems in America but he is doing just that: understanding. A black man and his ancestors have lived it. That creates a whole new perspective on the subject entirely.

So in light of us having a new president, I implore administrators to give these issues grave importance and place them on her priority list. We need more African-American professors at MSU. Further, we need course that explicitly and specifically deal with Black History and racial relations in America.