Molly Limaye ’21, Madison Hanssens ’21, Kristen Weil ’21:
Diversity, while thought of as highly important by many in the EA community, is not always reported accurately on our website and it really should be. After examining the EA website and speaking with Walidah Justice, Director of Diversity and Inclusion, Scholium found EA diversity statistics to be incorrect. As of October 16th, 2017, the Episcopal website stated under the quick facts page, “Currently we have 17% faculty of color and 24% students of color.” However, another page on the website said 26% of students are diverse. There was a discrepancy in the data on the EA website. It is very important for the school to display the correct data, especially to prospective families.
With respect to faculty, Justice stated, “This year, we have 10% faculty of color.” 10% is a very different number than the 17% that the website was advertising. The school should be updating their data frequently and accurately. In addition, Justice stated that faculty diversity had “dropped from 14% in the past five years.” If it ever had been 17% that means that if the school has approximately 180 faculty, it would have lost a net of about 12 diverse faculty members without replacing them. A seven percent drop in the faculty is huge. Therefore it is questionable to believe that the faculty of color data was ever 17%. Justice says, “The data from the last five years does not show 17%. The faculty of color percentage was as high as 15% in the last five years, but is currently 10%.”
When Scholium looked at the “Employment” page on the website on October 22, the faculty data had been changed from 17% to 10% and the student data had been changed to 26% from 24% to match the “Quick Facts” page data. Therefore, due to Scholium bringing the data discrepancy and inaccuracy to the school’s attention, Episcopal corrected this almost immediately. The school deserves credit for fixing the error. Based on Scholium’s quick investigation of other school’s websites, EA, to its credit, is one of the few InterAC schools that reports its faculty diversity statistics. EA’s transparency and openness is noteworthy. If prospective families or current families saw the incorrect data, it might have given them false notions about the school, especially because the school should be reporting clear and accurate data.
Photo Courtesy of Tabula
Diversity is a vital part of the Episcopal Academy. Having insight into different perspectives from people of different races, ethnicities, ages, genders, and cultural backgrounds can change viewpoints within a community. Mike Letts, the Interim Head of Upper School, states, “It is absolutely important to have a diverse faculty and student body. Diversity brings a whole host of different perspectives and different backgrounds. We need to be a reflection of the real world. It’s that simple. It makes us better global citizens.” The students agree with the faculty’s perspective. Minjee Cho ‘19 states, “It is important to have a diverse community to get a lot of different perspectives on everyday life.” Skylar Schork ‘18 said, “I think it is important to have a diverse faculty and student population because if you’re not bringing in different opinions and different views, you’re going to produce a very single-minded type of learning and education. And if you’re bringing in diverse people, you are going to produce a more diverse thought process.” Students agree that diversity allows people to understand each other better and learn from one-another. In the future, students want EA to have a more diverse community. Alison Lee ‘19 states, “I think we are a diverse community but we could become more diverse down the road.”
The school has made a lot of progress increasing diversity over the years. Letts states, “When I started here 14 years ago, the school was a very different place.” Justice agreed, adding, “As a school in the last few years we have been trying to become more inclusive, but I also think it is difficult because overall we are a more homogeneous school based on our demographics. But, with our increasing student of color numbers, the face of the school has been changing because the demographics of the country have changed.” The school has been working extremely hard to reach out to diverse students and communities to spread the word about EA. With the importance EA places on diversity, we urge the school to keep diversity statistics consistent and updated and to continue to prioritize having a diverse community on campus.