Faculty members at Kentucky State University voted no-confidence in their chair and Board of Regents last week, triggering fierce debates about racial divisions at the school.

The vote, which followed several months of turmoil among the faculty and administration, led to even further tension as some black faculty members felt that the vote of no-confidence in the chair, a black woman, was over-influenced by the disproportionate number of white colleagues. Kentucky State University, which is a historically black college, has an atypical number of white professors, a result of the school’s diversification efforts dating back to the 1980s. 

The conflicts have gotten to such a point that the incoming president, M. Christopher Brown II, who was announced earlier this month, stated that he will draw inspiration from South Africa’s post-apartheid efforts to bring the faculty back together. An advocacy group for black faculty has also arisen and a former president of the American Association of University Professors is now involved.

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