LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Some University of Louisville professors are paying out of their own pockets to achieve a more diverse staff and student body. Six educators used their own money to start the new Endowed Excellence Fund for Diversity at the UofL School of Medicine.

It's part of the Cardinal Anti-Racist Agenda. The fund's purpose is to hire minority staff that more closely reflect the Louisville community's demographics. That's how Ron Gregg, Ph.D., said the underlying systemic racism in medical education is being fought. Dr. Gregg, the chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, is the faculty member who created the endowment.

"We're not as diverse as our community, and the administration and everybody would like to improve that. So, that's sort of how we got going," Gregg explained. He said UofL's undergraduate campus is made up of roughly 12 percent minority students, and the School of Medicine is less than that.

It began with the six faculty, Gregg, and his colleagues pooling together $50,000. Since then, it's grown. The goal is to make it a multi-million dollar fund. The money will be spent at the direction of a committee, and expenditures can range from paying to recruit and hire more diverse educators, to recruiting and helping admit more minority students. 

"You know, we're going to make a difference in the population and improve diversity in the health sciences, essentially forever," Gregg said. 

Medical students Timothy Audam and Danielle Little can't help but notice the racial make-up of their student body is lacking. There aren't many other students who look like them. 

"I notice all the time," Little admitted. "It was a culture shock."

"So I think if you see people that look like you, you could easily exchange ideas and be more comfortable around," Audam said, explaining their hopes of getting more minority professors and students on campus.

They are pleased at the endowment and hope that hiring more educators can open career paths in medicine and science to more minorities. 

"Give them access to that career path. If they know that it's available then maybe they wanna do it. And that's how you bring more students into the field," Little said. 

"I want to have kids that are gonna grow up without thinking that they’re gonna be treated differently based on where they’re from or what they look like," added Audam. 

Anyone can donate to help fund the endowment. Gregg said that even students have noticed, and have given money to expand it.