"Diversifying faculty isn’t just about hiring but also retaining minority professors, panelists noted. And to do that, universities are tasked with the challenge of building community for faculty of color online.

Valdez suggested offering remote happy hours for professors from underrepresented backgrounds or moving minority faculty mentorship programs online, like the University of California Merced has done.

Similarly, Virginia Tech hosted a two-day Faculty Women of Color Conference online, and while “nothing can replace” the experience of “walking into a room and seeing 300 people of color,” it showed Pratt-Clarke that universities can “still convene large groups of people in community.”