The yearlong search for a Medill dean is now down to the final four. Only one will be chosen for the position. Two of the finalists are white males.

No surprise there.

The real surprise comes when you look at the other two candidates: Laura Washington, editor of the Chicago Reader, and Ellis Cose, an editor at Newsweek, both of whom are black. Washington received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Medill. Cose, the Newsweek editor, was the youngest columnist ever for a Chicago daily when he was 19.

Journalism is a profession that currently and historically has struggled with diversity. Each year the American Society of Newspaper Editors tries to increase diversity in America’s newsrooms to make newspaper coverage more informed and diverse. Although there have been minor gains, the number of black journalists is still well under what it should be.

One of the main reasons for this, I think, is that more often than not blacks who get into newsrooms are not put into positions where they can effect change. That’s not very inspiring if you are a minority who aspires to one day be an editor — journalism is a profession that is dominated by white males.

The hiring of another middle-aged white male such as Abe Peck or Loren Ghiglione — the other two finalists, who are both as qualified as Washington or Cose — to replace current dean Ken Bode will only maintain the status quo. It’s about time the university starts breaking down some barriers and hires a qualified minority to fill a much sought-after position.

Credit the Medill search committee, headed by Prof. Dick Schwarzlose, with “beating the bushes” and providing a diverse pool of applicants. How surprising is it that one of these candidates is a woman? Very. But a black woman? That’s almost unheard of, which is why the Medill search committee should be commended for giving a woman at least the opportunity to fill the position.

This school is still playing catch-up when it comes to race relations. The neglect of issues that matter to minorities on this campus is evident everywhere, starting with the decision to grant students only a half-day break from classes for Martin Luther King Day.

The current population of black students on this campus is a little less than 7 percent. Of the 42 full-time members of the Medill faculty, you can count how many of them are black on one hand and still have three fingers left over. Both of them are women, Ava Greenwell and Susan Mango-Curtis. Neither of them are tenured. It’s up to University President Henry Bienen and Provost Lawrence Dumas to decide whether these women will get some company.

I suggest they do what Brown University did last year when it named Ruth J. Simmons the university’s first black president. It’s time for Northwestern to show that this university is ready to join the 21st Century and hire a qualified black to be dean.

Many black students, including myself, think that this university does not have their best interests in mind.

The hiring of a black dean to head one of the university’s most prominent schools, Medill, will go a long way toward disabusing many of us who feel that way.