LEWISTON – Leading a crowd of Bates College students on campus, Alicia Bowen yelled into a bullhorn.

More than 100 students demonstrated Friday, saying there’s a problem at Bates: It’s too white. They called on their college to have a study body and faculty that’s more diverse.

“What do we want?” Bowen shouted.

“Diversity!” students answered.

“When do we want it?”

“Now!”

“Do we want a multicultural faculty?”

“Yes.”

“Diversity. Diversity. Diversity,” students chanted.

Rally organizer Donelle Durham, a sophomore at Bates, said the college professes to be an institution of equality, but its numbers don’t live up to that.

African-American students make up 2.6 percent of the student body; Asian Americans, 4.4 percent; Hispanics, 2.4 percent; and American Indians less than 1 percent, he said. The annual tuition at Bates, $44,350, is double the annual income of the average African or Hispanic American, Durham said.

Holding signs that read: “Black from Lewiston? Bates not an option,” “No more Mis-representation,” and “MLK Day is not enough!” students marched across campus chanting, beating drums and sounding a portable siren.

They called on Bates to commit more finances to allow minority students at Bates; establish an effective hate crime policy to ensure consistent reporting and punishment; and create better support to help minority students deal with alienation and discrimination.

“Bates is a great school. It offers great education, provides wonderful opportunities while here, and great post-Bates opportunities,” said student Zak Ray.

But blacks number less than 3 percent of the study body, Ray said. “That’s a major issue for us,” Ray said. Bates should be doing more to address diversity instead of putting up $30 million buildings, he said, referring to a new Commons dining building.

College spokesman Bryan McNulty said Friday that Bates is striving to do better. “We know that as we become more diverse, learning is enhanced by the presence of people with multiple perspectives.”

Diversity is an important issue on campuses across the country, he said. Last year, Bates President Elaine Tuttle Hansen invited students, faculty and staff to participate in the Campus Climate Project which looked at ways to increase the number of minority students.

The admissions office has appointed an associate dean to focus on diversity recruitment and a faculty member has joined admissions to promote diversity. Faculty at the college has created a bridge program to bring students of color into the sciences.

Bates is heartened in one area, McNulty said. For the second year the rate of minority freshmen returning as sophomores has improved to 95.5 percent

“We know we have a long way to go,” McNulty said. He said he’s hopeful the college will become the diverse campus it aspires to be.

But no specific promises from the administration came as a result of Friday’s rally.

While students demonstrated, African-American studies professor John McClendon smiled in approval.

Their complaints are legitimate, McClendon said. Diversity brings a richer education for all, not just students of color. And more needs to be done to improve the Bates environment, he said.

Last year there was a series of racist incidents, including graffiti with the “N” word, racial slurs yelled at students on campus and security officers conducting what students said was “racial profiling.”

This fall, several students told McClendon they were subjected to racial names as they crossed campus, he said.