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New Survey Suggests More Work Needed to Broaden the Pool of Women and Minorities in Line for College Presidencies

ACE Launches Joint Initiative Aimed at Advancing Diversity in the College Presidency

Feb. 7, 2008

Real opportunity exists for greater gender diversity among the next generation of college presidents; however, the same cannot be said for the prospect of increased racial diversity in the presidential ranks, according to the results of a new survey of campus human resources professionals conducted by the American Council on Education (ACE) and the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR). 

On the Pathway to the Presidency: Characteristics of Higher Education's Senior Leadership was prompted by results of ACE's 2007 American College President study, which found that nearly half of all college presidents are aged 61 or older and that progress on diversifying the presidency has been slow, with women leading 23 percent of the nation's colleges and universities, and persons of color leading 14 percent of higher education institutions, including minority-serving institutions.  

This new report seeks to determine whether higher education can also expect a wave of retirements among other senior campus leaders and whether the pool of individuals who might ascend to fill presidential vacancies is more diverse in terms of gender and race/ethnicity.

Among the key findings:

• Women made up 45 percent of all senior administrators surveyed and 38 percent of chief academic officers. Chief academic administrators are typically second-in-command on campus and are most likely to become presidents.

• Persons of color made up only 16 percent of all senior leaders surveyed and less than 10 percent of chief academic officers.

• The majority of senior campus leaders not in presidential roles are in their 40s or 50s. Their average age is 53, compared with an average age of 60 for sitting college presidents.

• The share of minorities serving in senior leadership roles mirrors their proportion among senior faculty, suggesting that efforts to create greater racial/ethnic diversity among presidents must begin with faculty recruitment and retention.

• Small but significant pools of potential candidates exist among Asian Americans at doctoral-granting institutions, African Americans at master's and baccalaureate institutions, and Hispanics at community colleges.

• Nearly half of all senior administrators were internal candidates for their positions. Succession planning appears to be most common among academic affairs administrators.

“This study suggests that colleges and universities must not only tap into the existing pool of qualified women in order to create greater gender diversity at the presidential level, but that much more significant efforts are necessary to create greater racial and ethnic diversity among presidents,” said Jacqueline E. King, assistant vice president of the Center for Policy Analysis at ACE and co-author of the study, along with Gigi G. Gomez, formerly of ACE and now senior research and policy analyst with the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

The study was produced with support from AIG Retirement. It is the first attempt to capture the characteristics of senior campus leaders most likely to become college and university presidents. The findings are based on responses from more than 850 institutions about approximately 9,700 individuals.

“The higher education community must develop more comprehensive talent management strategies to increase the diversity of our college and university workforce—particularly at the senior leadership level,” said Andy Brantley, chief executive officer of CUPA-HR. “CUPA-HR looks forward to working with higher education institutions and other higher education associations to create effective workforce diversity action plans and more comprehensive succession plans to prepare campus leaders to move to the campus CEO role.”

The study's authors recommend that institutions reach out to the relatively small pool of current senior administrators of color, attract more minority faculty into administrative positions, and increase the number of minority faculty so that the base of individuals who might someday ascend to the presidency grows.

The Spectrum Initiative: Advancing Diversity in the College Presidency

To address the challenges identified in the survey, ACE is partnering with other leading higher education associations to launch The Spectrum Initiative, a multi-year national agenda designed to diversify and broaden executive leadership talent in higher education.

“ACE and other associations have been engaged in independent efforts to build the pipeline of women and minority leaders for decades, so a more comprehensive and coordinated effort is now being launched to accelerate the rate of change and capitalize on the imminent wave of college presidents' retirements and the resulting opportunity to ensure a more inclusive pool of talent,” said James C. Renick, senior vice president of programs and research at ACE.

The program's goals include:

• expanding and strengthening the leadership pipeline for women and racial/ethnic minority administrators and prepare them for senior leadership positions;

• ensuring presidential searches and the search process are widely inclusive; and

• promoting on-campus leadership development, mentoring and succession planning.

The Spectrum Initiative will target aspiring college presidents, boards of trustees, search committees, current presidents and executive search firms. In addition to the On the Pathway to the Presidency survey, ACE has published Broadening the Leadership Spectrum: Advancing Diversity in the American College Presidency, a roundtable essay that candidly frames the challenges facing higher education on this issue, as well as a special supplement to ACE's The Presidency magazine which features perspectives from a number of college presidents on advancing diversity in higher education leadership. The supplement was produced with support from MetLife Foundation.

“Diversifying leadership is really about enhancing higher education's and, in turn, the nation's intellectual capacity,” the roundtable essay concludes. “When the talents of significant parts of the population are not tapped, opportunities to expand the talent pool are missed.”

Copies of On the Pathway to the Presidency: Characteristics of Higher Education's Senior Leadership; Broadening the Leadership Spectrum: Advancing Diversity in the American College Presidency; and the special supplement to The Presidency are available via ACE's online bookstore.