Too often, college and university presidents are forced to reinvent the wheel when establishing the position of chief diversity officer (CDO) because they do not understand the role and function of the position, says Dr. Damon A. Williams, assistant vice provost for multicultural and international affairs at the University of Connecticut.

With the release by the American Council on Education of a blueprint Monday (and a book in the fall) for establishing a chief diversity office and officer and creating an environment for them to thrive, Williams says those predicaments for presidents and higher education in general should cease.

“We really wanted to pull together an empirical grounded statement to really help all of higher education to really be able to develop these roles better,” Williams says. “With this monograph, and our impending book, we have hopefully made a contribution that higher education leaders can innovate from as they develop dynamic diversity capabilities at their respective institutions.

“The prolific emergence of this capability within higher education is in accord with key societal trends to move the diversity and inclusion discussion from the periphery to the center,” adds Dr. Katrina C. Wade-Golden, senior research scientist at the University of Michigan’s Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives.

Williams and Wade-Golden co-authored the monograph titled The Chief Diversity Officer: A Primer for College and University Presidents. They are also the authors of the forthcoming book, The Chief Diversity Officer: Strategy, Structure and Change Management, a more detailed version of the primer. 

With the support of ING, the American Council on Education (ACE) published the primer — the third in a series of occasional papers by ACE’s Center for Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity (CAREE).

“It is clear that chief diversity officers are playing an increasingly vital role on the senior leadership teams of college and university campuses,” says Diana I. Cordova, director of CAREE. “But presidents and chancellors tell us they continue to look for ways to leverage their skills to achieve maximum benefit with students and faculty — we hope this monograph can provide campus leaders with some guidance and new ideas.”