To increase racial diversity among America’s college presidents, the American Council on Education is partnering with other leading higher education associations to launch The Spectrum Initiative, a multi-year national agenda designed to diversify executive leadership talent in higher education.
The initiative comes on the heels of an ACE study that suggests schools will have to develop better strategies of identifying and accelerating talent within faculty ranks.
Despite the ongoing efforts by academic and professional associations to diversify presidential appointments at America’s colleges and universities, the number of college presidents from underrepresented groups has grown only 5 percent over the last 20-year period.
The installment last month of Dr. Elsa Murano as the first female and first Hispanic president of Texas A&M University is a sign of improvement (See ‘A Chat With Elsa Murano’). But while women have made significant gains — there are more women than ever, comprising 23 percent of college presidents —, presidents of color have not kept pace.
Characteristics of College Presidents: 2006 and 1986
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2006
Comments posted here may be reprinted in Diverse: Issues In Higher Education magazine, and may be edited for purposes of clarity and/or space.
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