The under-representation of minorities, particularly Asian-Americans, in U.S. college presidencies can be due to the fact that many potential minority leaders in the faculty ranks are “ignored” and “overlooked,” said University of Washington Bothell Chancellor Dr. Kenyon S. Chan, who encourages chancellors to think hard about how they develop leadership on their campuses.

“There’s a lack of real mentorship” for minority faculty who want to move up in the ranks, Chan said during a meeting Tuesday with the editorial board of Diverse. “People of color are overlooked.”

For Asian-Americans, particularly, “I think a lot of it has to do with being ignored and being invisible as a potential leader for an institution,” he said. “Many institutions have never had a person of color as a leader.  … Asian-Americans are still quite rare, and quite unique.” 

Chan is among the few Asian-Americans leading a U.S. college campus. The acute shortage prompted the American Council on Education earlier this month to host a meeting to address the dearth of Asians in leadership positions.

As a first-generation student, Chan earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles. However, the sociologist didn’t want to just teach and research. 

“I had a desire to change the system at a high level, not just the courses I taught,” he said. The founding chair of the Asian American Studies Department at California State University, Northridge, Chan later became dean at the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts at Loyola Marymount University and interim president of Occidental College in Los Angeles.