A Presidential Class Matriculates

As veteran leaders step down, Black leadership pipeline flows with emerging talent
By Ronald Roach and Linda Meggett Brown

It can be said that Blacks in the academic leadership pipeline are getting notable attention in 2001 in light of recent high-profile presidential appointments at both predominantly White colleges and universities and historically Black institutions. And presidential searches by predominantly Black schools such as, Florida A&M University, University of the District of Columbia, Tougaloo College and Voorhees College, will continue to generate even more examination of rising stars among Black academic leaders.
"There's considerable Black leadership talent in (American) higher education," says Dr. Yolanda Moses, president of the American Association of Higher Education (AAHE).
Late last year, the appointment of Dr. Ruth
Simmons as president of Brown University, the first African American named to head an Ivy League school, took the academic world by storm. While representing something of a milestone for Black leadership in higher education, the appointment confirms that it's possible for elite, predominantly White schools, such as Brown, to be as serious about diversity in its leadership as it is among its students and faculty, according to Moses. 
"(Simmons) is a seasoned president," Moses says. Simmons previously was president of Smith College in Northhampton, Mass. In the early 1990s, she served as provost at Spelman College in Atlanta.
In addition to Simmons, two veterans of historically Black institutions garnered presidential appointments at predominantly White schools, another rare accomplishment among Blacks in the academic leadership ranks. Dr. Antoine M. Garibaldi, a former provost at Howard and Xavier universities, was named president of Gannon University, a predominantly White Catholic institution in Erie, Pa. Dr. Rodney Smith, formerly a vice-president at Hampton University, is taking over Ramapo College, a 5,200 student state-supported liberal arts school in New Jersey on July 1. 
While hailing the appointments, observers say they represent exceptional moves by the respective institutions because it is believed that Blacks from historically Black schools are not really considered to be in the same presidential leadership pool as Whites and the few minorities whose careers have been based at predominantly White schools.
"When you look at the fact that there have been so few presidential appointments of Blacks from historically Black schools at White schools, you have to see that as an unwillingness by these institutions to take Black college leadership seriously," says Dr. William B. Harvey, vice president and director of the office of minorities in higher education at the American Council on Education in Washington.
Harvey says higher education, despite the recent appointments of Smith and Garibaldi, has failed by and large to place Black leaders from Black schools in the same leadership pool for the rest of higher education. In comparison, Blacks who have spent their careers in predominantly White schools and institutions more often become presidents of historically Black schools, according to Harvey.
"Ostensibly, the leaders of Black institutions are developing the same skill sets as Whites who run predominantly White institutions," he says.