Meanwhile, Dr. James C. Renick, a board member and vice president of the American Council on Education, prepared a presentation titled, “Shifting Winds: The Impending Transition of Presidential Leadership.” During his presentation, Renick circulated data from an ACE survey of college presidents, which indicated that 60 is the average age of all college presidents. The average age of HBCU presidents is 62, which indicates many vacancies may be imminent.
The data also indicated that though 47 percent of Black presidents headed majority institutions in 1986, 71 percent of Black presidents head majority institutions as of the most recent survey last year, indicating that competition for the most experienced Black college leaders will grow more intense, Renick said.
“The proportion of presidents over 60 has increased exponentially, which suggests that in a very short period of time, there’s going to be a major transformation and transition of campus leadership,” Renick says. “So the major question for us is do we have a role in ensuring that succession takes place in a way that maintains the viability of our institutions, because the competition for talent is going to be more intense than it is now, particularly for African-Americans who are leading institutions.”
- David Pluviose
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