When Coppin State University welcomed its new president on July 1, it was a momentous occasion for the university. For the first time in its 115-year history, the institution has a female president, Dr. Evelyn Maria Thompson.
Thompson came to her presidential leadership role by way of the State University of New York at Oneonta and Tennessee State University. She also participated in a few presidential leadership programs, including one at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and one with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). She says both were immensely valuable, but what sets the AASCU program apart from other similar programs is its intriguing social mission.
A number of institutions and organizations, such as Harvard, AASCU and the American Council on Education (ACE), hold annual leadership programs for prospective college or university presidents. They run for a few days a year and prep individuals who are typically in advanced leadership positions on college campuses for the presidential job-search process, as well as what to expect when they take on the job.
AASCU’s Millennium Leadership Initiative (MLI) follows similar lines, holding its institute for several days in Washington, D.C., every June. MLI distinguishes itself from other similar programs in that it was founded with the specific goal of placing more minority and female candidates on track to become university or college presidents.
“Being a woman and being a woman of color, I was very pleased to find a program like MLI,” says Thompson. “I think it’s important to have women in leadership on college campuses. Because of the demographics on most college campuses, you have a higher number of female students to male students.”
Demographic shift
Although diversity is a commonly touted value on almost every college campus and has been for several decades now, the average college or university president is White, male and in his 60s, according to ACE’s comprehensive American College President Survey, which analyzed the demographic profiles of college presidents from 1986 to 2012.
