Yet the pipeline of Black scholars poised to assume presidential status is growing
While higher education continues to be at odds over the toll the affirmative action backlash is exacting on African American student enrollment, the declining ranks of African American college and university presidents have, barely been noticed.
According to research by Black Issues In Higher Education, there are currently 105 African American presidents at traditionally White institutions, four of whom are about to retire. In 1996, there were 113. The majority of Black presidents head two-year institutions, with only thirty-six leading four-year schools. In addition to the chief executives of the 102 historically Black institutions (most of whom are Black), that means approximately 200 institutions out of the roughly 3,800 colleges and universities in the nation — both two-year and four-year — are headed by African Americans.
“I’m disappointed in the numbers,” says Dr. James C. Renick, chancellor of the University of Michigan-Dearborn. “You would think that in 1998 there would be more people of color assuming roles of leadership in education, because education has been so important to our community.”
Dr. Gladys Styles Johnston, chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Kearney, says, “There are fewer today than when I started five years ago. The presidency is a high-turnover job and people are moving on.”
Johnston is one of those who attribute the loss of numbers to the “entire affirmative action debate.” At one time, she says “many employers would make [race] one of the factors, along with qualifications…. [Now] there is a certain segment of society where the trends of the last fifteen years are being reversed.”
Dr. Albert C. Yates, president of Colorado State University, agrees, adding, “When you combine what’s happening with the complexion of the student body with Proposition 209 in California and what has happened in Texas,… you have to believe that there is some relationship to what we are beginning to see in terms of the strength of the level of commitment to hiring presidents. It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise.”
Proposition 209 is the referendum passed in California in 1996 banning the use of any affirmative action by the state government. In Texas, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals banned the use of affirmative action in university admissions in a case known as Hopwood.
Hope for the Future
However, Yates said the recent appointments of Dr. Adam W. Herbert as chancellor of the State University System of Florida and Dr. Irvin D. Reid as president of Wayne State University were “particularly gratifying, which leads some of us to think that affirmative action is not taking the toll that some of us had feared.”
Wayne State now joins the University of Michigan-Dearborn and the University of Michigan-Flint as major four-year institutions being headed by African Americans in the state of Michigan, which also has a large Black population (see Black issues, November 27, 1997). This summer, those ranks will increase again when Dr. Elson Floyd takes over the reins at Western Michigan University.
Despite the significant Black populations in states like Mississippi and Louisiana, these states are not represented on the national list of African American presidents of traditionally White institutions (see BI The Numbers, pg. 18). In other states, such as Georgia and Florida, no African Americans head traditionally White four-year institutions — although several two-year colleges, including the large and growing DeKalb College in Atlanta, are headed by African Americans.
Perhaps most startling is that of the almost 1,600 private, traditionally White colleges, only two — Smith College in Massachusetts and Occidental College in California — are currently headed by African Americans. Those ranks will grow this summer — although only by one — when Dr. Lee Pelton assumes the presidency of Willamette University. But even Mg was startled to learn what a small group he is joining.
“I am surprised to hear that there are only three African American presidents of independent four-year colleges. That’s amazing,” he said.
“It’s frustrating,” says Dr. Richard T. Ingram, president of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges — the organization that represents the oversight bodies that, generally speaking, select and appoint presidents and chancellors. “I don’t have my thumb on why we don’t have more progress.”
According to Ingram, several factors may enter into the issue — particularly at the more elite institutions.
“Racism is alive and well,” he says. “Elitism is alive and well. Another factor is that the people who amass the greatest wealth tend to be White. And the alumni of elite institutions are predominantly White and there may be concern about upsetting them.”
Dr. David Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, says that is changing.
“Our independent colleges are growing more diverse ethnically and racially.” says Warren. “For a very long time they were institutions overwhelmingly composed of Caucasians. At this point, there are 20 percent non-Caucasians in independent colleges. Those numbers will continue to shift…and we will see more African Americans as presidents as well as [on] administrative staff[s] and on faculties.”
He also believes that the pool of African American candidates has grown.
“The same reasons why there are fewer African American presidents of independent colleges will be the reasons we will see more in the years ahead,” says Warren, who notes that most new presidents are appointed from the ranks of academic vice presidents, other vice presidents, and deans. (see chart, pg. 24) “Those have been positions that have not been well-stocked by African Americans in the previous ten to fifteen years, but there is an increasing stock of them that colleges can call upon.”
Most Recent Prior Positions Of All College Presidents: 1995President - 19.9%Assistant to President - 1.6%Executive Vice President - 9.8%Vice President, Academic Affairs - 26.5%Other Vice Presidents - 10.7%Dean or their Associates - 11.9%Other - 19.6%
Source: The American Council on Education
The incoming president of Willamette could be considered an example of what Warren is talking about. Pelton has served as dean of the college at Dartmouth for the past seven years — and dean of the college at Colgate University for the three years before that, Willamette, looking to increase its visibility as an elite liberal arts institution, turned to a Dartmouth dean with a Harvard Ph.D.
“My principal role will be to increase the university’s visibility and to give it a place among the nation’s elite small liberal arts institutions and to allow the university to participate more fully in the higher education debate,” Pelton says.
Realities of the Present
Ingram says that governing boards increasingly look at presidential candidates through the lens of whether they have “access to resources. We have got to face the fact that our institutions are going to have to rely on private support more and more.”
Dr. Donald Phelps, at the University of Texas Community College Leadership Program, says that an additional factor is at work among community college governing boards.
“The political reality of community colleges is much more apparent,” Phelps says. “Many of the boards of trustees are elected boards and they are hypersensitive to their public. Often they make judgments about what the community wants without really knowing. There is always the fear that an African American or minority president will not be accepted. It is as much their lack of knowledge as their political astuteness.”
Phelps, who recently returned from the American Association of Community Colleges national conference in Miami Beach, Florida, observed, “One of the interesting things … is that at the opening general session, there were all White males and one Hispanic on the podium — no women and no minorities, except [the outgoing chairman of the board of trustees, Dr. Augustine] Gallego.”
Still, many of the new appointments of African American presidents — that is, within the past two years or so — have beep made at two-year colleges. One of the most significant, Phelps said, is Dr. Ernest Thomas, who was recently appointed as the first African American president of Tarrant County junior College in Texas.
Thomas is a graduate of the University of Texas Community College Leadership Program, which — along with other efforts such as the ACE Fellows program (see story, pg. 28) — has become a formal leadership network developed to help people train for the job of chief executive. According to Phelps, these kind of networks — both formal and informal — are the key to access.
“People are not hired for these jobs by applying for jobs advertised in [newspapers]. It’s a very informal thing, but it is very structured,” says Phelps, who advises that those who aim at the presidency nee to “press the flesh and make certain people know you are available. Get on national committees, write papers.”
That sentiment is echoed by Renick. He often advises those who have presidential aspirations not only to develop their scholarship and management skills, but to join national organizations — either in their or in higher education, such as the American Association of Higher Education [AAHE].
“I served on the board of AAHE and chaired the Black caucus for a long time,” Renick says. “There’s no substitute. One needs to have that national perspective. Some people can get it after they assume a presidency. My feeling is, it’s better before.”
Dr. Vera King Farris, president of Richard Stockton College in New Jersey, agrees that it is essential for a president or Ian aspiring president to “move onto national boards, make presentations at national conferences.” That will ensure that you “don’t remain isolated at your college.”
Farris, who was appointed as president fifteen years ago, said it is important to have “some kind of pathway that is recognizable.” For her, as for Most presidents, that lies in serving on a faculty and moving up through the ranks as department head and vice president for academic affairs before being appointed as president.
“The key is to have recognizable credentials so that people move you into a search committee pool,” she says. Dr. George Pruitt, president of Thomas Edison College in New Jersey, agrees, saying that the old adage, “It’s not what you know but who you know,” is inaccurate — except in government and politics.
” But there is a twist on that,” he says. “It’s who knows what you know.”
Almost all the presidents interviewed for this story agree that one of the key elements to becoming a president is the support of someone in a position to provide responsibility and opportunity.
“Those of us who are leaders have a responsibility to provide those opportunities,” says Renick, who adds that he himself has benefited from having that kind of support. “Everybody gets help, and everybody who is successful has gotten some serious help.”
The May 28 edition of Black Issues will focus on Black community college presidents, and Native American and Latino college presidents.
RELATED ARTICLE: CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
GLADYS STYLES JOHNSTON Chancellor, University of Nebraska-Kearney, since 1993
Degrees: B.S. — Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, social science, 1963 * M.Ed. — Temple University, educational administration, 1969 * Ph.D. — Cornell University, educational administration and organizational theory, 1974
Previous appointments: Professor, Department of Educational Administration, Rutgers University * Chair, Department of Educational Administration, Rutgers University * Chair, Department of Management in the School of Business, Rutgers University * Dean and Professor, College of Education, Arizona State University * Provost and Executive Vice President, DePaul University
National boards: Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (Omaha) * Commission on Recognition of Postsecondary Accreditation * Kellogg Foundation National Fellowship Program
DR. JAMES CARMICHAEL RENICK Chancellor, University of Michigan-Dearborn, since 1993
Degrees: B.A. — Central State University, 1970 * M.S.W. — Kansas University, 1972 * Ph.D. — Florida State University, political science, 1980
Previous appointments: Professor, Department of Public Administration, University of South Florida * Assistant to the President, University of South Florida * Assistant Dean for Administration, University of South Florida * Associate Provost, George Mason University * Vice Provost for Academic Initiatives and External Affairs, George Mason University
National boards: American Council on Education * American Association of Higher Education
DR. VERA KING FARRIS President, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, since 1983
Degrees: B.A. — Tuskegee University, biology, 1959 * M.A., M.S. — University of Massachusetts, zoology and parasitology, 1965
Previous appointments: Professor, State University of New York Stony Brook * Dean, State University of New York-Stony Brook * Vice Provost of Academic Affairs, State University of New York-Brockport * Academic Vice President, Kean College of New Jersey
National boards: American Council of Education * American Association of State Colleges and Universities * Council for Higher Education Accreditation * New Millennium Project, Institute for Higher Education Policy * Past president, Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools
DR. GEORGE ALBERT PRUITT President, Thomas Edison State College, since 1982
Degrees: B.S. — Illinois State University, biology, 1968 * M.S. — Illinois State University, guidance and counseling, 1970 * Ph.D. — Union Institute, higher education administration, 1974
Previous appointments: Assistant to vice president for academic affairs, Illinois State University * Dean of students, Towson State University Vice president, executive assistant to president, Morgan State University * Vice president, Tennessee State University * Executive vice president, Council for the Advancement of Experiential Learning
National boards: American Association of State Colleges and Universities * American Council on Education
DR. LEE PELTON Incoming president, Willamette University, beginning in July
Degrees: B.A. — Wichita State University, English and psychology, 1974 * Ph.D. — Harvard University, English and American literature, 1984
Previous appointments: Lecturer, Harvard University * Dean of students, Colgate University * Dean of the college, Colgate University * Dean of the college, Dartmouth College
DR. ALBERT C. YATES President and Chancellor, Colorado State University, since 1990
Degrees: B.S. — Memphis State University mathematics and chemistry, 1965 * Ph.D. — India University-Bloomington, theoretical chemical physics, 1968
Previous appointments: Assistant professor, Indiana University * Associate dean and professor of chemistry, University of Cincinnati * Vice president and dean for graduate studies and research, University of Cincinnati * Academic vice president and provost, Washington State University
National boards: Commission of Leadership Development, American Council on Education * Council of Presidents, Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges
RELATED ARTICLE: Presidential Meeting at Howard in June
H. Patrick Swygert, president of Howard University and the former president of the State University of New York Albany, has invited African American presidents of traditionally White colleges and universities to an informal meeting in June. Although an agenda was not available at press time, it will provide, in the words of one president, “an opportunity to compare notes and commiserate.”
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