The Spectrum Initiative:
Advancing Diversity in the College Presidency
BY KENOYE K. EKE
Capitalizing on the imminent wave of college presidents’ retirements and the resulting opportunity to identify
a more inclusive pool of leadership talent, a group of leading higher education associations has launched The
Spectrum Initiative: Advancing Diversity in the College Presidency. This multiyear national agenda is designed
to diversify and broaden executive leadership talent in higher education through programmatic and research initiatives involving
institutional boards of trustees, executive search firms, campus search committees, current presidents, and aspiring leaders. The
goals and objectives of this initiative are to:
• Broaden and strengthen the leadership pipeline for women
and racial/ethnic minority administrators and prepare
them for senior leadership positions in higher education;
• Ensure that the presidential search and selection process is
widely inclusive; and
• Promote on-campus leadership development,
mentoring, and succession planning.
The impetus for this initiative comes from
two recently published studies conducted by the
American Council on Education (ACE)— The
American College President Study and On the
Pathway to the Presidency: Characteristics of Higher
Education’s Senior Leadership. The latter study
found, among other things, that:
• Women made up 45 percent of all senior
administrators surveyed and 38 percent of
chief academic officers. Chief academic administrators are
typically second-in-command on campus and are most
likely to become presidents.
• Persons of color made up only 16 percent of all senior
leaders surveyed and less than 10 percent of chief academic officers.
• The majority of senior campus leaders not in presidential
roles are in their 40s or 50s. Their average age is
53, compared with an average age of 60 for sitting
college presidents.
• Nearly half of all senior administrators were internal candidates for their positions. Succession planning appears to
be most common among academic affairs administrators.
“This study suggests that colleges and universities must not
only tap into the existing pool of qualified women in order to
create greater gender diversity at the presidential level, but that
more significant efforts are necessary to create greater racial
and ethnic diversity among presidents,” said Jacqueline E.
King, assistant vice president of the Center for Policy Analysis
at ACE and co-author of the study with Gigi G. Gomez.
On the Pathway to the Presidency: Characteristics of Higher
Education’s Senior Leadership (ACE, 2008) presents basic
demographic and position information for those individuals in senior campus leadership positions most likely to lead
“More significant efforts are
necessary to create greater
racial and ethnic diversity
among presidents.”
to the presidency. The report was produced in collaboration
with the College and University Professional Association for
Human Resources (CUPA-HR) and with support from AIG
Retirement. LE
Kenoye K. Eke, director of The Spectrum Initiative, previously served as
provost and vice president for academic and student affairs at Cheyney
University of Pennsylvania.
Learn About The Spectrum Initiative
Learn more about The Spectrum Initiative at the NASPA
Annual Conference in Seattle. Kenoye K. Eke will present
“Broadening the Leadership Spectrum: Preparing Women
and People of Color for Senior Management in Academe.”
