Long before predictions of the current avalanche of vacancies in the top administrative ranks of community colleges nationwide were made, the National Community College Hispanic Council (NCCHC) established its first Leadership Fellows Program for aspiring leaders. Today, there are more than 250 NCCHC Leadership Fellows Program alumni, most of whom serve in executive leadership capacities in community college administrations.
NCCHC directors were certainly visionary, as evidenced by data released in 2016 by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU). Hispanic-serving institutions represent 12.9 percent of all nonprofit higher education institutions and accounted for more than half of all Hispanic undergraduate enrollments in 2013. Programs that prepare Hispanic role models for executive leadership are of increasing importance, especially as Hispanic enrollment in community colleges, now at an all-time high, continues to grow.
Data reported by the American Council on Education (ACE) forecast the aging of college presidents nationwide, including the fact that “ … between 1986 and 2011 the majority of presidents have shifted from 50 or younger, to 61 and older.” That same report, based on a 2012 survey, noted that the share of “racial/ethnic presidents has decreased from 14 percent in 2006 to 13 percent in 2011.”
Just 4 percent of presidents were Hispanic, compared to an overall 13 percent for all minority presidents.
Data specific to community colleges are even more compelling.
According to a Community College Week research paper: “Hispanic students in U.S. higher education were disproportionately enrolled in 2-year institutions. In 2012, almost half of all Hispanics in higher education were enrolled in community colleges.”
AACC data indicate that Hispanic students represent the single greatest enrollment by an ethnic minority, accounting for 22 percent of 12.3 million community college students nationwide. They now represent 57 percent of all undergraduates.
