Data in the “2020 CUPA-HR Administrators in Higher Education Report” shows that underrepresentation of women and minorities in college and university presidencies persists.
While colleges and universities embrace the concept of diversity and equity, the numbers are still falling short. The report noted that just 32% of college or university presidents are women and only 14% of presidents are racial/ethnic minorities.
To compile the survey, the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) collected data on 50,690 administrators in 202 senior-level administrative positions from 1,160 institutions of higher education. Data collected included salary, gender, race/ethnicity, age and years in position. The data collection period ran from Nov. 1, 2019 to Jan. 17, 2020. This year, CUPA-HR collected data on the pipeline for three positions: president, provost and chief human resources officer.
Among current presidents, the most commonly held positions prior to the presidency were president and provost. Most had previously worked at an institution of higher education and nearly a third were promoted internally. Less than 10% came from outside of higher education.
“The presidential pipeline, what I found most interesting … is that these are sort of lines of succession in higher ed institutions,” Dr. Jacqueline Bichsel, CUPA-HR director of research told Diverse. “Provost is considered an executive position and deans pretty close to that. Deans feed regularly into that provost position and provosts feed regularly into that president position.
“Who becomes dean is largely dependent on a faculty member who has risen in the ranks,” she continued. “When you’re talking about this entire line of succession, what you get down in the hierarchy is which faculty are promoted.”
In CUPA-HR’s faculty report published a few weeks ago, Bichsel said that, when it comes to faculty members being promoted, you see fewer women and minorities being promoted at each stage — assistant to associate professor and associate to full professor — compared to White males. In addition, they get paid less at each stage, particularly women of color.
