Asian-Americans Hope To Build Pipelines to College Presidencies

Diverse Issues in Higher Education
by Lydia Lum, October 5, 2009

Dr. Ding-Jo Currie has long been aware that she is one of only a handful of Asian American college presidents in the U.S. today. What she did not know until recently, however, is how few mid- and senior-level Asian administrators are groomed into becoming presidents.

That fact, along with myriad hiring trend data, social stereotypes, and first-person experiences were among the topics shared at a historic roundtable meeting convened by the American Council on Education in Washington, D.C., last week.

In 2006, Asians made up 0.9 percent of all college presidents nationally, according to ACE. Meanwhile, 5.8 percent of presidents that year were Black and 4.6 percent were Hispanic. Among more than 283,000 tenured faculty the previous year, 4.5 percent were Black and 3.1 percent were Hispanic. However, the fact that more than 6 percent were of Asian descent suggests that a viable pool of university presidents is available.

The latter statistic convinced ACE officials of the urgency in making a concerted effort to form a pipeline of Asian Americans into the presidency, says Dr. Diana Córdova, director of the Center for Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity. Historically, such efforts have been largely confined to individual college presidents or ethnic-focused entities such as Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP).

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