Blacks Making Only Slight Gains in College Administrative Posts

Data obtained by JBHE from the U.S. Department of Education shows that in 2003 there were 17,228 African-American administrators holding full-time positions in American higher education. Blacks made up 9.7 percent of all full-time administrators at colleges and universities nationwide. Of the 17,228 black administrators employed in American higher education in 2003, 10,264, or nearly 60 percent, were women.

There have been only small improvements in the percentage of blacks employed full-time as administrators in higher education. In 1993 blacks were 8.9 percent of all full-time administrators in American higher education.

If we narrow our focus to consider only college and university presidents, we find that in 2005 there were 211 blacks employed in this position. Thus, blacks were 9.8 percent of all college and university presidents nationwide. But if we eliminate the 100 historically black colleges and universities, we find that blacks are 5.4 percent of the college or university presidents at predominantly white institutions of higher education.

While black women make up nearly 60 percent of all full-time African-American administrators in higher education nationwide, black women do not do as well at the college president level. In 2003, of the 211 African Americans holding positions as college or university presidents, only 67, or 31.8 percent, were women.

Copyright © 2006. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.