Book examines diversity and executive leadership

With not enough role models among today’s college administrators, minorities in higher education are finding that executive leadership training programs are critical to attempts to move up the career ladder, says Sacramento State Professor David J. Leon. Leon just edited a new book on executive leadership training and diversity in higher education.

“These programs are probably more valuable for minorities than whites because minorities are less likely to have the connections and receive the wisdom of prior generations that can set them up for the top jobs leading our nation’s universities,” said Leon, director of the Chicano Studies Program. “The future of higher education depends on many factors, but these leadership programs will play a vital role.”

Leon’s book, Lessons in Leadership: Executive Leadership Programs for Advancing Diversity in Higher Education, is believed to be one of the first books to examine the growth of leadership programs in higher education and their role in enhancing diversity. The book serves as a follow-up to his 2003 book Latinos in Higher Education, which looked at how the growing Latino population will affect higher education in the future.

In the absence of mentors for aspiring minority educators, executive leadership training programs have become crucial ladders that help the talented move into top executive positions, Leon said. According to statistics cited in the book, nearly 90 percent of college and university presidents are white.

“These programs grew out of the demands in the 1960s and 1970s that colleges better reflect the diversity of the population. And they have become important because they are just about the only way to prepare the college administrators of tomorrow,” he said.

Executive leadership training programs today cover topics such as financial management, academic administration, campus governance, institutional values, working with governing boards and fundraising. Leon said the programs have the added benefit of giving participants the chance to create networks for career advancement.

In addition to his research, Leon has had practical experience in running such programs. He and Thomas Martinez of CSU Bakersfield were instrumental in creating the Hispanic Association for Colleges and Universities Latino(a) Higher Education Leadership Institute, an effort that began in 2002 to address leadership development issues for the growing number of Latinos rising up the career ladder in higher education.

In compiling his book Leon called on directors of leadership training programs to describe their program focus, curriculum and the reactions of participants. Leon examined traditional programs such as the American Council on Education’s Fellows Program and the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education programs, as well as newer programs such as the Millennium Leadership Initiative of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the Kellogg Foundation’s Minority-Serving Institutions Leadership Fellows Program

Audrey Yamagata-Noji of Mt. San Antonio College, for example, noted the work of the Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics organization. “Although our numbers are low … our successful experience with the Leadership Development Program in Higher Education leads us to believe that we are on the right track toward developing a ready pipeline of trained and effective Asian Pacific Islander American leaders,” Yamagata-Noji wrote.

In the foreword to the book, Sacramento State President Alexander Gonzalez noted the importance of diversity among administrators in higher education.

“It has been demonstrated by research and anecdote that students do better when they have the proper role models,” Gonzalez wrote. “This includes faculty and administrators who look like them and who share the same world view as well as a common set of values and history. Since the major increase in participation in higher education by members of minority groups nearly 40 years ago, the issue has remained the same: there must be more faculty and administrators of color. In other words, leadership is the need as well as the key to student success.”

Despite the success of the programs, Leon said he is concerned about what he sees as a racial and ethnic divide among participants in the various programs. Harvard’s program is largely white despite its best effort to recruit minorities and most, though not all, minority-focused programs do not enroll whites, he noted. “Is this because whites feel minority-focused programs aren’t useful for them and minorities feel that the curriculum of traditional programs is irrelevant to them? These are interesting questions we need to look at more closely,” he said

Higher education leadership programs are likely to grow, Leon said, because of their valuable preparation for future college presidents and administrators. “These programs have been very useful in preparing minorities from leadership roles in higher education,” he said. "We would be in dire straits without them."

— Ted DeAdwyler