Survey Offers Insight into Changing College Presidency

This year, the American Council on Education (ACE) released the twentieth anniversary edition of The American College President, a report that summarizes the findings of ACE’s regularly conducted survey of presidents. The 2006 survey, to which 2,148 college and university presidents responded, included questions about the experiences and priorities of presidents and collected a range of demographic data.

The American College President highlights a number of trends in the presidency over the past twenty years. The proportion of presidents who are from racial or ethnic minority groups has nearly doubled and the proportion who are women has more than doubled since 1986, although the presidency still remains largely male and largely white. Presidents today are also somewhat more likely than they were twenty years ago to be recruited from outside of academe and to have never served on the faculty. Growing demands for accountability, expectations for fund raising, and new budgetary pressures were foremost among the changes in the nature of the job, the survey found.

FINDINGS

Changing Face of the Presidency

• The proportion of presidents who were from racial or ethnic minority groups increased modestly between 1986 and 2006, from 8 percent to 14 percent; when minority-serving institutions are excluded, the proportion only stands at 10 percent.
• The percentage of presidents who were women rose from 10 percent in 1986 to 23 percent in 2006, but the growth of women in the presidency has slowed in recent years.
• The average age of presidents increased from fifty-two years in 1986 to sixty in 2006, and the proportion aged sixty-one and older increased from 14 percent to 49 percent.

Former Experiences of Presidents

• Twenty-one percent of presidents in 2006 had served in a presidency in their immediate prior position.
• Thirty-one percent of presidents served as provost or chief academic officer before entering their current position.
• Thirteen percent of presidents worked outside of academe in their immediate prior position.

Presidential Duties and Concerns

• Fund raising, budgeting, community relations, and planning were the responsibilities on which presidents surveyed in 2006 said they spent the most time.
• Presidents were most likely to cite relations with faculty, legislators, and governing boards as their greatest challenges.
• Long-serving presidents reported that fund raising, accountability and assessment of student learning, and budget/financial management were the three areas that had increased in importance the most during their tenure.

The American College President is available for purchase from ACE.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Presidents surveyed in 2006 had served an average of 8.5 years in office—the highest recorded average tenure in the history of the survey.
• Thirty-one percent of presidents in 2006 had never been a full-time faculty member.
• Seventy-one percent of public institution presidents cited decreases in state funding as one of the most important drivers of change in the presidency.