Our alliance was mutually supportive, and she benefited as well as I. As an Executive Assistant, I learned from her about the world of higher education administration. My mentor delegated, coached, and thrust me into situations where I was scared, yet she and her team supported me along the way. Conversely, she recognized that her new position required her to enter a community that was mostly Puerto Rican and African American, where community leaders viewed her appointment with skepticism. As the daughter of a father who had engaged with this Puerto Rican community, I was able to be a mediator with the community and assure its members that she indeed cared about them and would work to improve the college. She and I learned from each other, sharing what we knew from our different perspectives and strengthening our work in the process. 

While my mentor did not “talk the talk”--she never voiced opinions about multicultural leadership--she practiced it. She pulled together a team that included me, an African American woman, a Jewish man, and a Puerto Rican man. It was one of the youngest administrative teams in all of the City University of New York system. It was also the most committed, energetic, gifted, collaborative, cooperative team that I have ever worked with. We did not fight simply to fulfill our individual responsibilities; we fought for the College and its mission, accomplishing our goals in order to provide the students the best education possible. At that time closure of the campus was possible. As a team we decided that would never happen. 

My journey into administration originated from these early experiences of diversity and partnership. Throughout my career alliances among women continued to assist me. I have learned through my colleagues and friends that these coalitions strengthen not only an individual’s self-development, but also strengthen institutions, communities, and women’s opportunities in higher education administration. I have learned many lessons that I would like to share. They illustrate the advantages of multicultural alliances and how to avoid pitfalls along the way. 

Personal Allies and Professional Choices

As I entered my career, I found it difficult to choose between my love for teaching and my new-found love of higher education administration. I wondered, How can I have both? My alliances with three very powerful women helped me understand how to negotiate my career. The late Edgar Beckham of the Ford Foundation and then Senior Fellow at AAC&U brought these women together to assess the impact of Ford’s initial diversity grants. The trio became my mentors, my friends, and my sisters. Each one came from a very different cultural perspective and background than my own: one African American, one Caucasian, one Jewish American, some middle class, one Lesbian, some faculty, some administrators, some raised in urban environments, others suburban, some married or in committed relationships. We were different yet bound by our passion for social justice and equality in higher education. We created for each other a safe space to discuss our fears and provide advice not only regarding our research and our careers, but our personal lives as well.

Our friendship helped us to realize how important these ties are for an individual. Because of this learning experience, I was able to see the world through several different lenses. How does a white woman feel when she works for diversity issues and people of color question her sincerity? How does an African American woman experience the pressures of being president of a college in an urban city? How do we ensure that the voices of Puerto Ricans are not lost as we educate others that Latino is not a homogenous term and that there is rich diversity within as well as between groups? How can we speak about class and the intersection of our multiple selves? As we addressed these questions, we had deep and sometimes difficult conversations; we walked away enriched by what we had learned, able to bring a new understanding to our professions and communities.

As I searched for my next administrative role, these women provided indispensable support. They helped me determine whether a position at a particular institution was right for me; they reviewed my cover letters; they advised me on which references to use. Through their personal and professional connections they assisted me in probing the true inner workings of the institution. When there were disappointments, positions for which I was not selected, their voices and encouragement kept me going! “There are over 3,500 institutions of higher education in this country,” one of them shared. “The right match for you is out there.”

Our professional work as well as our personal careers benefited from our collaboration. We worked on several research projects together, publishing work enhanced by our different perspectives. Our drafts crossed the country through cyberspace. Our late night or early morning calls explored how we could include each of our analyses, each of our voices, each of our different perspectives on the same data. Together we enhanced the analysis of our research, and thus enriched our publications with our multiple perspectives.

A World Bereft of Multicultural Alliances: Work Still to be Done

The four of us continue to offer each other support as we travel through the maze of life. Yet while so many of my alliances with women from all backgrounds have enriched my life, I have also experienced disappointments. I have seen women failing to support other women, not because those women lacked knowledge or qualifications, but because of internalizing socially constructed biases. I am still shocked to hear some women say that they would rather work for men than women, that women can’t make tough decisions, that women of color are “high maintenance,” or that women leaders have a tendency to engage in office gossip.

In search committees I have witnessed women of the dominant culture hold women from different backgrounds to higher standards than men interviewing for the same position. Often women of color have begun their careers in community colleges or in student affairs. Yet search committees fail to see the successes of these women, or assess the strength of the skills and knowledge they have acquired to determine if they are right for a position. Instead, these women are judged on the false benchmarks of the traditional career ladder. If women are committed to equality, we need to expand our perspectives by supporting our sisters based on their accomplishments and the needs of the position. We need to affirm that the traditional career ladder is not the only way to advance. 

As women in multicultural alliances, we must work together to continue the strides we have made in higher education administration. While women today are entering the administrative world in larger numbers than ever before, much work remains. A review of the data found in the American Council of Education’s report on the American President shows that women presidents still have not reached parity with men in senior level administrative positions. In other administrative positions, we find women of color in larger numbers in student affairs, human resources, and diversity positions than in provost or academic affairs positions. While women have earned notable appointments, such as to the presidencies of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Brown, women--particularly women of color--are still in the minority in senior level positions. By strengthening women’s multicultural alliances throughout the higher education community, we can jointly strive to change this reality.  

Working with powerful women has been so enriching to my life and career. As multicultural women, we have made much progress in improving higher education administration. We must continue to do so both in the administrative ranks and everywhere else on our college campuses. So much more needs to be done. Don Imus’ recent comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team underscore that some people believe that it is acceptable to demean and degrade women of color. His egregious comments demonstrate that educators and administrators must continue our work on campus, where our students listen to and sing song lyrics that contain offensive language about women. While Imus made his comments as a public figure, we all hear similar comments about women of all races voiced subtly and quietly around us. Using this incident as a launching point, we need to engage in dialogue, call out racism and sexism in all places, and fight to eradicate it in all forms--including popular music. Imus may be off the air, but our work is not done. Together, through multicultural women’s alliances, we can demand change and be there as professionals to be sure it actually happens.