New ACE Report Presents Data on College Presidents Who Are Black

A new report from the American Council on Education finds that the college presidency remains older, White, and male.

The report found that in 2022, 77.2 percent of college and university presidents were White. Blacks or African Americans were 13.6 percent of college or university presidents, approximately equal to the percentage of Blacks in the U.S. population.

Blacks were 14.1 percent of all women college or university presidents and Black were 13.3 percent of all male presidents.

Here are some other notable statistics from the report relating to race or ethnicity.

Over half (55 percent) of presidents planned to step down from their current positions within the next five years. Of the presidents of color who planned to step down within the next five years, nearly one in five planned to retire without seeking another position. This anticipated change in leadership, particularly among already underrepresented groups, will not only affect the diversity of the presidency, but it will also impact several hundred institutions and the many students, faculty, and staff who attend and work at them.

Presidents of color were less likely than White presidents to feel that the search process provided a clear understanding of the institution or system’s expectations.

Only 53 percent of Black women presidents said they were given a “realistic assessment of the current challenges facing the institution/system.” For White women, the figure was 68 percent.

More than half of presidents arrived to the presidency through the traditional faculty or academic pathway. White women and women of color were more likely than White men and men of color to have arrived via this pathway to the presidency.