Blenda J. Wilson, president of BJW Consulting, acting president of Cedar Crest College (PA), former president and chief executive officer of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, and former president of California State University at Northridge, focused her remarks on ways of supporting campus diversity. The leadership imperative, according to Wilson, is for academic and financial officers in independent colleges to work together, to be more collaborative, more strategic, and more creative. Excerpts from her address follow.

“Some institutions define diversity as an admissions and enrollment management issue and place it within the responsibility of student affairs; others define it as an academic issue related to student progression and retention. The most enlightened institutions—like those represented in this audience—understand that diversity is an ineluctable feature of contemporary American society, one that institutions of higher education must understand and embrace if we are to fulfill our role of educating our citizenry for the reality of our time. That you have included diversity, including faculty diversity, among higher education’s “vital investments” is an important recognition of this reality.…

[D]iversity, as an academic concept, has long been an intentional way for our institutions to include a wide range of abilities, experiences, perspectives, and ideas that the more exclusive systems of higher education in other countries do not…. I submit that sustaining diversity on our campuses is a greater imperative today than it has ever been before. And the reasons are manifest and undeniable. The United States is experiencing a dramatic demographic shift. Flows of immigration from Mexico, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Africa are transforming our population and our culture. Because of different growth patterns among these new groups, they are generally younger and, therefore, disproportionately of school-age.…

The fastest growing segment of our school-age population is made up of minority students, students of color, and students from low-income families—groups that have been historically underserved in our schools. If America’s competitive economic standing and quality of life are to be maintained, we must find ways for this young, traditionally underserved population to replace the Baby Boom Generation as they leave the workforce. While the United States spends more on higher education than many other developed countries, we have been falling behind in degree completion of 25- to 34-year-old citizens for more than a decade….

Independent colleges have been the models of excellence with diversity and they’ve been disproportionately represented among the institutions that change students’ lives…. Because institutions of higher learning model the values they purport to teach, no discussion of campus diversity would be complete without considering the dismal progress we have made in diversifying faculty and staff, particularly faculty. This may be the area in which we have made the least progress and have been the least creative (and ought to be most ashamed of ourselves.)

The issues surrounding the hiring of faculty members of color reflect the cumulative impact of unequal access to education, from high school through college and graduate school. Because the numbers of minority college graduates have been historically low, even with considerable progress in PhD attainment in the last 25 years, the pool remains small. There is evidence, however…that minority graduates from highly rated institutions had received few offers for tenure track appointments. We, therefore, need not only to increase the pipeline of persons of color who aspire and attain academic credentials, but we need to understand better the barriers they may face in securing academic positions….

The conclusions I draw about higher education and diversity are embedded in my view of the historic role our institutions have played as agents of social mobility, liberal arts education, and principles of social justice. Higher education is far more diverse now than it has ever been, proving that those values are intact and that we have the capacity to change. In these times of increased global competition and permanently altered demographics, our colleges and universities must lead the nation in assuring that our more diverse citizenry will have the skills, knowledge, and attributes necessary for success in the 21st century. Your institutions have a major role to play in achieving that goal.”

The full text of Wilson’s presentation is available here on the CIC website.