The Treatment and Use of Best Practices for Diversity in Position Announcements for New Presidents

This study investigated how well institutions were communicating their commitment to diversity within position announcements for presidential openings and whether or not this communication reflected best practices in forwarding the diversity agenda for institutions. The sample included 70 institutions that advertised for a new campus president in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Using documents pertaining to the search, we applied content analysis to position announcements and campus websites dealing with presidential searches and diversity. Evidence indicated that within our sample only 13 (19 %) of institutions stated directly that they were looking for a diverse applicant pool and that only 28 (40 %) of the announcements mentioned diversity.