Racial bias plays role in hiring leaders at UC, CSU and California Community Colleges, report says

Racial bias plays a role in hiring for executive-level posts at all three of California’s higher education systems, according to a recent report commissioned by education advocacy group College Futures Foundation — though one of those systems defended its record of diversity.

The study — titled “Whiteness Rules: Racial Exclusion in Becoming an American College President” — was conducted by research firm Bensimon & Associates and examined how the search for executive-level leadership within the University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges systems are structurally biased against people of color and women.

While the report mostly focused on the presidents and chancellors of the state’s three college systems, it also said lower-level leadership positions, such as vice presidents and deans, faced similar issues.

“There are presidential search practices and perceptions about who is fit to lead that favor white candidates, particularly males,” Estela Mara Bensimon, president and lead researcher for Bensimon & Associates, said in a recent press release. Those perceptions often “become obstacles for leaders of color who aspire to the presidency.”

The study involved extensive interviews with college presidents, executive search firms and other stakeholders, B&A said in its press release, and provides evidence that candidates are often evaluated based off a host of racial and gender biases.

The study also analyzed a slew of other issues within higher education hiring, including lack of transparency surrounding presidential searches, problems with job-opening announcements, recruitment and inequitable interviewing processes, as well as the influence of search committees, boards and executive search firms on the process.

The report also said there was pressure among presidents and applicants of color to conform to “white norms,” such as how they dress or talk.

“Presidents of color reported feeling that they risked not getting the job if they stray from these white norms,” Bensimon said in her statement late last month. “There’s an expectation to perform whiteness, which is necessary not only to meet white expectations — but most of all, to make the selection of candidates of color not appear to be a risk.”

About 70% of California’s college students are Latino, Asian American or Pacific Islander, and Black, according to Michele Siqueiros, president of Campaign for College Opportunity.

But a little more than half of all presidents or chancellors at California’s public higher education institutions are White, the report said.

And some universities and colleges have had few, if any, top leaders who were not White men, the B&A report said. Since the UC system was founded in 1868, for example, only 11% of campus chancellors have been people of color.

Former UC President Janet Napolitano, meanwhile, is the only woman to lead that system; her successor, former UC Irvine Chancellor Michael V. Drake, is the system’s first Black president.

Officials for the UC system did not respond to requests for comment.

But the CSU system, in a statement, defended its record of diversity among its leadership.

The CSU system, headquartered in Long Beach, educates the most ethnically, economically and academically diverse student body in the nation, according to its website.

And nearly 70% of CSU employees are women and minorities, the system’s website says.

Among the 23 campus presidents, meanwhile, 11 women and at least 11 are people of color. The interim CSU chancellor is Jolene Koester.

“In addition to gender diversity, the CSU’s presidential leadership represents the rich ethnic and cultural diversity of the students of California,” the chancellor’s office said in a recent email. “Our 23 equity-minded leaders have a passion for the students and the communities they serve.

“The CSU is committed to growing diversity and inclusion university-wide,” the email added, “including other key leadership roles.”

But Raquel Rall, a B&A researcher and UC Riverside associate professor of higher education, said the reports’ findings show that equity-mindedness must to be embedded into the search and appointment process in order to cultivate meaningful change.

“It has to be embedded in all facets,” Rall said during a late October presentation on the study. “Our report is just a drop in the bucket.”

But the report doesn’t just raise concerns about the hiring process — it also offers some solutions.

The report, for example, includes a “Tools to Redesign Presidential Search for Racial Equity,” toolkit, a guidebook that details the ways presidential search committees can better recruit and hire a diverse pool of individuals.

“This timely report and toolkit can help institutions examine the racial and gender biases in their processes for recruiting and selecting college presidents,” Eloy Ortiz Oakley, president and CEO of the College Futures Foundation, said in a statement, “and develop critical race-conscious standards and equity-focused procedures.”

Oakley spent six years as the chancellor of the California Community Colleges system before leaving earlier this year to join the CFF, which works to increase the share of students of color and low-income students who complete college.

Oakley, who served as the superintendent-president of Long Beach City College prior to taking the statewide post, became a prominent education official in California and, to a degree, the nation before joining CFF. He had a short-term advisory role in the U.S. Department of Education early in the Biden administration. And among is biggest achievements as community college chancellor was helping usher in the system’s Vision for Success, a student-centered path to close equity gaps, increase transfer rates and boost the number of students earning certificates and degrees.

Daisy Gonzales is the interim chancellor of the California Community Colleges system, which oversees 116 campuses that educate 1.8 million students annually.

“It takes diverse and equity-minded leaders,” Oakley said in his statement, “to close equity gaps for students.”

The toolkit offers context and guidelines that higher education institutions can implement to reduce bias, and improve equity and inclusion within their presidential search processes — opening the door further to more diverse leadership.

Those strategies include assembling and properly training search committees, hiring race-conscious executive search firms, evaluating and holding accountable the recruitment process, and assessing and improving job-opening announcements.

“If we are to successfully address the inequities in college completion and socioeconomic mobility, and create more inclusive environments for students, faculty and staff,” Bensimon said, “then California’s public higher education system must make diversifying the college presidency and other leadership roles a priority.”