Rising to the helm of two-year institutions continues to be a challenge for aspiring African American college presidents
During the late 1960s, Dr. Raymond Bowen was fresh out of graduate
school and teaching biology at Cleveland State University in Ohio. His
goals at the time were to achieve tenure, conduct research, and
eventually win a Nobel Prize.
He thought it was an ambitious but attainable career plan. Then, fate intervened.
Disgruntled over the slow pace of change on their campus, Cleveland
State minority students demanded that the president appoint a new Black
administrator. As the youngest Black faculty member and someone thought
to be sensitive to student concerns, Bowen was the logical choice. He
became Cleveland State’s first assistant to the president for minority
affairs in 1968.
“Administration was the furthest thing from my mind,” Bowen says now, recalling the vents that change his life.
After several promotions, he left the four-year institution for an
associate deanship at La Guardia Community College in New York. That
post lead to appointments at other community colleges before he landed
his first presidency at Shelby Community College in Memphis, Tennessee,
in 1982. Bowen returned to La Guardia to become its president in 1989.
Three decades have passed since Bowen’s career took its fortuitous
turn. While the climb to the top may be less subject to the whims of
fate for today’s African American scholars, those who sit at the helm
of community colleges are still scant in numbers.
