NEW ORLEANS — Although Black students enroll in great numbers at America’s community colleges, the number of African-Americans who occupy the “C-suite” as chancellor, president or CEO remains embarrassingly low.
Throughout the 1990s, the number of Black community college CEOs hovered at about 4.9 percent. Today, the number of Blacks who are community college presidents has only grown to about 8 percent. Of the 1,067 community college CEOs, only 93 are Black.
“The numbers are not moving as quickly as we would expect,” said Dr. Kirk A. Nooks, president of Metropolitan Community College-Longview in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.
Since 1994, a handful of Black community college presidents have been actively working to reverse this trend.
Sponsored by the Presidents’ Round Table — an entity of the National Council on Black American Affairs and an affiliate of the American Association of Community Colleges — the Lakin Institute for Mentored Leadership was founded to prepare Black senior-level community college executives for positions as chief executive officers.
Named in honor of Dr. Thomas Lakin, who was a longtime president and community college chancellor and visionary, the institute has had tremendous success in producing the highest number of African-Americans who have gone on to assume CEO positions over any other leadership institute in the United States.
Of the 333 participants who have gone through the weeklong program, two have become chancellors, 86 have become community college presidents and about 13 have become provosts.
