Author Archives: elphaf

Welcome to Blogs@Baruch!

This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging.

In the event of a search for a senior administrator at a College or University, the search committee in that institution should consider several angles in making their final decision. Extraordinary work ethics, educational degree, experience, fund raising abilities and management skills are some of the obvious requirements. However, what most search committees do not focus on immediately, and what this paper addresses, are the talents within their own institution and making their institution a more diverse body.

Diversity is one of the buzzwords words in higher education which can trigger a heated discussion, bring people together as one and result in new goals and missions for an institution. The Hanover Reports “Ensuring Diversity in Tomorrow’s University Management: Succession Planning and Affirmative Action” and “Effective Practices for Succession Planning in Higher Education”, encourages Human Resource to address diversity and successive planning when searching for upper level administrators. By doing so, the higher education institution will also keep in line with their Affirmative Action policies.

According to Nielsen’s, Queens is the most diverse county in the United States. Located in the county of Queens, Queensborough Community College (QCC) proudly boasts being one of the most diverse colleges. Therefore ideally, QCC’s staff should replicate its student body in terms of diversity. However, based on my own observation and a report by the Institutional Research department at QCC, this is not the case at the senior administrator level. QCC upper administration staff is predominantly older Caucasians females.  At this point in time QCC is ahead of the rest in term of gender discrimination, since most senior administrators are older Caucasian males; however, it has failed in the area of racial diversity.

By employing a more diverse administration, the institution opens itself to an increased creativity, as a result of new ideas which stems from different cultural heritages. If QCC employs a more diverse administration, it will enhance the trust and faith that its diverse student body have for upper administrators, decrease the interpersonal conflicts between employees and even decrease the number of lawsuits aimed at the school for prejudice. This is because human being associate a comfort level with their own kind and during interaction with their kind, there is less tension, worry and judgment amongst each other. Consequently, employees feel encouraged to work towards the improvement of the institution, when they work in a diverse environment.

In addition to these benefits, QCC will be keeping in line with its Affirmative Action policies by correcting the current inequality in racial diversity, which exists within its upper administration.  At QCC, department chairs are encouraged to select a prospective faculty that meets the affirmative action requirement from their pool of top candidates. At the lower administrator level, QCC has shown an improvement in the area of employing directors of different racial backgrounds, religions and socio-cultural backgrounds. Over time, I expect that QCC will have a more diverse upper administration. This has already begun to happen since the last president was Hispanic.

Another crucial strategy that QCC practices is promoting within its ranks. The current Interim President, Dr. Diane Call, has a career span of over thirty years within QCC. As the Hanover report suggest, succession planning is key since it focuses on talent within the institution and encourages promoting capable staff to critical positions. At QCC this was the case with most of its female administrators. However, succession planning is a neglected concept in most higher education institutions. There is a desire to employ administrators from outside of the college, which results in a “failure to grow the potential internal leadership” and presents the challenge of instilling a desire for the college’s success in the new employee. At QCC, the women have earned the skillset needed to perform their duties by being apprentices to their leaders and observing the operations of the institution. Furthermore, these women have a natural allegiance to QCC as a result of their years of service.

Hanover reports that succession planning should not only be applied to leaders that are recruited from inside the college but also the outside successors; next generation leadership. The “main goal of succession planning is to ensure turnover in the managerial and administrative ranks will not have a negative effect on performance” at the institution. Succession planning eradicates the problem of a “leadership gap phenomenon”. With the Baby Boomers retiring, there is a fear that there will be a loss in leadership abilities in the next generation. However, with succession planning the institution can prepare the next generation of leaders for their upcoming roles. By adopting a “talent mindset, managers and administrators become responsible for enhancing the talent in each employee, and acknowledging that ‘having better talent at all levels’ is the way to  gain a competitive advantage.”

According to the Hanover reports, this can be done by having all current administrators write out their own job description in detail, in addition to their web of contacts that help their successor perform their current duties smoothly. Another tool is to have a mentoring program, whereby successors can build a relationship with current administrators, and also observe the traits of an administrator. These tools will enable the successors to perform their new duties much more efficiently and effectively.

Currently, at QCC like many other Colleges, this concept is practiced at less challenging roles such as administrative assistants, counselors, advisors and college assistants. I believe that QCC employs several young leaders who are highly educated, in roles where these individuals’ talents are being underutilized in simple duties. Research has shown that some of the most successful leaders have been promoted from within an institution. These individuals should be challenged and prepared to lead the institution towards its goals and growth plans. With a lack of initiative on QCC’s part, I feel that the school will lose many of its young talent to other institutions, and will be forced to replace them with individuals who lack knowledge of the culture of the institution.

By employing the concept of diversity and succession planning, the institution should not be blinded to potential talent from other institution that would greatly benefit the institution. Completely forgoing capable candidate, to employ a candidate that meets Affirmative Action requirements, or to promote from within for the sake of promotion, can cause more damage than good to an institution. The Hanover reports remind us that the purpose of succession planning and diversity within a college is “to maintain an open, efficient, ethical methodology that supports each and every qualified candidate for an administrative position in an equal and non-biased manner.”