Chief Diversity Officer Resources: Home

Cejda, McKenney and Burley share their results of a study on the sequence of positions held by current chief academic officers at community colleges. Six career lines are included as well remarks on the faculty position being the most common entry into the college labor market.

Given that this study touched on the sensitive topic of diversity, very little research exist on the subject of chief diversity officers (CDO), this research investigated the emergence of the CDO position within higher education. This qualitative study examined seven CDOs and their institutions, in order to assess the impact these leaders' are having on the campus culture at their institutions as multicultural educators'. The CDOs at the institutions differed in how they ascended to that role, their titles, who they reported to, and areas of responsibilities. Some cited near perfect harmony among members of the campus community around diversity issues, while others had met with challenges. Additionally, the CDOs did experience some success with collaboration on diversity initiatives.

Diversity leaders in higher education are not expected to be White males, though men of color are as prevalent as women of color in these positions.1 Since racial and gender justice is typically not seen as part of White men's personal agenda, they are expected, minimally, to be tolerant of diversity efforts in higher education as long, of course, as those efforts do not impose too great a burden on White men, and maximally, to be strong supporters of men and women of color and White women as they champion diversity in predominantly White institutions of higher education.

At least one former CDO became a provost. [...]last June, Steve O. Michael filled the role of provost and vice president for academic affairs for five years at Arcadia University in Pennsylvania. Because of the demands of their jobs, chief diversity officers develop the administrative skills necessary for higher positions, Jones says.

From the 1944 G.I. Bill, which brought an unprecedented number of returning World War II veterans into higher education, to the Pell Grant, which provides degree pathways for lower-income students, expanding access to higher education has been a national priority for decades. Many campuses merged the separate cultural centers of earlier decades into multicultural affairs offices to respond to expanding definitions of campus diversity, which had come to include gender identity or expression, nationality, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, and other key identities. THE CREATION OF THE CHIEF DIVERSITY OFFICER ROLE: 2000s-2010s: INSTITUTIONALIZING THE WORK OF EQUITY AND INCLUSION Student activism in the early 2000s, together with drastic shifts in the demographic composition of college and university campuses over the three prior decades, resulted in the establishment of new senior-level positions dedicated to diversity and inclusion. [...]college campuses have become much more diverse in terms of race, gender, generational status, nationality, ethnicity, linguistic background, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, and socioeconomic status, among other social identities.