Higher Education Leaders Urged to Sign Commitment
ACE today announced the launch of the Moving the Needle: Advancing Women in Higher Education Leadership initiative,
a national campaign that asks presidents of colleges, universities and
related associations to commit to helping achieve the goal that by 2030,
half of U.S. college and university chief executives are women.
Although women now earn the majority of all
college degrees, they have made surprisingly little progress when it
comes to gaining the top job at colleges and universities. As of 2011,
26 percent of college and university presidencies were held by women, up
just three percentage points since 2006.
Because of the increasingly fast turnover
rate among the current generation of higher education senior leaders,
the initiative comes at a pivotal time to make more progress in
diversifying senior leadership across the board.
"As presidents, we must offer our sponsorship
and mentorship and recognize that every presidential vacancy is an
opportunity to advance women," said ACE President Molly Corbett Broad.
"The presidents that have already signed on have sent a powerful signal
about the importance of this issue and this commitment."
The Moving the Needle campaign is overseen by
the Inclusive Excellence Group of ACE's Leadership Division, which
offers a comprehensive suite of programs that support and advance higher
education leaders. Moving the Needle is designed to raise national
awareness about the importance of achieving gender parity and diversity
in higher education leadership and provide strategies to meet the goal
of equal representation of women in senior positions.
"For decades, ACE has demonstrated a
commitment to advancing women along the higher education pipeline," said
Kim Bobby, director of the Inclusive Excellence Group. "The Moving the
Needle call to action is a bold new initiative to increase awareness and
join together in a collective effort to increase and sustain gender
parity in higher education leadership."
ACE announced that 109 presidents and chancellors already have joined the campaign as inaugural signers.
Presidents interested in joining the campaign can click here to sign the statement of support.
For more information, click here.