DiversityInc - October 2008

We’re disappointed. Colleges and universities are nowhere near the level of private industry in implementing or measuring diversity management. We learned this over the last 10 months, when we surveyed 606 public and private four-year schools about their diversity management.

Unlike most other publications, DiversityInc is always transparent about our methodology and our response rate. So we tell you honestly that after an exhaustive effort on our part to get them to complete our 91-question survey, including three deadline extensions, only 15 actually finished. Compare this with The 2008 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity® survey, which has twice the questions and had 352 participants, up from 317 the year before.

Why did so few colleges and universities fill this out? They’re not ready. About 50 started the survey but didn’t complete it, stating that they either didn’t have the data or felt that their answers were so paltry they couldn’t enter them.

But this is about the 15 that did finish it, and the five that stand head and shoulders above the rest, which we call The DiversityInc Top Colleges & Universities. Those five include three public universities and two private universities. Of the five, four are on the East Coast, reflecting the geographic racial diversity of their regions in part but also the trend for progressive efforts to start on the East Coast, as corporate diversity did.

perts and asking them to compare the existing DiversityInc Top 50 survey with their perceptions on what was relevant for higher education. The experts we surveyed were: Dr. William Harvey, vice president and chief officer, Diversity and Equity, University of Virginia, and former vice president and director of the Center for Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity at the American Council on Education; Bernard J. Milano, president of The PhD Project, whose mission is to get more Blacks, Latinos and American Indians to receive doctorates in business disciplines; ReNee’ Dunman, assistant to the president and director of equal op-portunity/affirimative action of the American Association for Affirmative Action at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.; Kevin Jennings, founder and executive director of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Network); Jonathan Alger, vice president and general counsel, Rutgers University, who also was a lead attorney in the Univer- Sources: DiversityInc, National Center for Education Statistics sity of Michigan’s legal fight for affirmative action; Dr. Steven Diner, chancellor, Rutgers University-Newark; and Dr. dt ogilvie, associate professor of business management, Rutgers University-Newark. In the interest of full disclosure, we note that Luke Visconti, partner and cofounder of DiversityInc, is a trustee of Rutgers University, New Jersey City University and Bennett College for Women. Visconti did not participate in the evaluation of

the colleges and universities, and his relationship to Rutgers in no way influenced the determination, which was based entirely on objective metrics.

We first sent out the surveys in November 2007 after researching the correct contact person at the 606 four-year colleges and universities. In 90 percent of the schools, there was no diversity director or head of diversity, and we were instructed to send the survey to the head of HR or the head of communications. Initially, about 100 schools expressed interest, but that number dwindled.

Percent of Student Body

Blacks, Latinos, Asians and American Indians

53%

40%

32%

DiversityInc Top Colleges & Universities for Diversity

All participants Nationally

THE METHODOLOGY

We decided early on to focus only on undergraduate programs and four-year schools. Before we developed the survey, we spent six months interviewing academic ex-

The five schools we selected showed a consistent high-level commitment to diversity in all four areas we surveyed. Based on the DiversityInc Top 50 model, the four areas were Human Capital, President/Chief Academic Officer Commitment, Communications and Supplier Diversity.