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Representation and Pay Gap for Racial and Ethnic Minorities in Selected College Executive Posts, 2016

Almanac 2017 August 13, 2017

In only one top post, chief student-affairs or student-life officer, did people of racial and ethnic minorities represent more than 20 percent of all such job holders in 2016. Though minorities are underrepresented among higher-education administrators, in all selected roles except that of chief legal-affairs officer, minorities earned higher median salaries than did their white counterparts.

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In only one top post, chief student-affairs or student-life officer, did people of racial and ethnic minorities represent more than 20 percent of all such job holders in 2016. Though minorities are underrepresented among higher-education administrators, in all selected roles except that of chief legal-affairs officer, minorities earned higher median salaries than did their white counterparts.


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PositionWhiteMinorityMinority representationMedian salary for whitesMedian salary for minoritiesMinorities’ salary as a percentage of whites’
Chief library officer 644 59 8.4% $95,176 $115,000 120.8%
Chief human-resources officer 748 172 18.7% $109,128 $131,586 120.6%
Chief business officer 680 57 7.7% $184,016 $214,765 116.7%
Chief facilities officer 714 58 7.5% $115,536 $134,585 116.5%
Chief student-affairs/student-life officer 594 163 21.5% $137,706 $159,588 115.9%
Chief athletics administrator 676 67 9.0% $117,805 $135,000 114.6%
Chief public-relations officer 506 41 7.5% $110,975 $126,250 113.8%
Chief information/IT officer 767 102 11.7% $134,784 $152,324 113.0%
Chief financial officer 363 36 9.0% $170,000 $182,283 107.2%
Chief academic-affairs officer/provost 846 92 9.8% $190,000 $203,175 106.9%
Chief executive, single institution or campus within a system 860 97 10.1% $300,000 $315,972 105.3%
Chief institutional-research officer 599 92 13.3% $92,321 $96,027 104.0%
Chief development /advancement officer 756 47 5.9% $164,662 $168,300 102.2%
Chief legal-affairs officer 282 56 16.6% $191,459 $185,503 96.9%

Note: Racial and ethnic minorities comprise blacks or African-Americans, who made up 7 percent of higher-education administrators; Hispanics or Latinos, who made up 3 percent; Asians, who made up 2 percent; and other minorities, who made up 1 percent, in 2016. Data are based on a survey conducted in late 2016 and early 2017 that gathered information on 191 executive and senior-level-administrative positions at 1,125 institutions. Both public and private nonprofit, and both two-year and four-year, institutions participated in the survey.

Source: Bichsel, Jacqueline, and McChesney, Jasper. “Pay and Representation of Racial/Ethnic Minorities in Higher Education Administrative Positions: The Century So Far.” Research report. College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR), March 2017. Available from www.cupahr.org/surveys/briefs.aspx.

A version of this article appeared in the August 18, 2017, issue.
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