Survey guides aspiring community college presidents.

Women and minorities aren't a growing proportion of community college presidents. That's the big finding of a study presented at the American Association of Community Colleges convention in Long Beach CA in April.

The survey is the fifth by Dr. George Vaughan, professor of higher education at North Carolina State University, his third with Dr. Iris Weisman, associate professor of higher education at Antioch University McGregor.

Women's representation among community college presidents rose dramatically from 18% in 1996 to 28% in 2001, then leveled off to 29% in 2006.

Ethnic minorities had no such increase in the 1990s and decreased after 2001, when they led 14% of community colleges. In the 2006 survey 87.9% were white, 5.9% African American, 4.2% Hispanic or Latina/o and the rest Asian American or other.

What are the study's implications for women who'd like to lead a community college?

Vacancies and the pipeline

Today's top leaders average more than nine years as presidents, sometimes changing schools, and seven years in their current presidencies. On average, they are 58 years old and plan to retire at 65.