Sex Disparity: The Real Crisis in the HBCU Presidential Leadership Crisis Narrative

A national narrative around a historically Black college and university (HBCU) presidential turnover rate crisis has emerged in the last few years. Much of the narrative around this story is absent or lightly nods to the contextual adversities facing historically Black colleges and universities and their decades of under-resourcing. Almost none of the narrative analyzes the HBCU presidential turnover rates in context of the national landscape of higher education. This work presents not only the national content of presidential turnover rates for HBCUs in context of the national landscape, but it also presents further examination of the consistent and emergent trends for HBCU executive leadership with a specific examination of the data surrounding sex disparity in hiring and retention of female HBCU leaders. The work presents implications for future research that will provide a more robust depiction of the real crisis in HBCU presidential turnover: sex-based disparity in board composition.