Examples of Good Practice from American Council on Education

The Spectrum Initiative: Advancing Diversity in the American College Presidency

Capitalizing on the imminent wave of college presidents’ retirements and the resulting opportunity to ensure a more inclusive pool of leadership talent, a group of leading U.S. higher education associations, led by the American Council on Education, have launched The Spectrum Initiative. This multi-year national agenda is designed to diversify and broaden executive leadership talent in higher education through programmatic and research initiatives involving, among others, institutional boards of trustees, executive search firms, campus search committees, current presidents, and aspiring leaders. The major goal of the initiative is to broaden and strengthen the leadership pipeline for women and racial/ethnic minority administrators and prepare them for senior leadership positions in higher education.

Bridging the Gap Between Multicultural Education and Internationalization

Few institutions have fully brought internationalization and multicultural education together in synergistic ways. Yet, the American Council on Education (ACE) believes that the two areas have much they can substantively contribute to each other. Indeed, neither area is complete without consideration of what the other brings to bear in terms of understanding and living effectively with difference. ACE’s Center for Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity and Center for International Initiatives (CII) are collaboratively building on their history of work on internationalization, access, success, equity, and diversity to advance the national discussion on bridging the gap between internationalization and multicultural education. This work has been advanced through a roundtable discussion held in 2006; a publication entitled, At Home in the World: Bridging the Gap Between Internationalization and Multicultural Education and by a national symposium held in June 2008 which convened teams of institutional leaders to discuss the issues, showcased examples of good practice in fostering collaboration between these two areas, and provided opportunities to discuss advancing campus conversations and good practice.

This page is part of a series of Examples of Good Practice.