Hazard Ahead: The Impact of Higher Executive Turnover Rates on African-Americans' Navigation of the Professoriate at HBCUs

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2021

Abstract

This chapter will focus on Warde's (2009) use of phenomenological and qualitative analyses employed in “The Road to Tenure: Narratives of African American Male Tenured Professors” and focus on five African Americans at various stages of the professoriate with significant tracts of those tenures at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) which encountered significant executive turnover (i.e. more than two executive resignations/terminations in a 6.5 year period, equaling twice the national average according to the American Council on Education's 2017 study “The American College President”). The interviews brought light to ways that presidential turnover and constant flux in leadership at fragile institutions lead to predictable outcomes with regard to retention and tenure-track advancement, as well as provide a snapshot on the myriad ways African Americans must often adjust their career paths in order to pursue professorial employment at institutions often thought of as the most likely to support their efforts to earn tenure.

Department

University Advancement

ISBN

9781838672683

Publication Title

The Beauty and the Burden of Being a Black Professor

DOI

10.1108/S1479-364420210000024003

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