The role of the chief diversity officer in higher education

Colleges and universities regularly espouse their commitment to diversity in mission statements, strategic plans, websites, and marketing materials. Many, however, struggle with the realities of enacting this commitment. To address diversity on their campuses, a mounting number of institutions have developed a new executive position to oversee diversity efforts: the chief diversity officer (CDO). This dissertation explores how the CDOs and campus leaders at two private universities understood the CDO role at their institutions, including its possibilities for effecting change and its limitations. Data for this research was collected through interviews with 38 campus participants. The study found that the CDOs at these two sites encountered multiple challenges in their roles, including contested diversity values on their campuses, limited formal authority to mandate and enforce diversity initiatives, and charges that their positions were purely symbolic. In the midst of these challenges, the CDOs in this study strove to use their unique positions in the university to advise the institution's top executives and influence high-level decision-making, and they relied on their ability to establish strong collaborative relationships across the campus community to gain buy-in for diversity efforts.