Career Paths of Student Affairs Administrators at California Community Colleges

This study evaluated the career paths of student affairs administrators (deans and vice presidents) in the California community college system. Top administrators are retiring at alarming rates and there are not enough potential leaders in the pipeline to fill these vacancies. Charting the career paths of individuals who have obtained top-level positions provides perspectives to help aspiring professionals plan their futures. In addition, institutions will need to rethink the current recruiting processes in order to identify potential candidates for these leadership roles. Data was gathered via a survey instrument sent to deans and vice presidents in student affairs at the 110 California community colleges. A total of 126 (34% return rate) responded to the survey. There were 41 vice presidents and 85 deans that responded (58.7% women and 41.3% men). Separate career paths were calculated for VPs and deans utilizing Twombly (1988) criterion of 10% of each sample holding a first previous position and 5% of the total sample for each earlier position. Results of this study indicate there are clear career paths to the student affairs administrator position at a California community college. However, the pathway to these positions is not different for men and women. Both the VP and the dean’s current position yielded four distinct career paths. The most common career path for VP was (1) counselor to (2) student services director or associate dean to (3) student services dean or associate vice president to (4) vice president. The most common career path for dean was (1) student services director or associate dean to (2) student services director or associate dean to (3) dean.
Major findings indicate several trends for the personal characteristics of student affairs administrators. First, men still tend to be married more than women. However, in other areas, there seems to be more of equality between genders. Women are earning doctorate degrees and they are attaining top-level positions at an equal rate of men. For both genders, administrators are an older population, they spend fewer years in each position and more plan on retiring than earlier studies showed. This study also stressed the importance of getting involved with internal and external professional development as well as finding a mentor. This body of research is important for both institutions to understand how they can fill future administrative openings when there is an apparent lack of potential candidates in the current pipeline, and for potential candidates to know what characteristics are most common for those who have attained administrative positions in the California community college system.