NICOLAS MARTINEZ

In the aftermath of the Baylor University sexual assault scandal last year, administrators announced the university’s first female president a few weeks ago. Dr. Linda A. Livingstone will take the position. That’s big.

My own alma mater, the College of William and Mary, announced recently that President Taylor Reveley would be stepping down to enjoy the fruits of retirement starting in 2018. The Board of Visitors is currently devising a plan on how and who to pick as his replacement. This presents a large opportunity for the College to rise up as a leader in higher education.

The College touts its position as a leader in diversity and intellectual thought, listing diversity as one of its “core values.” Now is the time to practice what they preach — it is imperative that the Board of Visitors takes careful measures to consider women and people of color when considering their search for a new president. William and Mary has never had a president that isn’t a white man — that doesn’t bode well for marginalized students on campus, and given the College’s already tense campus situation around race and gender discrimination (here, here, and yes, even here), now is the time to act.

Women are particularly underrepresented in positions of leadership across the board. Research shows that the more women elected to public office, the more legislation is passed that helps women. Women in office see themselves as “surrogate representatives” for all women, not just their county or district. Another study showed that nearly half of law school graduates are women, but women only represent 5% of managing partners at U.S. law firms. That same study suggested that academia could close the gender leadership gap by supporting women and women of color to become chief academic officers, provosts and senior executives, as they are stepping stones to the presidency. Women in leadership make better CEOs and make hedge funds perform better. The William and Mary community prides itself on diversity of thought, fostering intellectual innovation and teaching the young leaders of tomorrow. Now is their chance to jump-start the campus into the next decade of progress.

Establishing a working group or a task force is step one — but the College has a real opportunity to be a leader in higher education. While the administration has been pro-active in raising the debate on race and gender, the Board leadership is still vastly unequal. Of the 17 members, only 6 are women, and only 3 are people of color. The presidential search committee isn’t much better: of the 20 members, 7 are women and 5 are people of color. Ideally, they would address things like sexual assault and safety before federal investigations begin,

I love my alma mater, it is home to me and it represents so many things I stand for. But I’m afraid in this current political and social context, things like this may happen. The W&M community is watching.

There are a couple of ways for you to interact with the search committee. You can email the committee at presidentialsearch@wm.edu or you can provide feedback on the W&M website.