She adds that Asian-Americans in particular have been successful at increasing their ranks in academia, but seem to lack a presence in senior administration.

"Why don't we see more Asian-American college presidents? It appears to me that they're not getting the kind of opportunities they should for making such a large amount of progress in a short period of time," she says.

To Reason Why

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Besides the traditional excuse that academia--and especially the rarified ranks of Harvard's tenured faculty--have lacked suitable minority candidates for administrative posts, officials also point to other reasons for this problem.

Plummer Professor of Christian Morals Peter J. Gomes says that in his conversations with minority students, few have expressed any interest in moving into the field of university administration.

"Most wanted to go on to professional school and make money or do good in a big way," he says. "An office in University Hall does not seem to appeal to our upwardly mobile students."

In addition, once minorities enter the university hierarchy, they are spread thin among committees and university functions that "need" a minority presence, according to Fields.

"We've all been led to believe diversity is a good thing," Gomes says. "If you don't have enough people to diversify, the people you do have tend to get overworked. That tends to drive people away because they tend to not want to be a diversity factor."