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Priming the Pipeline BY PETER ARANDA As CEO of an organization work- ing to diversify the executive pipeline in the U.S., I am always looking for signs that the business world has finally seen diversity for what it is—not a problem that minorities need to solve, but a tre- mendous opportunity for all busi- nesses. I have always assumed that once this happened, the job pros- pects for gifted business-minded minorities would greatly improve. The Supreme Court's ground- breaking 2003 decisions in Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger looked like just the signs I'd hoped for. The Court ruled that ethnically diverse enrollment is beneficial for all students, not just minorities, and that diversity is a compelling state interest. Finally, there was an irrefutable endorsement of diversity's inherent value to society! Finally, business leaders would no longer discuss whether diversity should be toler- ated, valued, or embraced; instead, they would consider how diversity could benefit students, workers, consumers, and the overall economy. Finally, the corporate world would address the glaring disparity between demographics in the real world and demographics in office suites—and business schools would do the same. Unfortunately, that's not what happened. More than eight years later, nonminority Caucasians still dominate the workplace. Accord- ing to data from the U.S. Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, they take up 89 percent of the jobs, despite making up just 70 percent of 30 January/February 2012 BizEd total U.S. population, among chil- dren under five, the number drops to 53 percent. That signals huge changes in America's population in the next few decades. You wouldn't know it to look at the enrollment statistics of the top 50 full-time MBA programs. The latest U.S. News & World Report research shows that nonminority Caucasians make up 72.4 percent of the student population at these schools, followed by Asian Americans at 15.9 percent, African Americans at 6.1 percent, Hispanic Americans at 5 percent, and Native Americans at 0.6 percent. The results are even more disturbing if you factor in international students, who represent 30.7 percent of the population. Among the rest, Cau- There is a scant indication that case studies are being developed that will prepare American students to manage and lead multicultural workforces. the American population. Minority groups—Hispanic, Asian, African, and Native Americans—account for only 10.8 percent of the workforce, though they represent 30 percent of the population. (Specifically, African Americans represent 13 percent, His- panic Americans 12 percent, Asian Americans 4 percent, and Native Americans 1 percent.) But the tide is about to turn. Immigration patterns and changes in birthrates have resulted in growth among minority groups and decline among nonminorities. While Caus- casians represent 70 percent of the casians comprise 50.1 percent. The remaining ethnic groups drop to only 11 percent, 4.3 percent, 3.4 percent, and 0.4 percent, respectively. The picture for minority faculty and administrators is even worse. Minorities represent only 3.5 per- cent of the populations of both, says Bernie Milano, president of The PhD Project, which works to increase the pool of minorities in the corporate world. (See "Diversity and the Doctorate" on page 34.) Apparently, business schools prefer to focus on school rank- ings rather than population trends. © SUZY GORMAN