Small Liberal Arts Colleges: Positive Report from a Gathering of Presidents

Rick Seltzer's post from November 11, 2016, "The Future of the Tiny Liberal Arts College," presents an interesting summary from a meeting of fifteen small college presidents held earlier in the year. Seltzer reports that the presidents addressed opportunities and challenges faced by their institutions and that conversations emphasized the ability of the smaller institutions to try different approaches rather quickly when they see an opportunity.

The Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation provided support for the meeting and the foundation's president, Julie J. Kidd, commented in a summary that the “...discussion affirmed the benefits of small scale: small class size, meaningful faculty-student interactions, and participation in a strong academic and campus community...” 

Seltzer also interviewed others from the higher education community for the article and their comments underscore the notion that these institutions thrive when they focus on a particular niche or approach and then are consistent over the longer term in hiring committed faculty and staff.  

I particularly appreciated the comments of Hal Hartley, senior vice president for The Council of Independent Colleges.  He indicated that his organization is working on an analysis of the financial strengths at its member institutions and noted one preliminary finding is that small institutions are demonstrating greater financial stability than some with more than 3,000 students.  Hartley concluded, "…size isn’t necessarily your destiny.  Just because you’re small doesn’t mean that you can’t survive financially, that there’s not a viable model.”