Radical Changes Urged for Colleges

Mary Landon Darden, founder and president of Higher Education Innovation, LLC, penned an op-ed for the January 24, 2021 issue of The Dallas Morning News, "Small colleges will need radical change to survive."

Darden begins with comments on recent changes at Sweet Briar College and closes by noting, "Survival will require all hands on deck. There are scary days ahead." In order to avoid closure, Darden suggests that:

• institutions must hire outstanding entrepreneurial leaders who understand the culture of the academy...;
• that those with ties to the colleges must support the institution both financially and with talents and energy;
• and, finally, we need to support those innovative, imaginative leaders taking essential, but unpopular steps to save institutions.

Waco Magazine provides an extensive interview with Darden that both summarizes her background and offers a variety of powerful observations about the current state of higher education, "Darden’s research aims to re-envision colleges for leading in the 21st century."

Rethinking the Role of Small Colleges in their Communities

Robert L. Fried and Eli O. Kramer argue in "Privileged Enclave or Village Commons? A Choice for Liberal Arts Colleges" at Inside Higher Ed on January 21, 2021 that "Nonelite small colleges face a pivotal choice: they can try to persevere by emulating elite Ivies, hoping to outlast the multiple threats they face; or they can remain true to their historic mission and high academic standards while extending the best traditions of liberal education to young people from surrounding community high schools, many of whose students now view their local college as “not a place for people like me.”

Or, as former Hampshire College president Gregory Prince notes, “The real task...is to get a lot more students to believe they have the potential to be successful, motivated learners, rather than to seek the few within diverse populations who have already bought into that vision."

Fried and Kramer conclude by noting that our "...democratic way of life, our embrace of the universal rights of human beings and the survival of our planet cannot remain the exclusive province of a highly educated and culturally sequestered gentility if we are to withstand the onslaught of populist, authoritarian ideologues and their exploitation of working-class and poor people. We must counter with a democratic way of living that is itself populist in its embrace of universal human aspirations for dignity, respect and inclusion amid an evolving global economy and a social media explosion."

The authors are affiliated with The New American Baccalaureate Project. You can visit the group's website for links to blog posts, podcasts, and other resources related to their Village Commons Initiative.

University President Shares Observations from Studying Small Independent Institutions

Mary Marcy, president of the Dominican University of California and the author of forthcoming book, The Small College Imperative: Models for Sustainable Futures, authored a post, "President Speaks: Don't sound the death knell for small liberal arts colleges just yet," on the Education Dive website.

Marcy shares insights she gained from a recent sabbatical studying the ways small institutions are changing as they face well documented challenges. She notes that the most successful institutions are "...are responding to the needs of current and emerging students, not the students that attended decades ago."

Highlighted strategies include institutions seeking to better meet needs of specific underserved groups, those focusing on student success through implementation of proven research based best practices, realigning locations and programs to more closely meet regional needs.

She concludes "...new ideas and creative approaches are fully into the implementation stage, enough so that we can learn from their development, and be encouraged that independent colleges, so crucial to the larger higher ed ecosystem, have the capacity to adapt and remain viable in this challenging era."

Berry College Invites Retirees to Campus

Matt Kempner of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on a new senior retirement complex, "Georgia college invites elderly to retire on campus." Kempner interviewed campus administrators and students at Berry College for the article and notes that the "...college also provided seed funding for the complex, which will offer independent and assisted living housing, as well as a nursing care facility."

Berry College traces its roots to the founding by Martha Berry in 1902 when she founded a school for boys in rural Georgia. A program for girls was added in 1909. A junior college program was offered in 1926 and a baccalaureate program after 1930.

Berry College is also known for student work experiences and student operated enterprises.  The senior retirement facility will offer opportunities for student employment.  The college enrolls 2,110 students.

Small Maryland Colleges Respond to Changing Higher Education Marketplace

The Baltimore Sun published "Maryland's small colleges saw the future, and it was bleak. Now, they're selling liberal arts with a twist" on May 10, 2019 with reporting by Liz Bowie.  Bowie focuses attention on changes at a couple of small private Maryland institutions as they maintain relevance in a changing higher education market. 

Responses differ from recent curricular changes at Goucher College in Baltimore to reduced tuition at St. John's College in Annapolis.

Bowie interviewed Lynn Pasquerella from the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Goucher president Jose Bower, Carol Carpenter, St. John's vice president for communications, and several faculty members and students. 

An interesting short video interview with professor Robin Cresiski, director of Goucher's Center for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching and Phong Le, professor of mathematics and computer science, is embedded in the article.

 

Nichols College is Featured for Steps Taken to Thrive in Competitive Environment

WGBH in Boston recently posted a five-minute segment produced in cooperation with The Hechinger Report, "As Small Private Colleges Keep Closing, Some Are Fighting Back," featuring interviews with students and faculty of Nichols College in Dudley, MA.

The text of the post offers additional information including specific recommendations offered by Nichols president, Susan Engelkemeyer.

You can also access a post on The Hechinger Report website, "As small private colleges keep closing, some are fighting back. The first step to a survival strategy: acknowledging that there’s a problem."

Nichols traced its roots to Nichols Academy founded in 1815. It closed in 1909 and later was reorganized as Nichols Junior College in 1931. The name changed to Nichols College of Business Administration in 1958 and then to Nichols College in 1971.

Small Colleges Share Strategies for Proactive Change

Inside Higher Ed posted an interesting article this morning by Colleen Flaherty summarizing conversations from the recent annual meeting of AAC&U, "Survival of the Proactive: Small-college leaders share how their institutions have attempted to ward off enrollment crises before they happen."  Flaherty focuses on recent changes presented at a panel by representatives of Allegheny College, Chatham University, and Dominican University of California. 

Allegheny College is located in Meadville, PA and enrolls 1,802 students.

Located in Pittsburgh, PA, Chatham University enrolls 2,269 students.

And, Dominican University of California enrolls 1,744 students in San Rafael, CA.

Guilford College and Every Campus a Refuge...A Case Study

The Association of American Colleges & Universities featured Guilford College in North Carolina in the group's December News, "Every Campus a Refuge: Guilford College's Powerful Effort to Help Refugees Resettle." The case study provides background information on the college and community Every Campus a Refuge (ECAR) initiative has hosted forty-two people from a variety of countries.

Diya Abdo, associate professor of English at Guilford served as a catalyst for the effort. She worked with campus administrators and Guilford's Center for Principled Problem Solving (CPPS) to both meet needs of refugees and develop links to Guilford's curriculum that include a cohort-based Principled Problem Solving Experience (PPSE) Minor.

Over 150 students, faculty, staff, and community members have participated in providing "...refugees with an on-campus faculty house, furniture from the college’s warehouse, and utilities including water, electricity, and internet. They also give families food from the campus’s farm on weekly basis, and in some cases they provided a semester of cafeteria meals. ECAR organizes donation drives for other items like clothes, food, and toys, and refugees can use bikes that had been abandoned or confiscated on campus."

You can visit the Guilford website for more information on Every Campus a Refugee or the Center for Principled Problem Solving (CPPS) that supports initiatives designed to solve real-world problems by applying the knowledge and skills gained through hands-on education and innovative research.

Colleges Preparing Students for Purposeful Work

The Chronicle of Higher Education posted an interesting article by Kelly Field, "How Colleges Help Find Purpose in Their Work," on September 2, 2018. Field focused on Bates College and other liberal-arts colleges seeking to clarify the connections between classroom and career, and to prepare students for lives of meaningful work.

You can also read an earlier Small College Garden post on Bates College and their concept of Purposeful Work from Wednesday, May 23, 2018, Preparing for the Future: Purposeful Work and a New Science Building at Bates College.

Preparing for the Future: Purposeful Work and a New Science Building at Bates College

Jenny Anderson published an article, "One college finally designed a liberal arts education fit for the future of work," for Quartz.  Anderson interviewed Clayton Spencer, president of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine and explores how the institution is offering a liberal arts curriculum that provides opportunities for students to prepare for purposeful work and life after college.

You can visit the Bates College website for more details on the Purposeful Work initiative that helps "...students discover the joy and power that arise from aligning who they are with what they do. It builds on the work that students do in class, in the arts, on athletic teams, with clubs and organizations, and through community engagement."

The college also recently announced a campaign for a new science building with construction planned to begin next year.

CIC Report Drives a Stake in Notion that Colleges Aren't Changing

The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) released an interesting report, "Innovation and the Independent College," presenting a summary of ideas generated from a two year effort called Securing America's Future.  Representatives of more than 120 institutions attended workshops designed to better prepare colleges for the future.  This new publication is available for free download on the CIC website and it includes many examples of innovative programs and changes in structure or processes on the campuses.

The examples in the report are organized into eight categories:  Athletics, Connecting with Careers, Community Engagement, Consortial Arrangements, Cost Containment, Curricular Reform, New Programs, and New Student Populations.

You can also read an overview of the report on the Inside Higher Ed website, "Proof That CollegesAdapt, and a Prod for More Change," written by Grace Bird and published March 28, 2018.