President of Hiram College offers Lessons from Academic Redesign

Lori Varlotta, president of Hiram College in Ohio, authored an interesting and helpful post for Education Dive, "What I learned from an academic redesign." President Varlotta shares six lessons from a campus wide planning effort initiated during the 2017-2018 academic year. The process ultimately led to recommendations for repositioning, adding, or eliminating majors and loss of several faculty positions.

Hiram College was also the focus of a couple of earlier Education Dive articles:

• October 2019 by Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, "Will tuition cuts and new perks keep this small liberal arts college alive? Hiram College in Ohio is banking on aggressive changes to help it thrive, but skeptics wonder if they will be enough."
• March 2019 by James Paterson, "To survive, small colleges are rethinking the liberal arts: As higher ed consolidates, these institutions are restructuring curriculum, campuses and even tuition to help them stand out. 

The institution was founded in 1850 as Western Reserve Eclectic Institute. The name changed to Hiram College in 1867.

Vermont College President Offers Key Observations and Optimism

Important comments by president Matthew Derr of Sterling College in Craftsbury, VT were published by the Rutland (VT) Herald on February 2, 2019, "Vermont by Degrees: Optimism for our Future."

Derr begins by noting some recent higher education news items and cautions that a number of Vermont's institutions like Sterling College are actually thriving. He further argues that institutions with modest resources, "... can navigate tough times when leadership is stable and the board’s relationship with the president is healthy. Such a relationship is not simply about accommodating the president’s ideas, but rather it requires a balance of shared responsibility for the institution’s well-being."

Derr offers two key observations of struggling institutions.  They tend to have quite a bit of turnover for presidents and there is usually a tendency to see information sharing as a threat. 

Instead, Derr argues that recruitment of institutional leaders and continuity of the leadership over time are critical to insure that there is a good fit for leaders with the mission and institutional culture.  He then notes that engagement between a college’s stakeholders needs to be based on trust and that good communication and transparency is critical.

You can visit the Sterling College website to learn more about the programs offered and their relatively unique mission as a work college.

Sterling College has also been featured in several posts on the Small College Garden blog:

• Saturday, September 8, 2018 The Wendell Berry Farming Programs Enrolling Students Again with details of partnership of the Wendell Berry Farming Program in Kentucky and Sterling College
• Wednesday, September 13, 2017 Focus on Work Colleges: Lower Levels of Student Borrowing and Debt
• Sunday, August 28, 2016 A Call for more UltraSmall Colleges
• Thursday, August 25, 2016 Spotlight on Sterling College as a model Work College

President Derr was inaugurated as the 11th president of Sterling College in 2012.  He previously served Antioch College in Ohio.

Signature Programs and Small Higher Education Institutions

Lawrence Biemiller's interesting article appears March 11, 2018 in The Chronicle of Higher Education, "Can a Signature Program Save Your College?" He addresses the appeal of signature programs and references a number of smaller institutions.  

Programs at eight colleges and universities are highlighted by Biemiller in the article.  He also notes that conversations are occurring between the institutions as they learn from each other. 

Biemiller includes comments from presidents indicating that signature programs by themselves will not save institutions and that it may take a long time for visible payoffs from the investments of time or other resources.  He also quotes a president who argues that there are a limited number of big ideas and it is better to keep the focus on controlling costs and increasing net revenues.

Jeff Selingo, a well known author and columnist for the Washington Post, commented this morning via Twitter that the benefits from signature programs are likely to decline over time as they are copied by other institutions.

Antioch@175 Presents a Vision for a New Kind of College

The Antioch College Board of Trustees adopted Antioch@175: A New Kind of College as it leads the institution and its supporters toward the 175th anniversary of the college founding in 2025.

Representatives of various stakeholders participated in a two year process known as FACT, or the Framework for Antioch College's Transition, a collaborative process to create a vision for the future.

Antioch is working to become a new kind of college based on three key principles.  It will focus on learning by doing as a Laboratory College.  It will emphasize connections as a Collaborative College and build off its small size and traditions to serve as a Democracy Laboratory.

Several earlier Small College Garden posts featuring Antioch College may also be of interest:

• Wednesday, April 19, 2017 Possible Lessons from Revival of Antioch College for St. Joseph's and other Small Colleges
• Tuesday, October 3, 2017 Antioch College: Perspectives on Closure and Reopening

Small Colleges and Boutique Hotels

Several small colleges are mentioned in an interesting post written by Laura Powell, "Luxury Boutique Hotels Become Part of the College Experience," published on the Skift website in early December 2017.  Powell interviewed college administrators and representatives of The Olympia Companies that have developed are operating hotel properties for Oberlin, Swarthmore, and Rollins College.

The Alfond Inn in Winterpark, Florida is owned by Rollins College and is the largest of the featured hotels with 112 rooms.  Powell indicates the property is exceeding expectations with an occupancy rate of 90% and estimated $50 million in annual revenue.  She also notes that any net profits are used for scholarships.

The Hotel at Oberlin with 70 rooms was developed by Smart Hotels of Shaker Heights, OH,  It has been open just over a year and meets U.S. Green Building Council LEED Platinum requirements by incorporating solar, geothermal, and radiant heating and cooling.  

The Inn at Swarthmore opened in May 2016 and is the smallest of the three with 40 rooms.  

Powell also briefly mentions Colby College is finishing a boutique hotel as part of a broader downtown redevelopment effort in Waterville, Maine.  You can read more details in an article, "Colby College picks Portland firm to build boutique hotel in Waterville," on the Portland Press Herald website with reporting by Amy Calder.

The Williams Inn at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts offers 116 rooms.  The property was initially built in 1974 and was acquired by the college in 2014.

Please leave a comment below if you know of other small colleges that are developing and operating hotels on their campuses or in the communities they serve.

Antioch College: Perspectives on Closure and Reopening

The PBS Newshour posted "One small college's death and rebirth offers lessons for the rest," as part of their Rethinking College series.  Jon Marcus of The Hechinger Report provides a summary of conversations from an alumni town hall held on the Yellow Springs, OH campus of Antioch College.  The collective comments are an interesting perspective on Antioch's path through closure and the reopening of the institution in 2011.

Cleveland Institute of Art Featured in Video

Ohio's @WVIZ ideastream.org produced an interesting short video, "Cleveland Institute of Art poised to raise national profile," on the Cleveland Institute of Art.  

The video features an interview by Rick Jackson with CIA's president, Grafton Nunes.   Nunes discusses how the institution has become a world-class center for the arts and the importance of a strong interactive relationship between the broader Cleveland community and CIA.  The video also showcases a number of the majors that include biomedical art, visual arts, game design, and animation.  

CIA currently enrolls just over 600 students.  It was initially founded in 1882 as the Western Reserve School of Design for Women.  It soon became known as the Cleveland School of Art and in 1949 adopted the name of Cleveland Institute of Art.

Possible Lessons from Revival of Antioch College for St. Joseph's and other Small Colleges

The Lafayette, Indiana Journal & Courier and the USA Today Network of papers published "The fall and rise of a college," with excellent reporting by Meghan Holden on April 14, 2017.  

Holden sets the stage by initially describing the emotional events surrounding recent news that St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana is closing.  She then shifts her focus to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH and weaves together interviews with students, alumni, administrators, and community members to identify lessons that might be helpful to the those trying to revive St. Joseph's.  

Three central themes emerge from her discussions with different Antioch constituents:

• emotional and financial support of alumni and the broader community are critical.
• the effort will take more time and money than anyone can envision.
• and, reliance on traditional funding models will not be successful over the long term.  

This initial article is also accompanied by a companion article, "The Antioch College experience," where Holden provides more information on Antioch's history and the evolution of its relatively unique mission and campus culture.

Consortia Offer Variety of Successful Models for Colleges and Universities

Nina Berler authored a guest column for Forbes on February 1st, "College Consortia: A Cooperative Model that offers Students Greater Value."  Berler focuses on activities of the: Five College Consortium, The Claremont Colleges, Atlanta University Center Consortium, and Quaker Consortium.

Another article on consortia was posted by University Business last March, "Better together: Colleges form academic alliances," written by Sherrie Negrea.  In addition to Five Colleges, Negrea offers information on several other consortia, including the: Pennsylvania Consortium for the Liberal Arts, Southeastern Pennsylvania Consortium for Higher Education, and Colleges of the Fenway.

If you are interested in learning more about the possibilities for consortial relationships, consider contacting the Association for Collaborative Leadership (ACL).  ACL is dedicated to developing leadership capabilities and advancing collaboration in higher education.

ACL offers a listserv and links to a wealth of useful resources, tools, or events.

All In A Day: Fascinating View of 24-Hours at Kenyon College

Kenyon College pulled together 79 impressive photographs from one 24-hour period in "All In A Day" to provide a fascinating view of life on campus.

Interview with Antioch's new President and the concept of a 165-year-old-startup

Antioch's new president, Thomas Manley, is interviewed in the Dayton Daily News for "New Antioch president wants to add stability, students." Manley discusses the concept of Antioch as a 165-year-old-startup.

Kenyon Farm: Students Balance Courses and Farming

The Kenyon College Farm is featured in an article by Tara Fitzpatrick, "Talking local turkey at Kenyon," in food Management on December 7, 2015.  Students living on the farm raise a variety of livestock and harvest crops that are used on the campus.  Fitzpatrick's article focuses on turkeys that were raised by students and the partnership with the college's food service vendor, AVI Fresh. 

Antioch College & Yellow Springs...The College and Community

The online edition of the annual Guide to Yellow Springs, The College and Community: Cooperation, collaboration, common ground, is available on YSNews.com.  The annual Guide is published by the Yellow Springs News and the theme for 2015-16 centers on Antioch College with articles examining the interaction of the newly reopened institution and the Yellow Springs community.

Among the interesting articles, you can read about the possibility of a College Village, Antioch's students, public art in Yellow Springs, community and college activism, and much more...including a short article on the recovery of the historical marker.

Ursuline College Campus Architecture is Featured

Steven Litt's article for Cleveland's The Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com, "Ursuline College campus nears half-century as a treasure of mid-century modernism," focuses on the architectural history of the Ursuline College campus in Pepper Pike, OH and includes 30 images.  The institution was founded in 1871 by the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland and was initially located in Cleveland on Euclid Avenue.  The institution relocated to the current campus in Pepper Pike in 1966.

Antioch College and Sweet Briar College Featured

The August 2015 issue of University Business has an article by Matt Zalaznick that focuses on Antioch College and Sweet Briar College, "When a college bounces back from the brink."  Zalaznick's particular interest is how the institutions restore student and parent confidence after facing closure.

Hopeful Signs that Wilberforce University Turned a Corner

Recent initiatives at Wilberforce University are featured in an article by Peter Jacobs for Business Insider on April 27, 2015.  Wilberforce University President Algeania Freeman, who had previous experience at Martin University and Livingstone College, is seeing some positive signs after arriving to assist the campus community in efforts to retain accreditation.

How are they Fairing? Article focuses on Midwestern Colleges

Ann C. Logue focuses on Midwestern colleges and universities in an extensive article for Belt Magazine on April 8, 2015.  Logue ties together a number of issues facing institutions nationally and explores the impact on Calvin College, Antioch College, and Wilberforce University.