CIC Receives Additional Funding for Strategic Planning Initiative
Following the success of the year-long strategic planning process initiated by CIC in 2001, the Council was awarded a second $100,000 grant by The William Randolph Hearst Foundations this spring. The grant will support the implementation of a variety of program initiatives in response to six major concerns and challenges facing independent colleges and universities: financing high quality education; making the case for independent colleges and universities; presidents and trustees; faculty, institutional mission, and leadership; changing student body; and ensuring quality.
    Further discussion by the Board of Directors and by staff members during a recent retreat led to a number of new activities being considered, among them:

Financing High Quality Education

• Organize an in-depth workshop following the 2003 Presidents Institute on financial management; develop national or regional workshops for institutional teams on broad issues of financial management.
• Expand the roster of the Panel of Presidential Consultants who can address inquiries from presidents seeking help with financial management.
• Develop written materials on program cost analysis, debt management, and facilities financing.

Making the Case for Independent Colleges and Universities

• Establish an advisory committee consisting of presidents, public relations directors, and other key campus personnel to advise on current initiatives and design additional activities that can promote these institutions.
• Organize a workshop or series of regional workshops for public relations directors from CIC institutions that help them make the case by providing information and data specific to these institutions.
• Convene meetings between presidents and editors and reporters from national newspapers and magazines to make the case for the independent sector of higher education.
• Develop resources for the web, including annotated materials and links, presidential speeches and essays, fact sheets, and short articles that help make the case.

Faculty, Institutional Mission, and Leadership

• Convene a national conference for campus teams to provide faculty members and administrators with access to effective practices.
• Develop an initiative to assist institutions by collecting and sharing effective institutional faculty development practices more widely.
• Develop materials about independent colleges and universities that individual institutions might use in their recruitment efforts as well as materials directed to graduate schools about the attributes that CIC institutions seek in hiring new faculty.

    A number of additional initiatives related to ensuring quality, presidents and trustees, and changing student body are under discussion.

TEAC Approved
The Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) has received formal approval as an accrediting agency from the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). TEAC, a national leader in the effort to reform teacher education accreditation, hopes also to receive formal recognition from the U.S. Department of Education by December. Gordon Haaland, president of Gettysburg College (PA) and past chair of the CHEA board of directors, said "CHEA's recognition of TEAC should make it possible for many small colleges to prepare K-12 teachers in ways that build on the distinctive strengths of small colleges and universities. I hope CIC member institutions will continue to support CHEA as it turns its attention to other aspects of accreditation. At Gettysburg, we have been encouraged by CHEA's sensitivity to our institutional character."

Staff Activities
CIC President Richard Ekman and other staff members have been speaking at numerous meetings this spring about "making the case" for private colleges and universities. Ekman and Communications Director Laura Wilcox discussed the issue at the Appalachian College Association annual meeting in June in Asheville, NC, and Ekman spoke at the annual retreat of the directors of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of New Jersey in June. CAPHE Executive Director Michelle Gilliard presented a session titled, "Making the Case Through Evaluation," at the FIHE national meeting in Santa Fe, NM, in April.
    In other activities, Ekman gave the commencement address at Georgetown College (KY) in May, delivered the keynote at the annual meeting in April of the Association of American International Colleges and Universities hosted by the American College of Greece in Athens, Greece (speaking about recent developments in U.S. private higher education), and spoke about issues of collaboration and planning at a special spring meeting of administrative teams from smaller Lutheran colleges.
    Senior Counsel Marylouise Fennell, RSM, received Boston University's (MA) Ida M. Johnston Award and an honorary degree from the institution during graduation ceremonies in May. She is an alumnus of Boston University (doctorate in counselor education) and served as a faculty member there.
    Jacqueline Skinner, Associate Director of CAPHE, co-presented with Erin Swezey of St. Joseph's College (ME) a program, "Engaging Communities and Campuses: Enhancing Student Learning and Deepening Community Engagement," at the 84th Annual Conference of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), March 2-6 in Boston. The session was the third national presentation that highlighted the work of CAPHE's Engaging Communities and Campuses grant program. Skinner also made two presentations, "Enhancing Cultural Competence Through Online Education: Opportunities and Challenges" and "Completion of the Doctorate by Students of Color: A Dream in Progress?" at the 15th Annual National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in Higher Education (NCORE), May 29-June 2 in New Orleans.

CIC Welcomes New Members
The board and staff of CIC extend a warm welcome to the following new members since Spring 2002:

New Institutional Members
Hendrix College (AR)
Rhodes College (TN)
Xavier University (OH)

Independent
The Council of Independent Colleges
One Dupont Circle NW, Suite 320 • Washington, DC 20036
tel: (202) 466-7230 • Fax: (202) 466-7238 • e-mail: mailto:cic@cicnche.edu • www.cic.edu

Last updated: July 10, 2002
Copyright © 2002 The Council of Independent Colleges