The Louis W. and Maud Hill Family Foundation is engaged in a productivity program to assist private colleges in its eight state service region (Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington) in controlling escalating costs while maintaining educational quality. The Hill Foundation's effectiveness could probably be improved through longer (three to five year) commitments of larger sums of money ($10,000 to $100,000) to a limited number of colleges that: (1) would be willing to risk effort on important productivity research but would be unable to do so without external funds and supportive consultation; (2) would be devoted to rigorous project design and evaluation; and (3) would agree to the publication and dissemination of results. If, in addition, the Foundation would enter into partnerships with colleges that recognize that the productivity question in higher education is not one of how to reduce the time and money spent per student but rather how to increase the value of student-embodied competencies to create and produce over a lifetime, the foundation might well bring about the major program and faculty changes that will assure a college's survival during the last quarter of this century. (Author/MSE)