The principal importance of small, church-related colleges is in their contribution to the existing diversity in the pluralistic, competitive, public, and private way of doing things in America. As in health, culture, social service, and business, this diversity is traditional and considered desirable. (MSE)

Small private colleges should not succumb to the view that being as inexpensive as public colleges is the only way to compete. By doing some aggressive marketing, these institutions can enjoy a significant edge and thrive in what promises to be a difficult decade. (Author/MSE)

The implications of closing for Mount Saint Mary College were studied by a consulting team, the New Hampshire College and University Council. Options were considered, trustees consulted, and efforts and plans made to make the final year successful. Student, parent, and administrator satisfaction are reported. (Author/LBH)

The experiences of Wellesley College (Massachusetts) with developing a long-range plan for institutional survival in the 1990s illustrate the value of two strategies: devising a planning process that reflects the institutional culture, and spending time early in the process to gain broad agreement on basic financial principles and planning…

Instead of hiring outside consultants for each institution's problems, these colleges set up their own three-person permanent consulting team. Among its accomplishments are: averting a financial crisis, aiding a recovery from financial crisis, reorganizing for steady states, and launching statewide planning. (Author/LBH)

Small, independent colleges are endangered the most by public misconceptions of their role, value, and stability. New understanding of these colleges' financial and other support needs must be reflected in public policy if they are not to become a lost national resource. (MSE)

Endangered small, private colleges can take steps toward survival, including mission clarification, expanding services to existing and potential clienteles, introducing management by objectives, and developing public relations and fund raising. Long-range options include avoiding the postsecondary mainstream and striving for efficiency of…

A new system instituted by Aquinas College is described. It retains tenure as one possibility for a newly hired faculty member, although each faculty job-opening would on a case-by-case basis be placed either on tenure track or rolling contract track. (MLW)

Many liberal arts colleges will survive or disappear depending on how well they can analyze their problems and apply solutions. What is needed is a College Futures Planning Center that could provide at minimal cost consulting and support services to private colleges seriously desiring to contend with decline. (Author/LBH)

The experiences of Aurora University, a small university that not only raised money but established new links with donors, are described. The key to fund raising is selling an idea. As donors become more sophisticated, sentiment and traditional patterns play a less significant role in motivating donors. (MLW)

Douglass Cater, president of Washington College, a small liberal arts college that was Maryland's first chartered institution, is profiled. The president's attitudes on liberal arts and specialization, the stated role of the college, and details of the inaugural ceremony are noted. (MSE)

In excerpts from his inaugural address, Washington College's president reaffirms the value of the small liberal arts college in a highly specialized educational system, denounces the university's scientific approach as inappropriate for providing a value system for students, and notes the need for several distinct approaches to learning. (MSE)

The final chapter of a study of the failure of four small private colleges implicates their trustees. Trustees were found to have had inadequate participation in planning and operational realities, the consequence in part, of a lack of critical information. (LBH)

The role and responsibility of trustees of private colleges in fund raising are discussed. Four areas are identified: (1) concentration on large gifts, (2) alumni financial support, (3) the voluntary support of the friends and non-alumni of the college community, and (4) deferred gifts. (MLW)

Neither size nor control is seen as the determining factor in survival of the small liberal arts college. What is needed is imaginative programming that will lend strength in terms of enrollment and overhead support. (Author/LBH)