Problems affecting the survival of private colleges, including declining enrollment, inflation, costs, efficiency, public attitude, and competition with public institutions for students and federal and state aid are discussed. Thoughts about planning for the future are presented, with focus on planning and support at the state level. (JMD)

A report examining the conditions facing Williams College in the 1980s is excerpted. The committee was to emphasize strategies to serve two major institutional goals: maintaining a large pool of well-qualified applicants, and maintaining a faculty that is talented, well compensated and professionally committed. (MLW)

Public v private competition for students and ways that institutions and policymakers should deal with it are discussed. Private institutions vulnerable to competition from the public sector, how private institutions can survive, the tuition gap, and planning policies of public higher education are described. (MLW)