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)

This paper offers a brief history and description of a voluntary consortium of six church-related private colleges, the Associated Colleges of Central Kansas (ACCK), that is governed by a board of directors made up of the presidents of the member colleges. The schools, all within close geographical proximity, have a combined enrollment of over…