The creation and development of 10 women's colleges are discussed: Mount Holyoke, Vassar, Wellesley, Smith, Radcliffe, Bryn Mawr, and Barnard (the Seven Sisters colleges), and Sarah Lawrence, Bennington, and Scripps. Consideration is given to: how each of these colleges offered to women an education equal to that offered by the best men's…

The development of a Planning, Management, and Evaluation (PME) system at Voorhees College, is described. The project at the small, liberal arts college was supported by an Advanced Institutional Development Program (AIDP) grant. Primary objectives were to decrease the responsibility of the college's chief officer and to upgrade the academic…

Lessons learned by five small, private colleges about meeting the challenges facing higher education are described. Each of the colleges developed a unique educational program emphasizing the liberal arts that responds to current challenges. Each school has experienced increased enrollments and retention, growth in endowments and plants, larger…

The changes that small liberal arts colleges have undergone are discussed in this monograph in terms of their past, present, and future roles in society. The first section looks at these colleges in the colonial context and shows how they were altered by specialization, secularization, the rise of science and empirical research, and by an…

Information on existing salary systems at 82 small private colleges throughout The U.S. is presented. Included are discussions on salary scales in relation to merit rating, and the monetary value of typical awards. Twenty-eight of the 82 colleges indicated ongoing merit rating plans. Study results include the following: (1) merit rating is not the…

While the elite private colleges may survive the enrollment declines of the 1980's and 1990's, the less elite, so-called invisible private colleges may have more difficulty. Finance, enrollment, and competition are the three major elements seen to threaten these institutions' futures. They face an uncertain financial future since historically they…

A case study of the Eisenhower College legislation of 1974 follows the legislation from its inception in May 1970, to final enactment by Congress in December 1975, and through the administrative problems that resulted in the college's closing in July 1982. (Author/MLW)

Franklin and Marshall College concluded it would come closer to its educational goals by reducing its size. Use of a planning model to project institutional finances based on tuition, gift, grant, and enrollment estimates predicts a potential major improvement in the college's position. (MSE)

A study conducted at Alma College to determine how and why grade inflation occurred is discussed. Grade inflation is seen as being caused by many factors including calendar changes, requirement reductions, better defined grading scales, and shifts in faculty attitudes. (MLW)

Reed College, a small, liberal arts college with high academic distinction, is described. Faculty participate in virtually all policy decisions and are hired and promoted according to the quality of their teaching. Its finances are improved, but it is still underfinanced and too heavily dependent on tuition income. (MLW)

Examination of 10 small private successful liberal arts colleges identified the following key characteristics: clear and articulate leadership, strong management support, collegial atmosphere, well-focused institutional mission, and continuous innovation. Colleges were Bates (Maine), Beloit (Wisconsin), Berry (Georgia), Centre (Kentucky),…

A pricing model is offered, based on retention of current students, that colleges can use to determine appropriate tuition. A computer-based model that quantifies the relationship between tuition elasticity and projected net return to the college was developed and applied to determine an appropriate tuition rate for a small, private liberal arts…

This book presents the story of small colleges in American higher education and how they can best respond to meet contemporary challenges. Chapter 1, an introduction, discusses the importance of the topic, small schools' strategic strengths, and market and institutional realities. Chapter 2 looks at the history of the small liberal arts college,…

This report reviews the first five years of the Consortium for the Advancement of Private Education (CAPHE) during which it has assisted small liberal arts colleges in the United States. Questions concerning the condition of these colleges today are addressed, as well as CAPHE's ability to help them and make a difference in their viability and the…

A study was undertaken to discover and examine the attitudes of private liberal arts college presidents toward accreditation. The motivating factor was evidence of concern among these presidents that institutional accreditation is not meeting the needs of their colleges, and may actually challenge the viability of a college at a critical time in…