This annual compilation explores the history of small colleges in five articles that focus on the "uses" of this history in facing current debates concerning institutional directions. A brief introduction by Harold S. Wechsler addresses the role of institutional history for the small college. The first article is "Celebrating Roots:…

Nannerl Overhouser Keohane, one of a new breed of women presidents of women's colleges, is strongly committed to feminist scholarship and is also working to prepare Wellesley's graduates for the technology of the future. The role of minority students at Wellesley is discussed. (MLW)

After an intensive study, Smith College decided on outside management as trustee for their pooled income fund. Responsibilities of the trust department are listed and a description of how the planned giving program works is provided. Management is seen as crucial to the overall success of the program. (MLW)

The Clinton administration has asked the Supreme Court to force Virginia Military Institute, currently all male, to admit women rather than have the state create a similar leadership program for women at another institution. The case parallels litigation in South Carolina involving the Citadel. (MSE)

Reviews the European response to U.S. women's colleges. Contends that most international visitors believed that the United States was the world leader in women's rights in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Concludes that women's colleges' influence as models was limited severly by generally negative perceptions of all U. S. colleges. (CFR)

This paper presents a chronological description of the evolution of women's advancement in higher education, particularly in administrative capacities, and examines the establishment of the three types of institutions that came into being in order to meet women's educational needs: the single-sex college; the coordinate college; and the…

The Alverno College faculty reports on its development and use of assessment (rather than testing) to elicit, diagnose, and certify student abilities as part of its outcome-centered approach to liberal education. Assessment is defined as a more complete challenge to both the process and the content of a student's learning, achieving a more…

Proceedings of AACRAO's 63rd annual meeting deal with: college courses in high schools; women's colleges; special programs for underprepared college students; and the role of the admissions officer in identifying and selecting high-risk students. (LBH)

Recently many religious colleges have become more secular and single-sex colleges have become coeducational. By contrasting environmental and financial data of a matched sample of colleges that made these changes with a sample of colleges that have not, it was possible to assess the impact of those policy decisions. (Author/LBH)

Mount Holyoke College was examined to see how it manages itself, how it raises and spends money. Holyoke's president understood that, in a competitive age, the key was not so much educating as it was positioning. Marketing and price fixing are discussed. (MLW)

Three recent books ("In the Company of Women,""Alma Mater," and "Women in College") focus on very different but interrelated topics: the general history of women in higher education in America, the history of women's colleges, and the shaping of women's identities through higher education. (MSE)

This field report from a Catholic liberal arts college for women suggests that, in any environment, a holistic approach to moral development is possible by challenging students to integrate their knowledge with their actions and to deal with inherent values issues both in and out of the curriculum. (Author)

Selective single-sex colleges provide a more favorable environment than comparable coeducational institutions for influencing White, middle-class, academically capable undergraduates of both sexes to disregard conventional occupational prescriptions based on gender. Sexually segregated academic settings are instrumental in reducing male-female…

Reports on the history and accomplishments of the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (Moore College of Art and Design) during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Contends that the school negotiated tensions between the market forces of the job market and the individual aspirations of its students. (CFR)

Examination of foundings of four-year women's colleges in three states, 1855-1968, reveals that institutional forces (presence of elite women's colleges, development of Catholic women's colleges, and enactment of the suffrage amendment) increased the founding rate, but rising organizational density later decreased the rate. Argues that…