Describes the experience of two small colleges, Chatham and Wesley, that survived the financial distress common to small school today. Discusses their lessons: reinforce strengths, rebuild the strongest financial source, diversify income, manage debt, and run a disciplined budget and financial management system. (EV)

The article describes how one liberal arts college, Mount Saint Mary's College (Maryland), developed a core curriculum over a four-year period. The curriculum's roots in a faculty survey and issues of consensus and debate (especially the curriculum's principle of integration) are discussed. Principles such as detailed organization with flexibility…

Discusses basic issues in designing and administering study abroad programs, including program length, location, structure, and supervision; financial considerations; student selection; orientation; and interinstitutional cooperation. Looks at current trends in integration with the host culture and curricular support. (DMM)

It is argued, based on the experiences of 16 small, diverse independent colleges, that small institutions can reverse decline. The analysis looks at signs of problems, patterns of institutional blindness to the problems that lead to additional decline, and behavior characteristics of the institutions that survive. (MSE)

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…

A survey of American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers members (591 responses) from small colleges and universities identified and ranked 15 salient issues needing to be addressed by the organization. It also helped define "small college" and to identify some special concerns of member subgroups. Tables detail…

A small consulting firm, the Registry for College and University Administrators, places retired college presidents in interim positions, usually after an administrator has left suddenly. Interim presidents have been placed at 19 institutions in seven years, mostly at small, private colleges. Almost always, the underlying mission is to lay a strong…

Examines the Department of Communications at John Carroll University from 1984 to 1999 when the university undergraduate enrollment increased 40% while department graduates increased 67%, faculty increased 120%, course offerings and programs increased 100%, and the department moved into a new building with upgraded facilities. Presents seven…

Initiating a consulting model for librarianship in a small college library involved a transition to an organizational model that defines positions by their relationship to constituencies. As a case study of such a transformation demonstrates, such an ''outward'' looking organization has resulted in an increased number of instruction sessions,…

Presidents tend to fall into one of several categories. A few are totally informed and totally committed, aware of the latest developments in IT and ready to support faculty. More likely, however, one's president will be informed and interested but busy, or uninformed but interested and busy. In these situations, the president needs information…

Proceedings of the 1983 CAUSE National Conference on information resources are presented. Brief notes are included on the general sessions and the special interest sessions. Forty-one conference papers are divided into the following topics: issues in higher education, managing the information systems resources, technology and techniques, small…

This report presents information to make more visible the advantages of small colleges and to make explicit why small colleges choose to remain small. Nine topics of discussion are as follows: focus on the education of the undergraduate student; providing high quality education to all kinds of students; providing a liberal arts education for a…

Individual and institutional/environmental factors that distinguish "vital" professors from a "representative" group of their colleagues were investigated. Of concern was whether the faculty vitality concept discriminates among professors in meaningful ways (i.e., regarding their professional attitudes, practices,…

A small college's communication arts curriculum, designed for students either going on to graduate school or interested in meeting more immediate vocational needs, is described in this paper. The following components of the curriculum are discussed: (1) use of field experience courses, (2) use of on-campus "practicum" courses and extra-curricular…

This paper discusses the problems and benefits of conducting research in a small institution. Problems related to personnel, finances, expertise, and credibility, and advantages such as communication and cooperation are described. The University of Lethbridge has created a common data-gathering system, QAULTEP (Qualitative Analysis of the…