Meeting the Challenge: - The Council of Independent Colleges

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John R. Thelin provide affordable, high-quality undergraduate education to new generations. educational reasons, preferring a more personalized pedagogical approach. The statistical skeleton gains a fuller shape when one considers that the major factor in the growth of American undergraduate education has been investments by state and local governments in the creation of new institutions, especially the community colleges. In 1950, junior and community colleges enrolled fewer than 5 percent of firstyear college students; by 1980 the comparable figure was 50 percent. The new community colleges were commuter institutions, without residence halls, and populated by parttime students who did not seek to complete a bachelor’s degree. Community colleges dramatically expanded the range of options within American postsecondary education, but their approach to undergraduate education contrasted sharply with that of the private liberal arts colleges. Charting the Collegiate Course The preoccupation with expanding undergraduate enrollments has been a dominant theme in American higher education since World War II. This big story, however, is not the whole story. The enduring—and endearing— characteristic of American higher education since the 17 th century has been its diversity. While the large universities gained resources and publicity, the small private liberal arts colleges not only survived but thrived on their ability to provide affordable, high-quality undergraduate education to new generations of American students. The aim here is not to dismiss the appeal of bigness in American higher education, but rather to probe this preoccupation by considering alternative educational values and models of institutional effectiveness. Private colleges have responded to changing demographics in a distinctive manner, and they have been especially effective as part of the spectrum of American postsecondary education. Between 1981 and 2001, for example, independent colleges and universities enrolled only 21 percent of first-year students, but they conferred a much larger percentage of the nation’s bachelor’s degrees—37 percent. While the large public institutions were enrolling more students, the smaller colleges were seeing more of their students graduate (see chart on following page). As we have already seen, the liberal arts colleges also grew with the times. The first sign that private colleges could help absorb a new generation of students came with the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1945, popularly known as the GI Bill. One strength of this legislation was that it gave qualified veterans choices about their education. Scholarships and living expense stipends could be used at any accredited institution. Within the marketplace of 7
Small by Design: Resilience in an Era of Mass Higher Education Comparison of Student Enrollment to Bachelor's Degrees Conferred: 1981–2001 100% 80% 79% 60% 63% 40% 37% 20% 21% 0% Percentage of Student Enrollment Private Percentage of Degrees Conferred Public Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics American postsecondary education, liberal arts colleges were an attractive choice for veterans of World War II and later the Korean War. From 1945 to 1953 the small colleges welcomed student-veterans, rearranging facilities and courses to accommodate the influx of mature students. Although the bulge in enrollments from the GI Bill was temporary and started to subside by 1952, it did give trustees and leaders at liberal arts colleges a preview of changing demographics. Even with the unprecedented number of high school graduates who sought postsecondary education between 1945 and 1975, independent colleges still had to maintain their appeal by being distinctive and affordable. One partial solution to the national demand was for liberal arts colleges to increase the number of students they admitted; institutions usually opted for careful, limited growth. Since massive expansion was not considered an educationally sound option, many liberal arts colleges now found that they had more qualified applicants than they could accept. For these fortunate colleges the years from the 1950s to the 1970s became an era of selective admissions. Some liberal arts colleges began to carve out special niches in American higher education. These were the schools that sociologist Burton Clark characterized as the “Distinctive Colleges,” a category that included such institutions as Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, Antioch College in Ohio, and Reed College in Oregon. 8
Page 1 and 2: Meeting the Challenge: America’s
Page 3 and 4: Meeting the Challenge: America’s
Page 6 and 7: John R. Thelin is University Resear
Page 8 and 9: Thanks also are due to all the tale
Page 10 and 11: Preface Richard Ekman The Council o
Page 12 and 13: Small by Design: Resilience in an E
Page 14 and 15: John R. Thelin Enrollment, Public a
Page 18 and 19: John R. Thelin The long-run demogra
Page 20 and 21: John R. Thelin Independent liberal
Page 22 and 23: John R. Thelin at the age of 40 so
Page 24 and 25: John R. Thelin “The undergraduate
Page 26 and 27: John R. Thelin In American higher e
Page 28 and 29: John R. Thelin had a positive influ
Page 30 and 31: John R. Thelin records in science a
Page 32 and 33: John R. Thelin things grow in the s
Page 34 and 35: John R. Thelin since the program st
Page 36 and 37: John R. Thelin combined with a decl
Page 38 and 39: John R. Thelin Some of the major ch
Page 40 and 41: John R. Thelin From the 1960s to th
Page 42 and 43: John R. Thelin University of the Oz
Page 44: John R. Thelin over the past half-c
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Serving Students Well: Independent
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Serving Students Well: Independent
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From Accreditation to Validation: C
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Morris College / Sumter, SC / 1908
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Illinois / Augustana College / Auro
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Mississippi / Millsaps College / Ru
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Rhode Island / Roger Williams Unive
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Arkansas / Arkansas’ Independent
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Alexander W. Astin and Calvin B.T.
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John William Oliver, Jr., James Hod
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