Meeting the Challenge: - The Council of Independent Colleges

Small by Design: Resilience in an Era of Mass Higher Education
federal support for higher education also carried the threat
of government control in higher education. As he wrote
at the time, “Federal aid to education almost certainly will
mean the disappearance from our educational system of the
independent, privately financed, liberal arts colleges.”
Sparks talked with leaders from business and
industry as well as board members and presidents at other
independent colleges in the state. The resulting Associated
Colleges of Indiana soon fostered counterparts elsewhere,
particularly in Ohio, Michigan, New York, and California.
The hallmark of these early associations was the partnership
between college presidents and corporate leaders. As
historians Curti and Nash observed, Sparks emphasized that
“liberal arts colleges preserve freedom; they produce many
essential scientists and business executives; tax laws make it
inexpensive to give, since corporations could deduct up to 5
percent of their net income for contributions to charitable
institutions and causes.”
The creation of state associations to support
independent colleges eventually led to national initiatives.
The Council for Financial Aid to Education was incorporated
in 1952 “with funds supplied by the General Education
Board, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Carnegie
Corporation, and the Ford Foundation’s Fund for the
Advancement of Education.” In 1957 business and academic
leaders created the Informal Committee for Corporate Aid to
American Universities. Thanks in large part to these efforts,
the Council for Financial Aid to Education could report
more than $42 million in corporate contributions in 1962.
An important development in the support of
independent higher education came in 1951, when
the affluent Ford Foundation created its Fund for the
Advancement of Education. Emphasizing innovation
beyond “business as usual,” this initiative helped a variety
of colleges and universities explore new curricula. In 1955
the Ford Foundation awarded a total of $210 million to
630 private liberal arts colleges. The goal was to encourage
this diverse group of institutions to raise faculty salaries.
Since eligibility for the Foundation’s awards depended on
regional accreditation, a number of colleges were prompted
to shore up both their curricular and financial structures
in compliance with accreditation standards. Indeed, CIC’s
origin in 1956 was an indirect consequence of this Ford
largesse (this story is told on pages 63–86). A few years
later, the Ford Foundation identified a smaller group of 126
institutions to share an award of $50 million, again with
an emphasis on raising faculty salaries. Many of the Ford
programs required matching grants, so participating colleges
were obliged to raise dollars from new sources to release the
Foundation’s funds.
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