Meeting the Challenge: - The Council of Independent Colleges

Serving Students Well: Independent Colleges Today
President Douglas
Bennett (left) says
Earlham College
in Indiana
encourages its
students to study
abroad, but its
programs differ
from most other
programs in one
important respect:
they often take
students to places
such as Northern
Ireland, where
they can study
conflict and
conflict resolution
first-hand.
often combine peace studies with a second major to enhance
their career options. The three colleges have developed a
peace studies collaborative in Indianapolis. Students who
participate in the semester-long program take courses
related to peace issues and participate in an internship that
emphasizes peace and justice activities.
Earlham, like many CIC member institutions,
encourages its students to study abroad, but its programs
differ from most other programs in one important respect:
they often take students to places such as Northern Ireland,
where they can study conflict and conflict resolution firsthand.
Earlham’s Quaker heritage, says Bennett, “infuses
almost everything we do.”
Just as a number of CIC members put a high priority
on global education, others emphasize student involvement
in research. At Hendrix College in Arkansas, almost half
of the college’s undergraduates major in the sciences and
conduct research. Research is also an important part of the
educational process at Ursinus College in Pennsylvania.
“Science faculty over the course of the past two or three
decades have made students partners in their research,” says
President John Strassburger. “In the process, the design and
function of science spaces has changed, so that students
have their own research and write-up areas, and now more
often than not they also are co-authors on peer-reviewed
publications.”
The CIC universe is programmatically diverse and
distinctive. There is even some distinctiveness in the way
academic calendars are structured. Both Cornell College
in Iowa and Tusculum College in Tennessee offer students
one course at a time rather than several courses at once.
“It has immediate appeal to students who like to learn by
focusing on a particular topic,” says Cornell President Leslie
H. Garner, Jr. Courses at Cornell last for three and one-half
weeks. Students typically are in class for four hours a day, five
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