Meeting the Challenge: - The Council of Independent Colleges

Alvin P. Sanoff
“It is not unusual for students to complete a dual major in biology and dance...
The college strives to enable science majors to pursue other interests
so they are not in labs to the exclusion of all other things.”
—Dorothy Gulbenkian Blaney, President, Cedar Crest College
days a week. For an English seminar in which students have
to read 12 novels in the compressed time frame, however,
they might spend less time in class so they can devote as
much time as possible to reading. The unusual schedule
makes it easier to move a course off campus without students
having to worry about missing other classes. For example,
a Cornell course on the biology of coral reefs is held in the
Bahamas in the winter. Part of a course on the geology of the
prairie is held out on the prairie. For the faculty, who teach
for six out of the nine course-blocks during the academic
year, each course is an intense experience. For the duration of
a course, says Garner, “those students are your life.”
Another CIC member, Spalding University in
Kentucky, has created a unique program of accelerated
courses designed to meet the needs of working adults. The
institution created a year-round calendar consisting of seven
six-week terms, in which students take two courses at a time.
Collectively, the academic programs at CIC
member institutions form a rich mosaic. They help explain
why American higher education is the most diverse in the
world—and show how small and mid-sized colleges often
take the lead in promoting diversity of every sort.
Student Diversity
Colleges with diverse programs naturally attract
students with diverse interests and backgrounds. Most
institutions strive for student diversity across many
dimensions; others strive for diversity within the context
of educating students of a specific gender or race. Some
institutions, such as the women’s colleges and historically
black colleges and universities that were established mainly
in the 19 th century, pursue the explicit mission of educating
students who were under-represented in higher education
at their founding. More recently, a number of institutions
have made it a priority to serve students who are members
of today’s under-represented minorities or who have special
needs, although these colleges and universities do not form a
self-identified group.
Looking at a small number of institutions that have
taken distinctive approaches to diversity helps paint a picture
of the initiatives taken by the CIC membership as a whole.
Cedar Crest College in Pennsylvania and Agnes Scott College
in Georgia are among some 60 undergraduate colleges and
universities, most of them CIC members, that have remained
focused on their founding mission of educating women.
Nonetheless, these institutions come to their shared mission
with diverse perspectives. Some have a strong religious
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