Meeting the Challenge: - The Council of Independent Colleges

Serving Students Well: Independent Colleges Today
Agnes Scott
College in
Georgia has
expanded
offerings in the
sciences and
ramped up its
international
programs—
about 40
percent of
students now
study abroad.
affiliation; others are secular. “The schools are definitely not
cookie cutters,” says Susan Lennon, executive director of
the Women’s College Coalition. “What they share is their
mission” of educating women.
Cedar Crest’s mission dates back to the years after
the Civil War. So many men had died in the conflict,
that there was an urgent necessity to provide women with
higher education to help meet the growing needs of the
nation. As Cedar Crest has evolved, it has continued to put
a high priority on meeting the nation’s needs. Today it is
fulfilling that mission by focusing much of its energy on
educating young women in the sciences. In 1983, Cedar
Crest developed one of the first undergraduate programs
in genetic engineering and recently it launched a program
in neurosciences. “These are programs we can offer at a
high level of quality, with only moderate investments in
equipment and labs,” says President Dorothy Gulbenkian
Blaney, who has led the college since 1989. “I would love
to say I came here to advance poetry and comparative
literature,” adds Blaney, whose expertise is in comparative
literature. “But we didn’t have enough students interested in
those fields to grow. Moreover, the world needs more people
who can think about the sciences.”
Still, Cedar Crest does provide its students with
opportunities in the arts. Blaney says that it is not unusual
for students to complete a dual major in biology and dance.
She says that the college strives to enable science majors to
pursue other interests “so they are not in labs to the exclusion
of all other things.” The campus is also home to a notable
collection of outdoor sculpture. The college’s schedule
facilitates the pursuit of multiple interests. Cedar Crest has
three six-week terms each summer, as well as three-week
winter and May terms. This set of short terms makes it easier
for students to pursue interests such as ceramics that they
cannot fit into the regular semester calendar.
As a result of these and other initiatives, including
developing and expanding programs for adult learners,
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