Meeting the Challenge: - The Council of Independent Colleges

Welch Suggs
“The unstated mission [of CASC/CIC] was to grow and build a national
association of private colleges and universities that would
have clout, meaning, and status.”
—Gary H. Quehl, President, CASC, 1974–1986
president at St. Lawrence University in New York. Splete led
the Council of Independent Colleges (as it was now called)
for 14 years. CIC’s current president is Richard Ekman, who
was selected for the position after Splete’s retirement in 2000.
The Big Tent for Small Colleges
In the 1970s and 1980s, CIC underwent a crucial
transition. As its membership expanded, it became the
primary association for helping the presidents and other top
leaders of small, independent colleges. Instead of assisting its
members to reach a certain goal—accreditation—it began to
offer a variety of programs to help them improve institutional
operations and academic programs.
The earliest years of CASC/CIC were characterized
by debates over membership, mission, and goals. One of
the key issues was whether the Council ought to be one
voice among several for small liberal arts colleges or the sole
voice for those institutions. It was an important question,
not only to define the Council among the many highereducation
associations in Washington but also to shape what
the Council’s own goals should be. In his final report to the
CASC Board in January 1968, Alfred Hill called on CASC to
take up “the voice for the small college” as its “battle cry”:
It seems to me this symbolizes the questions we
are constantly raising about our image, our
relation to other educational associations, the
need for small colleges to receive recognition at
the national level. Why do other colleges apply
for membership in CASC For two reasons—our
practical program not supplied elsewhere and
the fact that we give them a voice in Washington,
New York, Chicago, and other financial centers
which they would not otherwise have.
Roger Voskuyl, however, was careful to make sure
that CASC was committed to helping its existing members:
the private colleges, many of them affiliated with religious
1973
CASC publishes The Small College:
A Bibliographic Handbook.
First Deans’ Institute is held.
1974
Gary H. Quehl succeeds
Voskuyl upon his retirement.
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