Meeting the Challenge: - The Council of Independent Colleges

Welch Suggs
2006 Presidents Institute
Presidential Leadership and Vision: The Next 50 Years
Service Training of Administrators and Members of Boards
of Trustees of Small Colleges.” The annual institute was
open to the CASC member institutions and other colleges,
and it gave campus leaders a chance to learn more about
building relationships with trustees, fundraising, and fiscal
management.
Beginning in 1970, CASC also hosted three
Presidents Management Institutes with the theme of teaching
college presidents how to manage their time and employees
more effectively. These Institutes were the start of what
eventually became the annual Presidents Institute, which is
now CIC’s signature event. The Presidents Institute has been
an annual event since 1980. It attracts more four-year college
presidents than any other meeting held by any group in the
country. Participants say the meetings are “more practical”
than other gatherings of college presidents. The Institute
epitomizes CIC’s approach to practical programming,
combining formal presentations, individual consultations,
and opportunities for presidents and their spouses to network
informally with colleagues. The participants consider
solutions to common challenges and learn how to do their
jobs better from people in similar positions. In addition,
representatives from the sponsors, the companies that
provide financial support for the Institute—and there were
more than 40 companies involved by the 1990s—bring
expertise as well as dollars to the conference. The Institute
has also retained a focus on a program for spouses, which is
widely praised.
“What I found most interesting was that it was
always a really good combination,” says Anita M. Pampusch,
president emerita of the College of St. Catherine in
Minnesota, now president of The Bush Foundation. “There
were always some very good national speakers, the kind of
people I would not personally have had come to my college.
The sessions usually were very practical and related to the
kind of work I was doing. And meeting other presidents was
1984
1982
CIC launches the
“Small Colleges Can
Help You Make It
Big” campaign.
CIC receives a grant from
the Pew Charitable Trusts
to “heighten awareness of
administrators and faculty
to the challenges of the
technological society.”
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