Meeting the Challenge: - The Council of Independent Colleges

From Accreditation to Validation: CIC’s First Half-Century
The workshop is designed to serve both institutions that
are planning to construct new facilities and those that are
intending to renovate existing buildings. In both instances,
the goal is to enable faculty members and students to use
technology more effectively and creatively in the service of
learning.
Because so much of its programming to assist
member institutions involves external grants, CIC was
quite receptive to an approach from the Consortium for
the Advancement of Private Higher Education (CAPHE)
to join forces. In 1993, CIC assumed responsibility for the
operation of CAPHE, which had been established ten years
earlier as a cooperative effort of several major foundations
to support the broad middle tier of independent higher
education. Typically, the schools in this tier had not
been able to compete for grants against the major state
universities and elite private research institutions. The
agreement with CAPHE strengthened CIC’s ties to key
foundations and helped to usher in a period of million dollar
and larger external grants.
A major thrust of the grant support and CIC
programming under the CAPHE banner has been
institutional capacity building—especially the ways that
institutions, in partnership with community organizations,
can enhance student learning while contributing to local
communities. This work engaged more than $7 million in
external support from the Atlantic Philanthropies, Kellogg
Foundation, the DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund,
and the Corporation for National Service, among others. It
provided grant support to nearly 90 institutions and assisted
many more CIC members through conferences, workshops,
publications, and web-based materials. The projects included:
• Serving to Learn, Learning to Serve (1993-1995)
• Serving to Learn, Learning to Serve in School Success
(1996-1998)
2000
Richard Ekman succeeds Allen Splete as president
of CIC. Also, the Council establishes a “Protocol
for Collaboration” with Foundation for Independent
Higher Education and National Association of
Independent Colleges and Universities to work
together more closely on joint projects and programs
benefiting private colleges and universities.
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