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Making the Case Resources - August 2007
Please note: Articles below link to PDF files.
(To view, you will
need Adobe Acrobat, available for free from the Adobe
website.)
Welcome to Making the Case Resources (formerly Communications Resources),
CIC’s periodic kit of tools and ideas to help you tell your institution’s
story and make the case for independent higher education.
PRESIDENTS AND OTHERS MAKE THE CASE FOR PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION
Several presidents and other writers make compelling arguments for the
value of private colleges and universities in these articles.
- Southwestern University (TX) President Jake Schrum
was interviewed earlier this year for a National Public Radio story
on the cost of higher education. In “College is a Steal”
(Tuesday, January 30, 2007) Schrum says if you add up the value of everything
you’re getting, the price of that college education is actually
a bargain.
College
Is a Steal
- In “Hands Off Higher Ed” (Wall Street Journal,
May 12, 2007) Larry P. Arnn, president of Hillsdale College
(MI), makes the case against federal standards and testing in higher
education, as proposed by the Spellings Commission on the Future of
Higher Education. Donna Engelmann, professor and chair of the philosophy
department at Alverno College (WI), stresses in “Assessment
From the Ground Up” (InsideHigherEd, August 14, 2007)
that her college’s culture of assessment provides the best possible
evidence of student learning: “We explicitly state our learning
goals, and we have the data to show our students are meeting them.”
Hands Off Higher Ed
(Arnn) 
Assessment From
the Ground Up (Engelmann)
- Katie Conboy, vice president for academic affairs at Stonehill
College (MA), says that “Big-Name Schools Aren’t
Always Best” in a March 7 Christian Science Monitor essay
that applauds “great schools you’ve never heard of.”
Big-Name Schools
Aren't Always Best
- Women’s colleges around the world are needed now more than
ever, says Joanne V. Creighton, president of Mount Holyoke College
(MA), who writes in the May 21 edition of the Boston Globe
about “Why we need women’s colleges.”
Why We Need Women's
Colleges
- Gene Meyer, higher education reporter for the Kansas City Star,
makes a strong case for private colleges and universities in “Independent
Thinking: Private Colleges Can Pay Off” (April 15, 2007). The
piece includes charts from CIC’s Making the Case website.
Independent Thinking:
Private Colleges Can Pay Off
- In an effort to help students afford college, Westminster
College (PA) has shifted the focus of its annual giving program
(the Westminster Fund) solely to supporting student scholarships. An
article in the spring 2007 Westminster College Magazine lays
out some of the reasons behind rising college costs and explains how
the institution is addressing the challenge of providing high-quality
education to deserving, low-income students.
College Costs...
- St. Edward’s University (TX) relies on “help
from the troops in promoting the institution’s brand, and that
requires keeping employees well informed,” writes Paige Booth,
vice president of marketing, in the July 2007 edition of University
Business.
Information Please!
OTHER THOUGHT-PROVOKING PIECES
Thoughts from a president in her first year in office, undergraduate
research as a means of engaging young scientists, and the need for better
understanding of other cultures are three topics of likely interest to
CIC member presidents and PR directors.
- Karen Gross, who just completed her first year as president of Southern
Vermont College, offers some valuable advice for first-year
presidents in an article for InsideHigherEd, “My First
Year as President” (July 13, 2007).
My First Year as
President
- Research, which once was undertaken primarily by faculty members
and graduate students at large universities, writes Dominican
University of California President Joseph Fink, today is becoming
an important vehicle for engaging undergraduate students. Fink’s
op-ed, “Why Undergrad Research Matters,” appeared in the
February 7 edition of California’s Marin Independent Journal.
Why Undergrad Research
Matters
- Eckerd College (FL) President Donald R. Eastman III
stresses the dire need for study of other cultures in “Education
in the Nation’s Service,” an op-ed that ran on January 7
in the Tampa Tribune. Eastman notes, “The American military won
the Iraq war in a matter of days; we have been losing the peace ever
since.”
Education in the
Nation's Service
HELPFUL GUIDELINES FOR CAMPUS PR OFFICERS
Campus PR directors will find useful the attached “2007 Higher
Education Media Contacts List” to update their mailing lists for
national higher education reporters. The list was prepared by CIC Senior
Advisor Keith Moore for his annual
conference in June 2007.
2007 Higher
Education Media Contacts List
Prior to the conference, CIC cosponsored “Publicizing Faculty in
Today’s Media,” a half-day workshop where helpful handouts
were distributed during roundtable idea exchanges. With the permission
of the authors, some useful handouts are included here:
WANT TO SHARE SOME OF YOUR WRITING?
If you have a short speech, op-ed, report, or other article that you
think would be of interest to your colleague presidents or PR directors
in CIC, please send them to us for inclusion in the next issue. For more
information or to talk about your materials, contact CIC Vice President
for Communications Laura Wilcox at (202) 466-7230 or lwilcox@cic.nche.edu.
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