Strategic Planning Initiative Involves Leaders from Nearly 100 Campuses
The strategic planning initiative begun by the Council of Independent Colleges in January is well underway and has already included participation by presidents and chief academic officers from nearly 100 colleges and universities.
    The major activity to date of the initiative has been a series of roundtable discussions held on campuses throughout the country. Throughout the spring, summer, and early fall, CIC will be convening 19 regional roundtable discussions with a total of nearly 100 presidents of member and nonmember institutions and five roundtables with a total of about 50 chief academic officers.
     "These conversations have been extremely useful in advancing new ideas about the future of CIC and independent higher education, and to determine the projects and activities that the Council might undertake that would be of greatest benefit to our members," said CIC President Richard Ekman. "Participants have been remarkably candid and have offered a number of specific recommendations for CIC to consider," he added.
    The goals of CIC's strategic planning process include:

• Taking stock of issues facing independent higher education in America, as well as the particular needs and interests of member institutions.
• Assessing the effectiveness of existing CIC programs and other activities.
• Estimating CIC's distinctive role(s) in assisting all small and medium sized private colleges and universities.
• Suggesting new initiatives, and identifying programs that duplicate others' resources and could be eliminated.
• Gauging CIC's current and prospective role as a national voice for independent higher education.
• Ascertaining which other higher education or state associations currently serve member interests.

    A group of presidents will convene in Washington, DC in July to begin synthesizing the information collected from the roundtable discussions. The strategic plan will be drafted this fall and presented to the Board of Directors and CIC membership for approval in January 2002 during the Council's Presidents Institute and Annual Meeting in Florida.
    Roundtable meetings with presidents and CAOs will have been held by the end of September at the following institutions: Augsburg College (MN), Austin College (TX), Bloomfield College (NJ), Clarke College (IA); Edgewood College (WI), Elon University (NC), Franklin & Marshall College (PA), Goshen College (IN), Huntingdon College (AL), Lesley University (MA), Millikin University (IL), Mount St. Mary's College (CA), Nazareth College (NY), Otterbein College (OH), Pacific Lutheran University (WA), Rockhurst University (MO), and Spelman College (GA).

Several Recent Grant Awards to Fund Range of CIC Activities
The Council of Independent Colleges has recently been awarded several grants totaling nearly $600,000 from foundations for myriad projects and activities.

• The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc. ($200,000) — Presidential Leadership Development
• The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation ($125,000) — Database on Private Higher Education
• The William Randolph Hearst Foundations, Inc. ($100,000) — Strategic Planning Initiative
• Verizon Foundation ($100,000) — Information Technology Advisory Service
• Lumina Foundation for Education ($64,380) — Support for 2001 Institute for Chief Academic Officers

CIC Newsletter Goes Electronic!
The Independent, CIC's quarterly newsletter, is now available in an electronic version that will be posted on the website and e-mailed to all CIC member presidents, chief academic officers, and public relations directors.
    The move to this electronic format will enable CIC to deliver the news more quickly to a wider audience, and allows the news to be updated as events warrant before the next printed issue comes out. The online newsletter will include all of the information contained in the printed version and has been designed so that viewers can click on specific articles without having to scroll through the entire document to find a particular article. In addition, it will remain on CIC's website (www.cic.edu /newspubs) in an accessible archive, so that individuals are able to return to it at a later date.
    As a means of increasing the potential readership, recipients of the electronic newsletter are encouraged to forward it to anyone who might be interested in CIC activities or news about the private sector of higher education.

CIC'S New Logo Wins Gold Award
The new "Infinity" logo for the Council of Independent Colleges this spring was named a "Gold Winner" in the Admissions Advertising Award sponsored by The National Newspaper of Admissions Marketing's Admissions Marketing Report, a publication covering aspects of marketing for higher education.
    During the 16th annual competition, a national panel of judges that consisted of admissions marketers, advertising creative directors, marketing and advertising professionals, and the editorial board of Admissions Marketing Report, selected CIC's logo as one of many gold winners from among nearly 2,000 entries from more than 900 colleges, universities, and secondary schools.
    The redesign of CIC's logo and visual identity was completed in 2000 by the Baltimore-based design firm, Robert Ritter & Associates, who won the bid in competition with approximately two dozen design firms.
     "We're very pleased with the 'Infinity' logo, which, in addition to being a visually interesting twist on our initials, also creatively reflects CIC's ongoing blending of tradition (the column) with a focus on the future (infinity symbol) in serving private higher education," said CIC Executive Vice President Russell Garth.

Staff Notes
This past May, CIC President Richard Ekman was the commencement speaker at the 115th annual commencement ceremony of Hastings College (NE), where he received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. Ekman's speech focused on the benefits of a liberal arts education. Also in May, Ekman gave the keynote address at an event commemorating the completion after 71 years of the Middle English Dictionary, a project sponsored by the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
    Executive Vice President Russell Garth participated in a summer program on "service quality" for teams of private college and university leaders sponsored by CIC and the Disney Institute. Seven teams of five to nine officials each from Alderson-Broaddus College, Indiana Wesleyan University, Palm Beach Atlantic College, Saint Edward's University, Siena Heights University, Simpson College, and Villa Julie College traveled to Lake Buena Vista, FL on July 8-10 to learn from the strategies and philosophies that Disney uses to build and deliver a positive "guest" experience.
    On July 17, Vice President of Development Candace Groudine presents a seminar at Bryn Mawr College (PA) on "Accountability and Fundraising: Ethical Issues in Planning and Conducting Capital Campaigns." The presentation is part of the annual HERS Summer Institute for Women in Higher Education at Bryn Mawr.
    Jacqueline Skinner, Associate Director of CAPHE, co-presented a program entitled "Completing the Doctorate by Students of Color: A Dream in Progress?" at the 13th annual National Conference on Race & Ethnicity, May 30-June 3 in Seattle, WA. This was the third year in a row that Skinner has co-presented a variation of this program at NCORE.

New CIC Institutional and Affiliate Members (since May 2001)
The board and staff of CIC extend a warm welcome to the following new members:

Institutional Members
Cazenovia College (NY)
Dickinson College (PA)
Gettysburg College (PA)
Schreiner University (TX)
Oberlin College (OH)
Willamette University (OR)

Affiliate Members
American Council of Learned Societies
American Historical Association
College Art Association
Folger Shakespeare Library
Foundation for Independent Higher Education
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation

Independent
The Council of Independent Colleges
One Dupont Circle NW, Suite 320 • Washington, DC 20036
tel: (202) 466-7230 • Fax: (202) 466-7238 • e-mail: cic@cic.nche.edu • www.cic.edu

Last updated: August 2, 2001
Copyright © 2001 The Council of Independent Colleges