CIC is beginning an examination of the successes that independent colleges and universities are achieving in educating “at-risk” students. This interest was sparked by the presidential essays on low-income students submitted for a CIC book to be published next year by the Lumina Foundation for Education.
     To frame a potentially larger initiative, CIC invited nine presidents to Washington, DC for a day-long planning meeting on September 30 to discuss this issue. There was consensus about an important starting point—that private colleges and universities play a substantial role not only in providing access to college for at-risk students but also in ensuring their educational success. Though conventional wisdom has long held that community colleges and state universities are the first-line institutions in serving these students, participants agreed that over the past few decades, many private institutions have become the nation’s “colleges of opportunity” and “colleges of the community.”
     They also discussed factors beyond family financial constraints that can pose challenges for students seeking higher education. Other characteristics include poor academic preparation, coming from inner-city or rural settings, having a learning disability, being a member of a minority population, and being a non-native English speaker.
     Presidents attending the meeting included James Barnes, Indiana Wesleyan University; JoAnne W. Boyle, Seton Hill University (PA); Algeania W. Freeman, Livingstone College (NC); Todd S. Hutton, Utica College (NY); Antoinette Iadarola, Cabrini College (PA); James N. Loughran, St. Peter’s College (NJ); John B. Muller, Bellevue University (NE); Barbara P. Sirvis, Southern Vermont College; and Harold H. Smith, Pikeville College (KY).
     Ways to assist institutions in this work emerged from the conversation, and over the next few months CIC will develop proposals for specific activities through which institutions
can share their own and learn of others’ successes.

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Last updated: December 2003
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