Encouraged by the CIC Board of Directors and other member presidents,
CIC is extending the liberal arts public information campaign and the
Project on the Future of Independent Higher Education. The combined
initiative is called
Securing America’s Future. Over the past
three years, these efforts have provided presidents and other campus
leaders with a rich array of resources to demonstrate the value of a
liberal arts education and the effectiveness of smaller independent
colleges and universities. Also, CIC has provided research monographs
and other guides to help presidents and other campus leaders reconsider
the typical business model of private colleges. Highly successful
aspects of the previous work, including the social media activities,
will continue. The central new element of
Securing America’s Future
will be a series of workshops at colleges and universities around the
country designed to help campus teams plan the future of their
institution based on materials developed during the earlier phase. (For
details about the workshops, see
“New Workshops Will Help CIC Members Prepare for the Future.”)
Through the
Securing America’s Future initiative, CIC will:
- Host
eight workshops on campuses across the country between fall 2016 and
spring 2017 for campus teams, each ideally composed of the president,
other senior administrators, and faculty leaders;
- Prepare a report on the workshops that identifies promising
campus projects to revitalize missions, rethink long-term strategic
plans, and adjust business models without compromising the
student-centered nature of the educational model;
- Re-engage CIC Senior Fellow S. Georgia Nugent to conduct media
visits, make presentations, and write articles and op-ed pieces as well
as to facilitate most of the workshops;
- Arrange editorial board meetings for CIC President Richard Ekman
and Nugent with media in cities where workshops will be held and
independently engage top higher education and business journalists
around the country;
- Continue to feed advocacy content into the popular campaign social media channels;
- Reinforce the engagement of high school guidance counselors to
increase awareness of CIC member colleges and universities and the
superior education they offer;
- Highlight key findings from recently published research reports
to draw attention to the myth-busting truths about independent higher
education; and
- Conduct several new research projects supporting the initiative,
including on topics such as trends in the financial viability of
independent colleges and measuring the economic and social impact of
independent higher education.
Generous funding from a number of foundations will make these activities
possible. In February, CIC secured $100,000 in additional funding from
the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations to support the extension of the
initiatives. In May, the Endeavor Foundation awarded CIC another
$225,000 grant and CIC secured a $30,000 Chairman’s Grant from the
National Endowment for the Humanities. In addition, the Lumina
Foundation has made available $130,360 to engage leaders of independent
higher education in thinking critically about the current higher
education environment and how to reposition their institutions. Together
with CIC resources, the funding will support robust activity in a
number of arenas and allow CIC to offer the workshops to member campuses
free of charge.