| Small
By Choice The Advantages of Small Colleges |
The Council of Independent Colleges A Special Report on the Role of Small Independent Colleges in America |
Focus on the
Undergraduate
High Quality Education
Liberal Arts Education
for a Lifetime
Emphasis on Values
Significant Opportunities
Advantageous Teaching
Environment
Leadership
Financially &
Administratively Efficient
College "Family"
Commitment
At small colleges, leadership can make a difference.
Small Colleges, unencumbered by bureaucracy and having fewer administrative obstacles, can readily adapt to change. People can exchange information quickly. Decisions can be made swiftly. Innovations can be implemented rapidly. In this environment, a single individual - an imaginative president, for example - can wield significant influence over an institution. It is far more difficult to alter the course of larger institutions. Presidents of small colleges are like sailors of a single ship, tacking this way and that, catching the winds of opportunity, trying to round the buoy first - and safely. At small institutions leadership has a real chance to function.
In In Search of Excellence, Peters and Waterman conclude similarly about industry: "The economic theorists may disagree, but to the excellent companies the evidence is crystal clear - smallness is both effective and efficient. Smallness induces manageability and, above all, commitment. Small works. Small is beautiful."
Learn more about the financial
and administrative efficiency of small colleges ...
This Special Report is made possible by a generous grant from the Atlantic Richfield Foundation.
This Special Report was published by the Council of Independent Colleges in association with JB Associates Washington, Ltd., Washington D.C.
The Council of Independent College (CIC)
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Photos © 2000 Greenville College