Meeting the Challenge: - The Council of Independent Colleges

John R. Thelin
The long-run demographic prospects that surfaced
in the late 1950s were small consolation to college
presidents and deans immediately after World War II
when they faced unexpected financial strains as the
nation shifted to a post-war economy. A spurt of inflation
that approached double digits between 1945 and 1950
put private colleges to a stern test. Annual expenses for
campus operations—including energy, construction, and
maintenance—soared far beyond the budget plans drafted
a few years earlier.
The financial strains can be illustrated in the growth
of annual operating expenses at one small college between
1939 and 1949. In 1949 Life magazine published a feature
article about Williams College in Massachusetts, which
it presented as the pinnacle of excellent undergraduate
education in the United States. According to the Life editors,
Williams demonstrated that “In an era of mass teaching
… smallness [is] a virtue.” The faculty was well known
for its close attention to student learning. The idyllic elmlined
campus of historic brick buildings was the setting for
uncrowded libraries, state-of-the-art laboratories, a cohesive
social life, and class sizes that averaged 20 students, almost
always taught by full-time professors. The bad news was that
despite its tradition, prestige, and endowment, “The college
has a hard time making ends meet.”
Williams College’s operating budgets before and after
World War II (in actual dollars, unadjusted for inflation) provide
a clear picture of the financial difficulties some colleges faced:
Williams College Annual Operating Budgets
Category 1939-1940 1948-1949 % increase
Instruction $ 465,467 $ 665,021 43%
Administration $ 99,966 $ 197,050 97%
Maintenance $ 167,961 $ 295,000 76%
Health $ 36,085 $ 60,312 62%
Athletics $ 47,459 $ 101,193 104%
Scholarships $ 66,207 $ 70,700 8%
Other $ 28,035 $ 42,331 50%
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Total $911,180 $1,431,607 57%
These figures show an increase by more than onehalf
over less than a decade. Most alarming was the fact that
the increase was uneven. Most independent colleges, like
Williams, had greatly reduced their expenses and operations
during the war years. The increase was sharply concentrated
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