Annual Report 2003-2004 - The Council of Independent Colleges

M ESSAGE FROM THE P RESIDENTThe theme of this year’s annual report, “Making the Casefor Independent Higher Education,” reflects a commitmentundertaken by CIC at the urging of its member presidents,chief academic officers, and Board of Directors to helpmake a stronger case for the forms of education offered bysmall to mid-sized, teaching-oriented, private colleges anduniversities, and to collect and disseminate data and informationon the independent sector of higher education.During the past year, CIC commissioned two studies andcollected other national data that can help to document theeffectiveness of independent colleges and universities.Currently CIC is developing tools based on those data thatwill help campus leaders make a more effective case for theirown institutions. In related activities, CIC held a symposiumin November 2003 for institutional presidents and corporateCEOs to explore how leaders in both business and independentinstitutions of higher education can benefit from theconnections between the liberal arts and business careers.The Council also created a new Key Indicators Tool thatprovides comparative institutional data on critical ratios.This tool, sent to member presidents in summer 2004, ispart of another CIC data-intensive effort to EnhanceDecision-Making.While the Making the Case and Enhancing Decision-Making Initiatives have constituted a major effort during2003-2004, the Council has also launched several other newprograms, services, and cooperative activities. Highlights forthe year, which are described in the following pages, include:Publications. CIC issued three publications in 2003-2004:Information Technology Benchmarks: A Practical Guide forCollege and University Presidents; Report of a Symposium on theLiberal Arts and Business; and a web-based publication,“Effective Practices Exchange,” that caps a decade of work onoff-campus student learning and community engagement.Presidential Services and Programs. Several CIC serviceshave enabled presidents to meet in order to advise one another,brought together presidents and trustees, and providedconsultants on such issues as financial management and president-boardrelations. In addition, a first-ever PresidentsLeadership Summit was held at the Microsoft Corporationheadquarters in Redmond, Washington. It included 28 collegepresidents who explored with Microsoft experts the technology-influencedapproaches to learning and communication ofthe upcoming “millennial generation” of students.Other Programs and Services. CIC selected two collegesto receive the Heuer Award for Outstanding Achievement inUndergraduate Science Education; sponsored several workshopson “Transformation of the College Library”; co-sponsoredwith the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American Historya seminar on “Slavery: Scholarship and Public History”; andcollaborated with the Council of American OverseasResearch Centers to offer a seminar for CIC faculty memberson “Teaching About Islam and the Middle East.”Thanks are due to many CIC members, the Board ofDirectors, sponsors and other funders, and staff colleagues whocontributed to these successes.Richard EkmanPresidentCouncil of Independent CollegesRICHARD EKMAN, PRESIDENT2003-2004 ANNUAL R EPORT3