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Scholar Explores How Liberal Arts Colleges Reclaim Vision |
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November 14, 2002
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In the 1980s, liberal arts colleges in America found themselves facing both declining enrollments and resources. Many of these institutions responded by offering consumer-oriented programs largely designed to bring students in the door -- but along the way, they lost their sense of who they were.
Matthew Hartley, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, explores how three such schools succeeded in reclaiming their institutional vision in his new book "Call to Purpose: Mission-Centered Change at Three Liberal Arts College" (RoutledgeFalmer).
"Today there are tremendous pressures for colleges and universities to embrace a corporate model," Hartley said, "but what these three stories show is that mission matters. People want work that is meaningful. A college needs to be both a savvy business and a community of purpose."
The institutions Hartley studied -- LeMoyne-Owen, Olivet, and Tusculum colleges -- had drifted from their traditional identity in the scramble for new students. All three had been founded with a strong sense of purpose: Le-Moyne-Owen as a historically black college, Olivet as the first college chartered to admit women and people of color and Tusculum as an institution dedicated to preparing civic leaders.
But as a result of their shift in focus, they had lost their educational identity and were seeing enrollments fall. To recapture their sense of mission, all three schools took part in the difficult process of organizational change.
Hartley traces their turnaround stories from the early signs of breakdown through the planning stages to the final implementation of a renewed vision. He considers the struggle over core beliefs, the role of leadership and what he calls "the dark side of change," which includes examples of blacklisting at one of the schools.
At the end of the process, though, all three schools had reclaimed their sense of mission and, with it, the loyalty of their faculty, students and alumni.
"The events of these institutions demonstrate the power of purpose," Hartley said. "The process each went through brought about an investment in time and energy that money cannot buy." |
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Source:
For Additional Information Contact:
University Communications
at 215-898-8721.
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