At Meeting of Small Private Colleges, Presidents Don't Worry Too Much About Economy

Bonita Springs, Fla. — The No. 1 topic of discussion at the annual gathering here of presidents on the Council of Independent Colleges is, of course, the economy.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Maybe the confident yet cautious outlook of presidents of small private colleges has something to do with the new year and the 80-degree Florida weather.

At a session led by Kent John Chabotar, president of Guilford College, in North Carolina, dozens of presidents shared stories about how the recession had had an effect on their campuses:

Students staying closer to home. Some colleges reported that the number of local applicants is up, and many of them are inquiring about nonresidential options. Robert A. Scott, president of Adelphi University, in New York, said his institution had seen an uptick in the number of transfers last fall and this spring by students who had left Long Island to go to college but “now need to return home for financial reasons.”

Delays in foundation grants. A few presidents said some philanthropic foundations had asked them to withdraw applications for grants rather than get rejected for lack of money. JoAnne W. Boyle, president of Seton Hill University, in Pennsylvania, said that several local foundations had informally committed millions of dollars to a health-care project the university is involved in, but then they pulled out about six months ago. “They said that while they love our ideas, they needed to reassess where their money is going right now and asked us to come back to them in 12 to 18 months,” Ms. Boyle said.

Annual giving for scholarships. Because of endowment losses, several presidents said they had had to ask living donors of endowed scholarship funds to make an annual gift as well, so that the scholarship could be awarded at its full value next year.

Deeper recruiting pools. For those colleges that are hiring, presidents reported that the talent pool had never been better. When Mr. Chabotar asked the 75 or so presidents in the room how many had frozen faculty or administrative searches, only about 10 raised their hands. Twenty others responded that they were going ahead with searches as planned. That pattern reflected the broad conclusions of a new survey by The Chronicle and Moody’s Investors Service, which found that colleges were steering through the first jolts of the recession without resorting to layoffs, cutting employee benefits, or imposing across-the-board freezes on hiring.

Anxiety about yield. Nearly everyone in the room said their applications were up, but many worry that traditional yield rates will not persist this year and that many admitted students will never make a deposit. As a result, many institutions have delayed setting their final budgets for next year. They plan to establish tuition rates in the next two months, but hold off on the budget (and subsequent raises) until later in the year, possibly even October, when they have a better handle on how many students actually show up.

State aid. While most of the concern about state budgets comes from public colleges, some private colleges receive taxpayer appropriations for every in-state student they enroll. Some private-college presidents are worried that lawmakers may cut those funds in tough times. —Jeffrey J. Selingo