October
22, 2015
Last week I attended a conversation between Foundation Officers and College and
University Presidents in the financial district of New York City. The
meeting was facilitated by Washington, DC-based Council of Independent
Colleges. CIC is the major national service organization for 600 independent
liberal arts colleges and universities in the U.S.
Twenty foundation officers joined approximately 90 presidents and State Fund
executives to discuss “The Present and Future of Foundation Support for Liberal
Arts.” The Foundation Officers also provided a deeper understanding of
how foundations’ priorities are chosen and how their foundations decide on
strategies for fulfilling the priorities.
An impressive list of experienced foundation leaders led productive discussions
to address various aspects of the theme. Mariet Westermann, Vice
President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, specifically addressed the
present and the future. Robert Hackett, President of the Bonner Foundation, and
Jennifer Hoos Rothberg, Executive Director of the Einhorn Family Charitable
Trust, spoke to foundation support for student engagement and civic
responsibility. Michael McPherson, a former college president and
currently President of the Spencer Foundation, discussed research support for
independent higher education. Robert A. Maginn, Jr., President of the
Jenzabar Foundation, and Timothy J. McClimon, President of the American Express
Foundation, focused on corporate foundations.
I found this to be a most encouraging discussion.
Some higher education experts suggest a national trend of declining
interest in expensive liberal arts education in place of more vocational
degrees. As I suggested in a recent column in The Huffington Post, I
believe that the traditional liberal arts genre of education should survive,
that it deserves the best kind of critical and creative thinking that can save
it and that having a discussion on its future possibilities should go forward.
The residential, personalized, professor-intensive model has unlimited value,
as well as diverse implications for our society and the demands that confront
our next generation of leaders.
