The Poor Get Richer

At the feast of philanthropy spread for U.S. colleges each year by the nation's business firms and foundations, the 130 nonaccredited small colleges are so far below the financial salt that most of them do not know what it tastes like. The viciously circular problem: to be eligible for most grants, colleges must be accredited, but to be accredited, they need grants that bring faculties, libraries and classroom buildings up to the levels required by the nation's six regional accrediting associations. Two years ago several of the fund-starved colleges pooled their problems (TIME, March 5, 1956), formed the Council for the Advancement of Small Colleges. Last week, at Michigan State University (which, with 20,500 students and unquestioned accreditation, is not a member), the council gathered to talk of progress--in tones loud enough, they hoped, to be heard by the great philanthropists.

Biggest achievement: in recent months, accreditation has come to seven member colleges (three of which, in effect, graduated out of the council upon reaching this milestone). For the rest of its 65 members, the C.A.S.C. offers shared experience, advice and an evangelistic optimism. Says Executive Secretary Alfred T. Hill of the council membership: "Harvard was like this 300 years ago." Some of the potential Harvards:

P: The youngest college in the council, Dodge City's (Kans.) St. Mary of the Plains, was founded in 1952, has a good faculty (42% are Ph.D.s) and physical plant, but has only 145 students. President Francis J. Donohue thinks that the college needs an enrollment twice as large to operate economically. But although the area needs a college--the next (Fort Hays Kansas State College) is 110 miles away --the farm lands around St. Mary's suffered impoverishing droughts in recent years. Students who should be attending do not have the money, and the young college run by the Sisters of St. Joseph has little cash to spare for a student-assistance program.

P: Nasson College at Springvale, Maine seemed ready to expire eight years ago. It had a student body of 85 girls, a poorly maintained plant of seven buildings, and the added liability of existing in a town weakened by the closing of textile mills. By recruiting twelve new firms, the college helped Springvale get back on its financial feet, and was thus able to strengthen its own finances. Nasson now seems well on the way to solving its problems with 16 tidy buildings, a coed enrollment of 286 and a slowly growing endowment.

P: Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif. got a grant of only $25,000 from U.S. Steel, but it built a library that brought the school accreditation.

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