Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
229 W. 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036

To the Editor:

The Times needs to drop out of the coverage of trends in private higher education ("More Small Colleges Dropping Out," May 7), if it can’t provide forthright and fair reporting. The Times failed to include fundamental data and compelling examples of the institutional vitality of the nation’s 1,600 private colleges and universities (about which we gave reporter Yilu Zhao information several times during her reporting). Your story focused only on a few fallen trees, and missed entirely the growing forest of independent higher education.

For instance, the Times chose not to mention that for nearly 30 years the private sector’s share of higher education has held steady at around 20 percent. Furthermore, according to Education Department data, the number of students attending liberal arts colleges has increased by 50 percent during that period, while the number of students attending all four-year institutions has grown by 30 percent.

Your report also ignored Education Department projections that over the next 10 years, full-time enrollment at private colleges will increase at an average rate of 1.7 percent per year. This is the same rate of growth expected at public institutions, and a higher rate than the 1.4 percent annual increase at private colleges over the past decade.

Also missed was that since 1995 at least 14 private colleges and universities have announced plans to open. Since 2000, this includes three four-year liberal arts colleges in Atlanta, southern California, and Washington, D.C., and a four-year undergraduate engineering school in Boston. Since 1995, the private sector has experienced the de minimus net loss of about 1 percent of our 1,600 institutions. This is hardly a crisis in the making.

In each of the past five decades, prognosticators have predicted the imminent demise of private colleges and universities, for many of the same reasons given today: new competitors, evolving technology, changing student preferences, and economic recession. The tiny handful of institutions that could not adapt have closed or merged. However, the nation is dotted from coast to coast with hundreds of success stories: private colleges that have responded to shifting market forces and economic challenges—by refocusing their missions, developing new market niches, and enhancing operating efficiency—and have gone on to prosper. Through flexible and entrepreneurial leadership, the vast majority of America’s private institutions will continue to thrive well into the 21st century.

Sincerely,

David L. Warren
President
National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities