September 9, 2005

Is Less More at Small Colleges?

By PAUL FAIN

Earlham College, for one, is resisting increasing pressure to grow and compete

With a $261-million endowment, a healthy balance sheet, hundreds of acres of open space on campus, and a swelling pool of applicants that reached a record 1,554 this year, Earlham College could easily give in to pressure to expand from its base of 1,200 students, as other similar liberal-arts institutions have done.

But Earlham's president, Douglas C. Bennett, does not buy the Wall Street philosophy