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[11169801]

An article today in the Chronicle online says that a new study by Carnegie Communications reports that "niche colleges...may fare worse" in the economic downturn.   The study targets Women's Colleges, Catholic Colleges and Historically Black Colleges.  The study was based on phone interviews with 860 high school students.

Baloney.   This "research" flies in the face of some remarkable trends that we are seeing in some of these very kinds of institutions.   Here at Trinity in Washington --- an historic Catholic Women's College that now has a majority Black population --- our enrollment of traditional-aged freshwomen is skyrocketing.   Many similar institutions are reporting similarly great results.   

The Chronicle should be more careful about giving a headline to a commercial marketing report without asking the institutions affected.   You might be surprised to hear a very different story based on the conduct of real students, not just those who happen to be answering the phone on a research phone bank list.

Pat McGuire
President
Trinity Washington
Washington, DC

[csguy]

You forgot the link http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/11/7765n.htm. Not free (yet).

[kedves]

I can't read the article yet because of the password protection, but I'd like to suggest that the president of any college should be more careful about criticizing research on the basis (a) that it was conducted by a firm, (b) of a choice to ignore the word "may," (c) of a misunderstanding of the meaning of generalizations from data (an accurate generalization is unlikely to apply to every case in a population), and (d) of a confusion between past and future. 

You may have had "skyrocketing" enrollment.  Do you have some evidence to suggest that this will continue in a dramatically different economic environment in 2009 and 2010?  If so, please share.  It sounds as if this report could be helpful in helping you see where you might be going, not where you have been.