Minutes of Private Colleges Meeting
Monterey, CA
November 21, 1996
Attendees: Sandy McGowan, University of Pacific School of Pharmacy; Rhonda Rosen, Loyola Marymount University; Peter Sutheim, Occidental College; Connie Costantino, USIU; and Rich Cheatham, Whittier College
After sharing introductions and horror stories about the difficulties of finding the assigned meeting room, members discussed their experiences at the conference. Repeatedly they remarked on the differences between the private colleges' operations and those of the larger public institutions. Many spring simply from the availability of financial resources while others reflect differences in educational philosophy, mission, and practice. In any case, the privates often found themselves strangers in a land not necessarily strange but one with which they were more familiar theoretically than experientially. They did agree, however, that the conference had been an especially worthwhile one on many fronts, not least of which were the networking opportunities and good collegiality that they found among the DET/CHE members.
Most of the meeting was spent sharing information about the design and scope of each college's media operation and the familiar problems they were all encountering to a greater or lesser degree. Among those perennial favorites included budgets, staffing, space restrictions, and myopic administrators.
Most operations provided their campuses with basic media services for classrooms (overheads, TV/VCRs, etc.) while others supervised the media collections and production facilities as well. All directors reported to either college librarians and/or academic deans. With the exception of Loyola Marymount, none of the operations appeared to rival those described by the "big guys" in the state university systems or community colleges.
The meeting concluded with an agreement to explore the possibilities for closer communications between the privates in the future.
Respectfully submitted,
Rich Cheatham
Acting Secretary