Special Edition: CIC 2024–2025 Institutes

Highlights and Fast Facts from the 2025 Presidents Institute and the 2024 Institute for Chief Academic Officers

The 2025 Presidents Institute explored ways that presidents can effectively engage communities to transform upheaval into opportunity.

The 2024 Institute for Chief Academic Officers focused on building alliances, creating innovative academic pathways, and unlocking the potential of education for more students.

The 2025 Allen P. Splete Award for Outstanding Service and the 2025 CIC Award for Philanthropy (Organization) were presented at the 2025 Presidents Institute. The 2024 Chief Academic Officer Award and the 2024 Institute for Chief Academic Officers Task Force Award were presented at the 2024 Institute for Chief Academic Officers.

CIC's Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) hosted three regional events and announced the largest single grant in its history of nearly $20 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. to benefit members.

The Belong network remains steadfast in its commitment to fostering communities of belonging across our campuses, and CIC is excited to share that Belong is expanding its offerings in 2025.

Through its two core programs, All Campus Essentials and Build Your Own, CIC’s AI Ready network has provided professional development and facilitated hands-on experimentation with generative AI.

Members of the CIC Online Course Sharing Consortium can launch new programs through Acadeum’s program share platform.

CIC’s Work-Based Learning Consortium continues to provide free project-based learning workshops to faculty members and share coursework and opportunities with participating institutions.

Executives from ten State Council organizations participated in CIC’s 2025 Presidents Institute and the 2025 State Councils Annual Conference will take place in April.

In September 2024, CIC hosted a conference on Independent Colleges and the Legacies of Slavery. The conference was a culmination of CIC’s multiyear initiative, Legacies of American Slavery: Reckoning with the Past, which was launched in 2020 to help independent colleges and their communities explore the history, afterlives, and continuing effects of race-based slavery.

CIC is excited to introduce the Solution Center marketplace, a dynamic platform built to help independent colleges and universities find tailored solutions, services, and products.

At this fractious moment in our nation’s history, many CIC colleges and universities are elevating student preparation for engaged citizenship and civic leadership as an institutional focus. CIC’s Campus Free Expression Project supports CIC members in meeting these aims.

In October 2024, CIC released Understanding the Landscape of Graduate Programs, a survey of presidents and chief academic officers at member institutions, to share the context in which independent institutions are offering graduate programming and insights from survey responses.

CIC produces the Key Indicators Tool (KIT) and Financial Indicators Tool (FIT) reports for member institutions. Given the value of these benchmarking reports based on member feedback, CIC is enhancing them and will shift to an interactive presentation, providing members the flexibility to customize the reports to suit their needs.

Academic Search released the 2024 Competencies for the College Presidency: A National Study of Effective Leadership in Higher Education, a survey of more than 700 college and university presidents to identify the leadership qualities and skills necessary to succeed in today’s challenging and political higher education landscape.

In response to CIC member data and requests for more information about ongoing topics in the sector, CIC hosted multiple webinars since the Summer 2024 Independent newsletter publication.

CIC would like to highlight a sampling of member institutions that shared with us that they have surpassed their fall and/or spring enrollment goals.

CIC would like to highlight a sampling of member institutions that shared with us that they are launching new programs, majors, or scholarships.

CIC welcomes new members to its Board of Directors and names new chair and vice chair to Executive Committee.

CIC is pleased to introduce staff members who have joined us over the past few months.

Find a list of new CIC members since August 2024.