Who is the competition?

One might think that for a small, Christian, liberal arts institution, the competition is other small, Christian, liberal arts institutions. And if you look at our cross-applications, at least 50% are with exactly those schools, and probably more than 50% of the "likely" applications.

But every time I attend a CCCU event, I notice how much everyone feels like "we're in this together" and freely shares (of at least appears to freely share) whatever "best practices" they might have. This blog, perhaps, is a small example of that sharing attitude.

So if other CCCU schools aren't "the competition," who is? Two alternatives come quickly to mind. First, it's the "pragmatic" and "anti-intellectual" mindsets that convince many that higher education isn't for them. So "the enemy" is ignorance. Ignorance of the importance of higher education both for the "intrinsic" knowledge gained and for the practical benefits in long-term financial rewards. According to this argument, any effort to get more kids through high school and on to college will be good for all of us.

But since I have little influence over the culture of NW Arkansas, let alone the state, region, nation, or world. So it's on to the second argument, that the "real" competition is all of the four year institutions who aren't "small, Christian, liberal arts" institutions, particularly those with whom we cross-app.

If that's correct, and I believe it is, then we should be cooperating a lot more with the Hardings and Ouachitas than we do and thinking through a lot more how to "beat" Phoenix, University of Arkansas, University of Central Arkansas, and so on.

Let's just take one business world example to make the point (an illustration summarized from Pfeffer & Sutton's Hard Facts). The Napa Valley wineries started with a guy named Mondavi in the mid 60s. He supported the development of lots of other area wineries in which he had no financial stake and with whom he was financially competing. The resulting spirit of cooperation helped them all get better until the great "Judgement" of 1976 in Paris when a bunch of California wines first beat out a bunch of French wines in a blind taste test. California wine prices then soared, Mondavi's included.

The lesson is pretty straight forward that our CCCU institutions (and related schools like Harding and Ouachita) in general tend to rise and fall together. We should, as a consequece, see ourselves much more as allies in a common cause than I typically hear us talking about when we talk through competing programs and schools with whom we cross-app.