A charge to keep : a collective case study of the critical success factors for small United Methodist-related colleges.

This collective case study identifies the critical success factors for small United Methodist-related colleges. Over the past decade, many colleges have closed or merged, citing factors such as enrollment, fiscal health, and leadership as reasons for closure (Grawe, 2018; Marcy, 2020; Zemsky et al., 2020). A predicted enrollment cliff beginning as early as 2026 (Grawe, 2018) could impact enrollment and primary revenue resources, possibly affecting small colleges disparately (Grawe, 2021). This dissertation used three research questions to identify critical success factors in the hope that data reported in this publication can influence decision-making and be a resource for colleges, board of trustee leadership, and the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. To conduct the research for this study, I used Daniel's (1961) and Rockart's (1979) critical success factor framework to help guide the research questions and data analysis. In this collective case study, I identified four cases: three small United Methodist-related colleges and the Global Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM). The three colleges have a shared phenomenon of a strong reliance on enrollment to meet institutional financial needs. I identified twenty-two critical success factors from data gathered from the semi-structured interviews with sixteen participants from the three colleges and GBHEM leadership and a review of the historical institution-specific data. These success factors are in the key areas of enrollment, fiscal health, and leadership. In addition, four of the identified findings are uniform for all three college cases: niche programming, reliance on philanthropy to meet budgetary needs, time for the president to cultivate and steward the board of trustee members, and the connection between the church and the college. Four key interest groups are identified: presidents and senior leaders of small United Methodist-related colleges, the leadership at GBHEM, the board of trustee members at small United Methodist-related colleges, and higher education professional organizations and consultants. The research from this study will be shared through academic and professional presentations to key stakeholders and decision-makers and by academic publication.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Grantor

Baylor University.

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Earle, Shannon C., 1976-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Earl, Julia Collier.

• Enrollment.
• Critical success factors.
• United Methodist-related colleges.
• Small colleges.
• Philanthropy.
• Fiscal health.
• Board of trustees leadership.
• Global Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
• Higher education.

Statement dc:rights

• Baylor University works are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. Contact libraryquestions@baylor.edu for inquiries about permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2104/13157

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:baylor-ir.tdl.org:2104/13157