The decisions facing small colleges today are unlike any in recent memory. Demographic pressure, tuition dependency, and growing scrutiny from accreditors and governing boards are converging in ways that most institutions were never designed to navigate alone.
For many presidents and boards, the most consequential question is no longer whether to consider partnership or structural change; it is whether they are beginning that conversation early enough, and with advisors who have actually navigated these decisions themselves.
That distinction matters. The Center for College Partnerships and Alliances exists to provide it.
Why We Formed the Center
The advisory support available to small colleges facing existential pressure has too often come from people who have studied these processes rather than lived them. We formed the Center because we believed something different was needed — counsel grounded in direct experience, from leaders who have sat in the president’s chair and the boardroom during the hardest decisions an institution can face.
Barry Ryan has guided a university through merger as its president. Chet Haskell has done it twice. That practitioner experience, combined with decades of governance, accreditation, and institutional strategy work, is what the Center brings to every engagement. We know what these processes actually require — not in theory, but in practice.
What the Center Does
The Center for College Partnerships and Alliances is a dedicated initiative of Edu Alliance Group, providing practitioner-led guidance to presidents, boards of trustees, and higher education associations navigating the full arc of institutional collaboration — from the earliest recognition of need through partner search, negotiation, regulatory approval, and implementation.
What we offer is not a methodology applied uniformly to every situation. It is judgment — shaped by decades of direct experience leading institutions through mergers, affiliations, governance crises, and accreditation reviews — brought to bear on the specific circumstances, culture, and mission of your institution.
Our work follows five stages, each of which we are prepared to support:
Recognize — Helping leadership honestly assess institutional position and the range of options available, before urgency narrows them.
Assess — Evaluating financial, academic, and cultural fit to determine which paths are genuinely viable.
Explore — Identifying and engaging potential partners with discretion, clarity, and strategic intent.
Negotiate — Guiding institutions through the complexity of structuring an agreement that works for all parties.
Implement — Supporting the full transition from signed agreement to operational reality, where most partnerships succeed or fail.
Our Services
- Confidential advisory engagements for presidents and boards
- Board and trustee education sessions
- Facilitated leadership retreats
- Partner search and engagement
- Negotiation and due diligence support
- Association programming and webinars
Who We Work With
The Center works with presidents, provosts, and boards of trustees at small and mid-sized independent colleges considering or facing questions of institutional sustainability, strategic partnership, merger, or affiliation. We also work with higher education associations seeking substantive programming and expertise on these issues for their member institutions.
If your institution is beginning to ask the question — or if circumstances are starting to ask it for you — we welcome a confidential conversation.
Center Leadership
Barry Ryan, Ph.D., J.D. Co-Head, Center for College Partnerships and Alliances
Barry Ryan has served as president of five universities and brings direct, firsthand experience navigating the decisions the Center advises on. He led Woodbury University through its merger with the University of Redlands — guiding the institution through every stage from initial conversations through implementation. A two-term commissioner with WSCUC, one of the nation’s leading regional accreditors, he brings an understanding of the regulatory landscape that few advisors can match. He served as a Supreme Court Fellow in the Chambers of Chief Justice Rehnquist. Dr. Ryan earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Dipl.GB in international business from the University of Oxford.
Chet Haskell, DPA Co-Head, Center for College Partnerships and Alliances
Chet Haskell has done what most advisors have only studied. As President of the Monterey Institute of International Studies and later Cogswell Polytechnical College, he guided both institutions through successful mergers — leading from inside the room where those decisions were made. He served as Provost of Antioch University, where he was a principal architect of the Coalition for the Common Good, a landmark partnership model with Otterbein University. Earlier in his career he spent thirteen years at Harvard University, including as Associate Dean of the Kennedy School of Government. He is a WSCUC Peer Reviewer and has consulted for CHEA, WASC, and the Council on International Quality. He holds DPA and MPA degrees from the University of Southern California, an MA from the University of Virginia, and an AB cum laude from Harvard University.
Dean Hoke Managing Partner, Edu Alliance Group
Dean Hoke has worked at the intersection of higher education leadership, strategy, and institutional consulting for more than a decade, advising colleges and universities across ten countries. He is the former President and CEO of the American Association of University Administrators, a Senior Fellow at the Sagamore Institute, and the Executive Producer and Co-Host of Small College America, a podcast dedicated to the role and sustainability of small colleges in American higher education. Dean serves as the connective thread between the Center’s advisory work and the broader higher education community it serves.
Begin a Confidential Conversation
“Our goal is to help college leaders and boards move from awareness to action with clarity, confidence, and compassion.” — Dr. Chet Haskell, Co-Head, Center for College Partnerships and Alliances
The institutions that navigate this era most successfully are the ones that begin the conversation before urgency dictates the outcome. We are here when you are ready.
There is no obligation in reaching out. A first conversation is simply that — a conversation.
Barry Ryan — barry.ryan@edualliancegroup.com
Chet Haskell — chet.haskell@edualliancegroup.com
Dean Hoke — dean.hoke@edualliancegroup.com
Edu Alliance Journal 