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Jeff Abernathy, president, Alma College
Jeff Abernathy, president of Alma College, in Michigan, discusses ways he is stretching a dollar, rethinking administrative structure at the top, and using technology to help Alma and two other small private colleges pool their curricular resources. With a favorable-term loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Alma, which has about 1,450 students, is renovating much of its campus. The college has also hired a chief operating officer to concentrate on nonacademic management matters while Mr. Abernathy, whose background is as an English professor, focuses on curricular, faculty, and development issues. And in a pilot project with conferencing equipment donated by Google, Alma is working with two nearby colleges to offer classes beyond what any of them could individually.