Welcome To Maplewood College

A Case Study Compendium

Case studies are an effective learning method that allows for strengthening levels of competency, challenging thinking, and heightening discernment. At present, case study textbooks may provide readers with an overarching theme, such as social justice or management, but each of the case studies is a stand-alone typically only touching on a narrow aspect of the organization and its key personalities/players when responding to the guiding questions/challenges of the case. To fill the gap that exists for Higher Education professionals, students and faculty seeking a more realistic case study experience, Dr. Laura De Veau has drawn from her over 30 years of Higher Education experience and written this collection of case studies based on a unique premise: by going beyond a case, and delving into the campus in its totality, the learner will become more prepared in managing the complexities of being a leader and contributor on campus – at every level.

Some aspects of the Maplewood College Compendium will be familiar to scholars and practitioners in that it will provide a diversity of case studies broken down into multiple themes, but what makes this a unique offering, will be the detailed setting and personalities that will create the setting for Maplewood College, and how the compendium will be made available to readers – through the Substack platform to paid subscribers to Dr. Laura De Veau’s newsletter, “What’s Up in the Academy?”.
Each Wednesday, another installment of the Maplewood College Compendium will be posted. If you are using the case studies with your team, your students, or as a means to develop your own thinking and leadership, be sure to let Dr. De Veau know.

By immersing the reader in the Maplewood College campus and its culture, the learning is heightened. Dr. De Veau hopes that this approach will contribute to the scholarship of the practice of Higher Education Administration and Student Development in a new and innovative way, by providing case studies that are more three-dimensional in nature. And now … Welcome to Maplewood College.

Maplewood College - a brief description:

Maplewood College is a small private liberal arts college in suburban Chicago. It was founded as a women’s finishing school in the early 1900’s and progressed to an Associate’s Degree granting institution in the 1960’s. The institution soon found itself steeped in the civil rights and women’s liberation movement and their enrollment suffered. Women were not seeking an experience that prepared them for secretarial positions, careers as stewardesses and as nannies for wealthy families. They were seeking careers of their own as well as intellectual stimulation. A groundbreaking president was installed in the summer of 1966, President Harrison was the first woman to sit at the head of the institution, and she vowed to move Maplewood to new heights. By 1975 the college had become coed and was now awarding a broader range of liberal arts degrees.