A session here at the Council of Independent Colleges' conference for presidents opened with the sort of joke that goes over well in a room full of top administrators: "How many faculty members does it take to change a light bulb?"

The punchline: "Change?"

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Scott Carlson, writing from the presidents' conference of the Council of Independent Colleges, shares from a presentation that was focused on good relations with faculty, and the importance of getting faculty support, especially in tough times. Some of the presidential advice:

• Be brutally honest about the challenges, but don't paint a situation as hopeless—and never overpromise.
• Encourage faculty members to interact with the business-affairs staff and decision makers on the board of trustees—not just at board meetings, but also in informal situations.
• When sacrifices pay off with new or renewed resources, be sure to share those resources with those who gave up something for the organization. "Conspiracy theorists will say, You're just using the crisis to pull things from us that you felt you couldn't do" in good times, he said. ...

The key lessons, Mr. Anderson said, were that crisis can drive change on a campus, but it can also present two risks: "The first is that we can get into a food fight over process, and we lose our focus on the real issue of how we are going to make reductions and reallocations," he said. The policy document from the 1970s helped with that problem in this case.

"The second thing is, How do you preserve the fabric of the community and avoid the board taking charge or the administration taking charge?" he said. That threat can alter the very spirit of the higher-education enterprise, he said.