Campus walls are talking.

FOR NEARLY 2,000 HISTORICAL CAMPUS SITES AT APPROXImately 370 independent U.S. institutions, it's not a matter of if their walls could talk. It's about what those walls are saying. And how attentively their administrators are listening.

The Council of Independent Colleges has launched the CIC Historic Campus Architecture Project (HCAP), a database of searchable information about significant buildings, landscapes, campus plans, and heritage sites of American higher education. The photographs, drawings, and descriptions "form a treasure trove for understanding the places where students have learned and professors have taught," says CIC President Richard Eckman.

The 23 institutions responding to an informal University Business survey about the CIC HCAP indicate that the site is already being put to good use, for: campus planning; promoting a school's presence to prospective students and staff as well as to alumni; sharing campus buildings' histories with the public; and seeing work by particular architectural design firms. Many schools provide a link from their own websites to their pages on the CIC site, www.cic.edu/hcap.--Melissa Ezarik

How will you use the Historic Campus Architecture Project site? "[The site will reinforce] the case for the sustained development and enhancement of the university. Our strategic goals call for continued restoration and preservation of other important buildings."--Henry N. Tisdale, president, Claflin University (S.C.)

"As we seek to recruit students and faculty from across the country and globally, the ability to use resources like the HCAP website in our materials lends a level of credibility that entices students and faculty to further explore and research opportunities at Northwestern College."--Doug Beukelman, vice president for Financial Affairs, Northwestern College (Iowa)

"My hope is that campus administrators will use this survey as a way of inspiring high-quality architectural design and campus planning at their institutions and that in the current climate we can combine 'green architecture' and 'sustainability' with high-quality architecture, campus planning, and landscape design."--George Gorse, professor Department of Art & Art History, Pomona College (Calif.)

"The new website will give us an opportunity to see how an individual architect modified designs for various campuses or perhaps used a specific design on multiple campuses."--Thomas R. Kepple, president, Juniata College (Pa.)

"My sense is that higher education is in a more serious historic preservation mode, and having such a thorough site of historic campus architecture is essential to chronicling this effort. Such a resource will help all of us in the years to come as we ensure that our campuses evolve but still remain true to our individual pasts."

--Jonathan Brand, president, Doane College (Neb.)