Fort Lewis College is currently in the midst of creating a new strategic plan that takes into
account declining enrollment and a tightening budget. Administration calls the main focus of the plan the Summit Project, which looks at both short-term and long-term improvements to the college.
The Independent previously reported that due to 2016-17 academic year enrollment, FLC had a projected $1.2 million budget deficit. Fall 2017 enrollment is down 6.6% from fall 2016.
Last Spring
In response to these numbers, FLC began working with college consulting firm Ruffalo Noel Levitz in January 2017. Ruffalo Noel Levitz aids colleges in increasing enrollment and fundraising.
Ruffalo Noel Levitz advised FLC to add new programs, but the school wanted to be more comprehensive, Mitch Davis, FLC public affairs officer said.
“We think we can do a more comprehensive job of looking at the institution as a whole, what what we do, what we offer, and is that going to be valuable five, 10 years from now,” Davis said.
To do this, FLC hired Ramona Pierson as chief strategist in March 2017. Pierson is an alumna of FLC and is founder and chief executive officer of Declara, a machine learning company.
At an all-campus meeting on April 13, Pierson presented her vision of FLC becoming a STEM based school to a packed Student Union Ballroom. Pierson emphasized STEM, or science, technology, engineering and math programs citing national trends in these fields.
The meeting caused tension and uncertainty between groups on campus who disagreed on the future of the college. Faculty and students were worried about the future of the liberal arts at a proposed STEM focused institution.
In late May, Pierson resigned from her position as chief strategist. President Dene Thomas took on the role of leading the project.
Six teams comprised of faculty, staff and students were established to look at a topic to improve FLC.
The teams presented their best ideas at an all campus meeting in July. The summit council, a team made up of 14 members, reviewed the ideas and established 16 ideas to move to the next stage of the process, feasibility studies. The feasibility studies will determine if the ideas are worth implementing at FLC.
Feasibility Studies
The financial feasibility portion of the project is being overseen by Michele Peterson, associate vice president for finance & administration and Steve Schwartz, vice president for finance & administration.
Each of the 16 ideas will be assigned to a team of campus experts to analyze. For example, the team assigned to study a science-related degree is made up of the dean of arts and sciences as well as other science faculty.
These feasibility teams will propose what kind of facilities, technology, faculty and courses are needed, Schwartz said. Schwartz and Peterson will then review the financials of these plans.
“We’ll be providing kind of a financial reality check,” Schwartz said.
The goal is to determine what programs will attract new students but also what FLC can do really well at, he said. FLC’s programs need to be able to compete, or be better than, other schools in the area. If FLC had a nursing degree, it would have to be valuable enough to attract students here instead of Colorado Mesa University to be considered feasible, he said.
“The feasibility will look at our ability to excel,” Schwartz said.
Financially, the program must be able to pay for itself within four years, he said. If not, the program will have to be subsidized by another area of campus.
The 16 summit ideas are organized into three timeframes, short term, medium term and long term, based on how quickly the college could add them.
“The timeframes refer to both when the feasibility studies will commence, as well as when we might expect a summit idea to be implemented,” Schwartz said in an email.
Short-Term Ideas
Some ideas will be easier and would be more short term to implement, Peterson said. One such idea is a pre-health care certificate for those interested in going to medical school.
“We have everything we need,” Peterson said. “We have all the courses. It’s just a matter of pulling everything together and packaging it as a certificate. So that might be something that we do with no cost.”
The pre-health certificate is an example of a micro credential, which is a shorter program than a bachelor’s degree, such as an associate degree. Other micro credentials include natural resource management, digital marketing, early childhood education and ski resort operations.
Ski resort operations would benefit from the resources that a location like Durango provides, Thomas said.
“We are in the perfect area for that, and Purgatory has wanted to work with us to develop it,” Thomas said.
Another category of short-term ideas are co-curricular alignment ideas. Co-curricular alignment looks at programs FLC already has and thinking about how we can make them better, Thomas said.
The goal is to look at how these existing campus programs can be improved to attract more students, she said.
Thomas used the example of adding a swim team since FLC already has a regulation-size pool. Other co-curricular ideas include cycling team expansion, peer mentorship, office of honors education and pre-orientation programs, she said.
Pre-orientation programming would look like the peak experiences trip run by Outdoor Pursuits, Thomas said. Peak experiences is a backpacking trip for incoming freshmen the week before orientation begins.
“How can we expand that program so that we can help students get a wonderful start to their college experience and increase the likelihood that they will stay, will have retention, that they will graduate?,” Thomas said.
Short-term ideas such as micro credentials may be able to be implemented as soon as next fall, Schwartz said.
One short-term idea is an environmental science bachelor’s degree, which is similar to the existing environmental studies degree but would focus more on natural science, Thomas said.
Medium-Term and Long-Term Ideas
Medium-term ideas include two new bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree. The bachelor’s degrees are information technology and small business/entrepreneurship, Thomas said.
The one master’s degree is a professional management degree, Thomas said.
FLC has considered implementing a master’s in business administration degree in the past, but there was concern that it wouldn’t be able to sustain itself, Thomas said. A professional management degree is more viable for FLC, she said.
“So, they came up with this, which is our version of an MBA,” Davis said.
FLC already has two graduate programs under the teacher education department, master of arts in education, teacher leadership option, and a teacher leadership certificate.
Two ideas are being explored as long-term projects are a nursing degree and a center for community development and innovation, Thomas said.
“The biggest issue in nursing is clinical facilities,” Peterson said. “Without those facilities, we can’t really do a program, and those facilities are going to be very costly.”
Long-term Ideas are not necessarily less important than short-term ideas, but they require more resources, Schwartz said.
Thomas Retires
The summit project is one of Thomas’ last endeavors as FLC president as she will retire June 30, 2018. Thomas was hired in March 2010.
“That will be eight years,” Thomas said. “That’s a long time for a president.”
The search for a new president is headed by the Board of Trustees. The board made a 12-person presidential search committee to seek out potential candidates. The goal is to have a new presidential hire by spring of 2018, Davis said.
The administration wants to set FLC up for continual change, Schwartz said. They want to encourage new ideas to be explored even after this summit process is over, Schwartz said.
“We don’t want it to stop there, Schwartz said. “Ideas will continue to come. We don’t want this to be a moment in time.”
The vision and process of what FLC should be has changed over time, from Ruffalo Noel Levitz, to Ramona Pierson, to the Summit Project, Schwartz said.
“What we envisioned a year ago is totally not where we are right now but I think where we are right now is a much better place,” he said.
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