For a while here at Fort Lewis College we have been hearing a lot of talk about the future of our institution. In the past year, we have participated in listening sessions, committee meetings, and public forums where we’ve debated fiercely about a phrase: liberal arts education. We became so focused on three words that I believe we can all agree on is important to FLC, that maybe we’ve started to forget about looking down the road at the college’s future, academically and financially.

For those of us who attended President Thomas’ Spring Welcome on January 23 we were finally faced with reality. Just in the past year enrollment prediction decreases were larger than expected, the retention rate dropped, a $1.2 million budget deficit is faced and tuition is proposed to go up.

Hopefully, these numbers concern you; the faculty, the staff, the students, the administrators and the alumni. We’re all part of the FLC community for a variety of important reasons but through our teaching and our learning we all share one thing in common, we are passionate about this college. It is this passion that we must draw on in these coming years when our financial future is in the hands of enrollment. We must remember the reasons why we have chosen to make FLC our home for our academic and professional careers.

We must take these reasons for why we came and the experiences we’ve had and share them with prospective students. As a student that has been heavily involved with prospective student events I can attest that having a faculty member or current student meet with prospective students and families can lead to the difference in attending college here or somewhere else.

I believe we can do better, though. You must ask yourself, are you as a faculty member reaching out to prospective students to share what your department has to offer? Are you as a student sharing the experiences and benefits of a liberal arts education that you’ve received here to high school students?

Your initial reaction may be that it isn’t your job to do such a thing or that you’re not paid enough to do it. This may be true but we have come to a point where our college needs our help. We can hire all the consultants and firms that we want but no one knows this college better than we do.

For colleges like us, enrollment is the lifeblood of the institution. We may think that budgets are tight now whether that be department budgets or student organizations’ budgets but ask yourself what if the current enrollment trend continues? What will it look like next year? In five years?

We must acknowledge that change takes time and that the next year or two have the possibility of being rough but we must make change so that in five years we start to see a different enrollment trend. The word “change” scares a lot of people, especially members who have been part of this institution for a significant time.

My argument is that we do not have to change what we offer here at FLC but we must change the way that we are marketing ourselves. A 5.8 percent decrease in enrollment in one semester does not reflect a successful marketing strategy.

We all must do a better job of reaching out to students that would be successful here in ways that we haven’t before. Faculty, involve yourselves with prospective events with the Office of Admissions more, call admitted students in your department and convince them to confirm and share why you are proud to call FLC home. Students, share stories of the personalized learning you have received here with students from your hometown and reflect on the reasons why you chose FLC over 3,000 other four year institutions.

For many of us, and myself, this college is something that we will look back on in twenty-five years and view as a place where we learned first-hand from faculty, where we built lifelong relationships and where we succeeded. Please join me in doing our part of preserving and promoting this great place we have all chosen. It is time for us to give back before it is too late.