The Edge: Lessons From a Rural College's 'Turnaround,' Before It Even Starts

Colorado's Fort Lewis College won a competition for colleges that are seeking help to expand their enrollment and revenue. [The Edge] Was this newsletter forwarded to you? [Please sign up to receive your own copy.]( You’ll support our journalism and ensure that you continue to receive our emails. --------------------------------------------------------------- I’m Goldie Blumenstyk, a senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education, covering innovation in and around academe. Here’s what I’m thinking about this week. Turning a college into a model for rural higher ed, as we all follow along. Fort Lewis College has been chosen the winner of an Entangled Solutions competition that offers two years of free consulting to an institution seeking help with strategies for expanding enrollment and revenue. As part of the deal, I’ll be following along and writing about the process periodically. [Entangled]( is a new-ish, well-connected consultancy based in San Francisco that works with dozens of colleges and foundations on renewal strategies, often linking them with private companies and other ventures with which it has investments or associations. ADVERTISEMENT [advertisement]( Already, I’m psyched — and not just because the four-year public college happens to be in the uber-scenic, outdoorsy town of Durango, Colo. [Image] Fort Lewis College I’m jazzed because I’ve already observed several lessons about taking on change that could be useful to other institutions. Those lessons were evident in the questions that Entangled weighed as it picked a winner this summer, and in the ways the college presented itself in the competition. Also, rural institutions like the 3,300-student Fort Lewis face their own set of challenges and opportunities right now, and I see this as a great chance to explore some of those complexities. (Tom Stritikus, Fort Lewis’s president, said “the complete ignoring of rural issues in the last election” was one of the reasons he came to the institution just over a year ago.) And the college has a particular focus on serving Native American students — it accounts for [more than a quarter]( of all bachelor’s degrees awarded to such students by four-year public baccalaureate institutions. So that lends added urgency to Fort Lewis’s quest for financial sustainability, considering the nationally low rates of higher-education attainment among that population. But first some background. While I’ve used the term “turnaround” to describe the help that Entangled is offering, Stritikus told me he sees the project a little differently. “We don’t think we’re turnaround,” he said. “We think this is an acceleration.” A little presidential spin? Sure. But actually, I’ll grant him that point, because Fort Lewis has already been doing some creative thinking about its future. For example, as it begins to build out its online programs, it’s been talking with more-established providers like Arizona State University and Colorado State University-Global about whether it could take some of their offerings and, as Stritikus puts it, “stitch them into our degrees.” Having recognized that its process for admitting transfer students “was pretty clunky” — Stritikus’s words — it’s begun making improvements “to de-hassle the process for students,” starting with transfer agreements with community colleges in Pueblo and in neighboring New Mexico. Fort Lewis doesn’t rely on adjuncts — given the locale, there aren’t many nearby. But it’s considering ways to expand its teaching capacity, and has been talking with the University of Colorado at Boulder about tapping into Boulder’s pool of postdocs, which would provide them with more classroom experience. “We have something to offer the research institutions that do care about teaching quality,” Stritikus said. Some takeaways, already. Entangled received applications from a dozen colleges, and after it narrowed the field down to five, I listened in to all their pitches in mid-August. I had no input on picking them, or the selection of the three semifinalists, which included an historically black college in the South and a two-year college that has converted to a four-year college. Paul Freedman, one of Entangled’s founders, said choosing the winner was an “incredibly difficult decision” and here, too, I’ll attest that this isn’t just spin. There would have been compelling reasons for choosing any of the others. They offered the chance to: focus on student retention; deepen alumni engagement as a tool for students’ career connections; build out bachelor’s degrees that make sense for today’s economy; or develop a strategy for more community-based connections. These are challenges many colleges face right now. Plenty more should be dealing with them. Fort Lewis got the nod for three main reasons, Freedman said. One: its “supercompelling mission,” including the focus on Native American students (through an arrangement tied to its [history,]( the state covers the cost of their tuition.) Two: its leadership and “the progress they have made without us.” Three: the chance to use the experience to develop a series of strategies “that rural colleges can uniquely do” and then share them with other institutions located away from the urban bubbles that tend to get more attention from funders. As intrigued as I am about the potential for this rural focus, I also wonder whether a college based in Durango — in a thriving state with its proximity to skiing and a local restaurant scene — is really that representative of the challenges that other rural colleges face. Stritikus acknowledged the point, but noted that the region the college serves faces challenges common to other rural areas. Among them: an energy-dependent economy where jobs are moving away, the need to balance development pressures with environmental protection, and the general challenges of remoteness. “Broadband is still an issue in our region,” he noted. As I’ve watched the beginning of this collaboration unfold, I was also struck by several lessons. Colleges that want to make change need to get everyone on board. As part of it selection process, Entangled’s advisory committee urged Freedman and his colleagues to be sure that the college’s board and other key constituencies were on board with the idea of making new moves. Even for institutions that aren’t working with outside consultants, ensuring such alignment is good advice for college leadership. Nothing says “recipe for failure” more than a president with a plan who doesn’t have backing from trustees and the faculty. (Fort Lewis had spent the past year doing its own strategic planning with its 200-plus faculty members and 300-plus staff; by the time this contest from Entangled came along, its Faculty Senate president was part of the team making the pitch.) Be willing to roll the dice, but know your limits. In asking for help, Fort Lewis understands that it needs to pick its spots carefully. It has a few million dollars in reserve to invest in new programs, some of which came from its sale of property in an area known as Horse Gulch (ya gotta love Colorado mountain country). That gives it enough of a cushion for “two or three moves,” as Stritikus put it, but the college is also very aware that it can’t squander that. “We don’t have resources beyond those strategic moves,” he told the Entangled folks during the pitch. Recognizing limits is important. But so is the willingness to take a few risks. Know your partners. Before agreeing to the project, Fort Lewis did its own vetting of the San Francisco-based consultancy to be sure it understood the college. Stritikus said he considered that essential. Otherwise, he told me, “you get a graft-versus-host problem” with outside consultants. Assessing fit between college and consultant isn’t always easy. The next two years will show whether Fort Lewis and Entangled got it right. And what about assessing fit between journalist and college working with a consultancy? Will I get the access I need to report and share this experience with all of you in a useful way? Based on first impressions from my dealings with Fort Lewis, I’m feeling pretty positive. Stritikus said he agrees that “portraying the complexity of these things is useful” to others in higher ed, and seems prepared for the attention I plan to train on this effort. “If it’s successful and covered, that’s awesome,” he told me. And “if we’re not successful and that’s covered, whatever.” A team from Entangled is heading to Fort Lewis College early next month. I’m hoping I won’t be too far behind them. Got a tip you’d like to share, or a question you’d like me to answer? Let me know, at goldie@chronicle.com. If you have been forwarded this newsletter and would like to see past issues, or sign up to receive your own copy, you can do so [here](. If you want to follow me on Twitter, [@GoldieStandard]( is my handle. Subscribe Today Without premium access, you are missing critical reporting and analysis on the news, policies, and controversies that are shaping the academic landscape. [Subscribe Today]( Goldie’s Weekly Picks The Chronicle Interview [Does College Really Work? Well, It Depends]( By Eric Hoover Paul Tough set out to explore how higher ed’s ideals can both inspire and discourage students. (PREMIUM) Students [At 2 Jesuit Colleges, Aligning Passion and Profession]( By Alexander C. Kafka Through small seminars for freshmen and beyond these institutions emphasize doing well by doing good, and preparing students for careers that fit their values and temperaments. (PREMIUM) Commentary [Free Public College Is a Terrible Idea]( By Brian Rosenberg While some low-income students would benefit, mostly it would increase inequality. (PREMIUM) Latest Jobs Visit [ChronicleVitae.com]( to view the latest jobs in higher education. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Sign up]( for other newsletters, [stop receiving]( this email, or [view]( our privacy policy. © 2019 [The Chronicle of Higher Education]( 1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037 [The Chronicle of Higher Education](