The Edge: Last lessons from a return to Fort Lewis College

Two years after its experience with free consulting (and the pandemic), the Colorado college has leaned in on its mission to keep its momentum going. ADVERTISEMENT [The Edge Logo]( You can also [read this newsletter on the web](. Or, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, [unsubscribe](. I’m Goldie Blumenstyk, a senior writer at The Chronicle covering innovation in and around higher ed. This week I report on what I saw in Colorado when I made a return visit to Fort Lewis College to see how its keeping the momentum of its “free consulting” experience going. ADVERTISEMENT SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHRONICLE Enjoying the newsletter? [Subscribe today]( for unlimited access to essential news, analysis, and advice. Momentum takes effort Four years ago I began writing about Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., as it began an engagement with [a consultancy that picked it]( to receive $2-million worth of free advice. That relationship — which [was altered first by the Covid-19 pandemic and later by the consultancy being acquired]( — has long since ended. And as I described in early 2022, the college came out of it better off than when that engagement began, although it was [difficult to pinpoint how much was due to the consultancy or the college itself](. Ever since then, I’ve been curious to see if and how Fort Lewis managed to build on the momentum of that experience and its other efforts, and to explore if there were lessons in that for other institutions, especially those in rural locales. Earlier this month, I got my chance. What I saw is that keeping momentum going requires 24/7 attention. There’s no coasting, especially for tuition-dependent colleges that serve disadvantaged students. A lot has changed since my only other in-person visit to Fort Lewis’s hilltop campus, in February 2020. There is new construction on the grounds and more in the works — including a [new health-sciences center]( complete with a cool high-altitude chamber, a planned outdoor-classroom pavilion (modeled after the tents the college used to help with social distancing in the first fall after Covid), and a soon-to-be-renovated home of a new nursing program aimed at serving rural and Native American communities that is being run in collaboration with the University of Colorado’s medical center, CU Anschutz (more on this program below). I also found a lot of new faces in the administration following the departures of several folks I had spent time with previously, including the provost (to the presidency at Berea College) and the vice president for diversity affairs (to a similar post at Brandeis University). The college also has a new dean of arts and sciences (replacing a dean who retired). While some of these departures were for good opportunities elsewhere, for a small institution with a lean administration, they still amounted to a lot of turnover in key positions in a short period of time — and that creates some anxiety for professors and others. Another change (one I couldn’t actually see) was new money in the college’s coffers: Annual giving has risen substantially in the past few years — especially for programs to assist Native American students. ([Tuition for them is free]( at Fort Lewis.) And just a week after my visit, the college announced its biggest donation ever, [a $10.4-million gift to its business school]( from local philanthropists. So yeah, definitely, some momentum. But also, plenty of challenges still linger. Among them: Sustaining enrollment. The college saw a welcome rebound in enrollment in the first year after Covid hit, but those numbers have fallen off a bit since. In part that’s because some New Mexico residents who might have previously chosen Fort Lewis are instead now taking advantage of [free-tuition options]( their home state. Lower enrollment has led to some budget cutting and smaller raises, which can be especially hard to swallow for faculty and staff members during inflationary times. Improving retention. Thanks to some intensive efforts, year-to-year retention had been trending upward before the pandemic. But it’s always been lower for Native American students, who often have a tougher time because they come to college with more family responsibilities and poorer academic grounding than the student population as a whole. Retention is now rebounding over all, but for that subset of students it’s hardly budging. Reconciling the college’s history with its modern mission. Fort Lewis originated as a federal boarding school for Native American students, where from 1892 to 1909, students were forcibly removed from their homes, subjected to physical abuse, and stripped of their language and culture. For the past five years the college has been active in [efforts to have the history of such schools accurately recognized]( publicized. [History Colorado’s report on the schools]( came out the day I was on campus, and college leaders told me they planned to continue working with nearby tribal nations on next steps, perhaps involving its School of Education. Tom Stritikus, the Fort Lewis president who was just one year into the role when the engagement with Entangled Solutions began, told me he’s still convinced most of what the college has accomplished was motivated from within, aided by “a technical-assistance push” from the consultants. He also credits them with helping the college get on the radar of some foundations and donors. “We didn’t know how to tell our story,” Stritikus told me, “or that it was a priority to tell.” And to be sure, a lot of what’s happened at Fort Lewis differs from the ideas the consultants were discussing. But college leaders say the earlier work readied them to take advantage of opportunities. Here’s some of what struck me. Leaning into the mission can pay off. While initially some of the consultancy engagement seemed focused on helping Fort Lewis find added revenue streams by developing new degree or certificate programs, its most high-profile new academic offerings are more attuned to serving the region than making money. But that has helped the college attract grant dollars — and perhaps some other, more-intangible benefits. The new bachelor’s in nursing program, for example, which will prepare students to work in rural clinics and on Indian reservations, was made possible by a $1.7-million grant from the Colorado Health Foundation, as well as Fort Lewis’s willingness to forgo tuition to CU Anschutz for the 24 students (out of 56 in the pre-nursing program) who are ultimately selected for the degree program when they become juniors. “I want the CU Anschutz name on a building on our campus,” Stritikus told me, so that prospective students and their parents taking tours will see that well-known brand. Likewise, the six new work-force-oriented certificates that the college is developing with state grant funds over the next three years will be targeted at populations of the county that haven’t benefited from Durango’s rise as a popular spot for outdoorsy-minded retirees, visitors, and remote-working professionals. The three-month programs will offer child care and transportation stipends, and at least one will be offered in Spanish. The college believes there are long-term benefits in prioritizing community needs. Facing real problems head on can also open doors. Even before Covid, Fort Lewis knew it had students who were going without regular meals or stable housing, and that only intensified during the pandemic. So now, along with a robust, multipronged push to improve retention, the college has developed a sophisticated approach to tackling students’ out-of-the-classroom needs. The efforts have been bolstered by government grants and philanthropic support. On the retention front, the college has begun compensating professors to serve as success coaches, reinvigorated its summer bridge programs to help entering and transfer students acclimate to the demands of college, and introduced “Maymesters” to help students recover credits from courses they struggled with during the regular term. It also made many of these programs available to students in a new “Circle Back” program, aimed at re-enrolling students who left college before graduating. Meanwhile at the “Grub Hub” in the basement of the student union, students can stop by for free groceries (including foods like potatoes, carrots, and beans that reflect traditions of the school’s many Native American and Hispanic students) and a hot lunch, sign up for emergency-housing assistance, or even get a voucher for a discounted haircut. Three quarters of the students use the services at least once a month. A collegial culture goes a long way. As bullish as Stritikus is about Fort Lewis’s future (that comes with the territory for a president), he’s also a realist. “We still have opportunity before us,” he told me. “We still have challenges.” Business loves that aphorism about culture eating strategy for breakfast. It’s probably doubly true for higher ed, where colleges are brimming with talent but sometimes stunted by leaders who don’t know how to activate it. One factor in Fort Lewis’s favor right now: It can still bank on a well of goodwill that emerged from the way Stritikus and the former provost, Cheryl Nixon, engaged the college when the consulting began and later during the crises of Covid. As one professor told me, that helped “create a shared culture” on the campus. “The shine might be off a bit” since then because of budget concerns, the professor told me, “but I don’t think it’s lost.” The latest Chronicle Festival is now available on demand Feeling a little FOMO because you didn’t tune in to the entirety of the Chronicle Festival a few months ago? Want to revisit one or two of the conversations? Well, you’re in luck. Individual recordings from our three days of discussions are now all available online. If you missed some of these interviews — including mine on Day 3 with Ginni Rometty, the former chief executive of IBM, and another with Marni Baker Stein, chief content officer with Coursera — I hope you’ll [check them out here](. (And a shoutout to my colleague Ian Wilhelm, who not only oversaw programming for the festival but also composed and played the techno-music interludes you’ll hear on the recordings.) Looking for me? I’ll be moderating sessions in person this Thursday at the [Braven Summit]( in Chicago on innovation in how colleges are helping improve student success and employability. And then on November 2, as part of [a Brookings Institution virtual event]( based on Ben Wildavsky’s new book, The Career Arts, I’ll be moderating a conversation on how institutions and nonprofits can support equity in skill and social-capital development to open professional opportunities to all students. Got a tip you’d like to share or a question you’d like me to answer? 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