By Lisa Marsh Ryerson 
President of Wells College

The Wells Alumnae Association was founded in 1874. At this Reunion we celebrate 130 years of alumnae involvement in the life and leadership of Wells. It is also the 10th anniversary of FARGO (the Friends and Recent Graduates Organization). One hundred twenty years younger than the Alumnae Association, yet no less important, FARGO provides volunteer opportunities for Wells women who have graduated in the last ten years. 

A Wells education is far more than four years spent in Aurora. It is a seamless, lifelong connection. At different points in our lives, alumnae rely on the Wells community for support. In turn, we are called upon to lend our talents to serve Wells. This time-tested philosophy has proven to be very successful.
 
Alumnae have an unbroken tradition of service and leadership in the Wells community. You provide consistent financial support. You mentor, teach, and advise current students, providing role models and depth to the liberal arts curriculum. Care and stewardship provided by Wells women is one of our greatest strengths, and the college needs that continued commitment now more than ever.

When alumnae return to Aurora for Reunion, you see the part of Wells that remains constant: Main, Morgan, Glen Park, the lake. You feel the pull of familiar relationships and old traditions. For many, it might seem Wells is spared the passing of time.

Many things do remain the same. Our students still make close friendships, have an individualized learning experience, and really get to know their faculty. Yet Wells is also an ever-evolving and ever-changing community, and so it has always been. The Wells College that the Class of 1979 found when they arrived on campus was not the Wells that the Class of 1954 remembers. Different generations have different memories. While we might hold fast to them, the Wells of 2004 is not the Wells that any of us remembers; it cannot be. Times change, and we must change with them. 

As you contemplate change as part of our alma mater’s nature, envision Wells in the 21st century, her third century, as a nationally and internationally renowned educational institution with hallmark programs. We are not there yet. In our quest to get there, we must understand our environment and complete the planning we have begun. We cannot be all things to all people. We will leverage our unique assets in support of our most pressing priorities.

We focus on how best to support academic success. Within this context, I appreciate your understanding that in the face of institution-wide challenges, we have taken a thoughtful pause as we re-examine plans for a science facility. The challenges facing Wells are not the same as they were when this campaign was launched several years ago with a goal of raising $18 million to construct and endow a new science facility. To date, we have raised over $10 million, and we are still receiving gifts. These gifts enable us to purchase new science equipment to support current science students and faculty. As we consider our options, we may elect to build new science facilities in stages. We need to find the best way to accomplish our goals.

As programs and people evolve, the physical aspects, the landscape of our campus, must necessarily evolve as well. In fact, the landscape for higher education as a whole is shifting dramatically. The pace of change is accelerating. The educational needs of women are changing, the student population has changed significantly, and the explosion of new knowledge and technology has changed how we operate.

I was reviewing the various reports and recommendations put forward as the Wells community searched for solutions to our ongoing issues. Just 15 years ago in the area of new technology, it was recommended that the college replace the black and white televisions in the residence halls with color televisions. The report noted, “Cable TV is preferable, but at least a first-rate UHF/Arts channel should be developed.”

Consider that today our entire campus, including the residence halls, is wired for 24-hour internet access; TV is almost a relic of the past. Students today demand sophisticated technology. Providing ongoing access to cutting-edge technology requires a keen understanding of the relationship between technology and education to forecast needs as well as the creativity to form unique, business-college partnerships to make it affordable and cost-effective. 

Higher education, especially small residential colleges, continues to face growing pressures on cost, economic retrenchment, the need to address decaying campus infrastructures, shifting demographics, and vastly increased diversity on campus. The entire sector of American higher education faces increasingly complex challenges. Small colleges are most at risk, as many are jeopardized due to declining endowment values, decreasing availability of fund-raising sources, and state student aid budgets that are cut even as state regulations swell and compliance becomes increasingly costly. In addition, college-bound families more and more choose public education because of the price tag. In New York State, the median family income of students enrolled in our state university system is higher than for students attending private colleges. 

Clearly, incremental adjustments to our programs and chasing the pack are not winning strategies. We must ask the truly radical questions: What do we want to be? How much are we willing to actually change our model? Where are we unwilling to compromise?

Even as we confront these very real challenges, we have not compromised our promise to provide current students with a highly individualized educational experience, just as you had. They continue to make wonderful friendships and find opportunities for growth in a supportive learning community. Our faculty members are still excellent teachers and mentors.

They work to fully integrate experiential learning throughout the curriculum. For example, this past January students participated in one of the world’s largest ecological restoration projects for the course Environmental Restoration and Protection in the Florida Everglades. They immersed themselves in the history, culture, and environment of the Georgia sea islands as they studied The Southern Adventures of Fanny Kemble: British Writer, Actress, Abolitionist. They engaged in hands-on fieldwork while studying The Anthropological Experience in Hawaii.

Other January term courses provided academic credit for students who attended the Art Students League in New York City and the Women and Public Policy Seminars offered by the Public Leadership Education Network (PLEN) in Washington, DC. Students also participated in Wells programs that took them to Senegal and Spain, as well as other European countries. 

This year, students interned in 27 states, the District of Columbia, the Dominican Republic, Eritrea and Senegal in Africa, France, Jamaica, China, and Chile. Half of the first-year class held January internships, a huge change from when most of you were here and internships were rare and mainly available to seniors. Making internships and other experiential learning opportunities available to first-year students reflects our commitment to individualized education. This is also necessary to meet the demands of the recruitment marketplace. As students and families have called increasingly for liberal arts colleges to demonstrate their relevance to professional careers, most colleges have expanded experiential learning opportunities. At Wells, we have long understood the value of hands-on experience and our program is strong, but it is no longer unique. 

Students also continue to work closely with their professors on research projects. In fact, for the past 16 years Professor Chris Bailey has traveled with Wells students to present the results of their original research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR). Nine of our students were selected this year from a competitive, national pool, which is a real sign of the rigor of our undergraduate research program. The wide variety of disciplines they represented is noteworthy because it demonstrates that at Wells research is a teaching tool across the curriculum. 

Judit Temesvary’s NCUR project is one example of the high caliber of work produced by our students. An international student from Hungary, Judit graduated in May magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa with distinction in her major. She received the Thomas Knuth International Studies Prize, among other honors. Her NCUR presentation was, “Trade Relations Between Europe and Africa: Dependency on North-South Economic Cooperation.” 

This emphasis on research in the undergraduate curriculum, similar to graduate-level studies at other colleges and universities, gives our students an advantage. Our emphasis on individual growth remains at the core of the Wells experience. How this experience is delivered and structured, however, differs from the past because it should and because it is necessary.

Within the context of the changing nature of American higher education, the economic downturn of the last four years has brought the college’s persistent challenges to the forefront. Although high market returns and The Campaign for Wells College in the ‘90s enabled us to invest in program development and increase spending, Wells is in her fourth decade of seeking to overcome a set of inter-related enrollment and financial challenges. We have reached a point where we must make significant changes in order to be viable. I have shared the college’s challenges with you in detail over the past couple of years. They are challenges that we share with many other small colleges, and are illustrated by the following:

The last time Wells had a full-time enrollment of 500 students was in 1980-81 – the year those celebrating their 20th Reunion in 2004 arrived on campus. Not since 1984, the year they graduated, has the college enrolled 400 residential students. In the intervening 20 years, our residential count has remained in the three hundreds, occasionally dipping, as it did this year, into the 200s. Wells simply cannot survive and is not vibrant with so few students on campus. We must be able to attract a minimum of 450 residential students. That means we must increase the number of students on campus by at least 50%. On top of that, we must have additional students enrolled in off-campus programs.

With those goals in mind, the college has implemented many initiatives intended to boost enrollment. These include redesigning the curriculum, adding experiential learning, adding athletic programs, creating a leadership institute, reducing tuition by 30%, and investing substantially in integrated marketing, including national advertising and state-of-the-art electronic recruitment tools such as a virtual tour, on-line application, and interactive on-line discussions. 

Given the role financial aid plays in the admissions process, we have focused significant resources on maximizing our financial aid dollars. Even as our spending on scholarship support has skyrocketed, and we have linked scholarships to strong, innovative merit and internship programs such as our Henry Wells Scholars and 21st Century Leadership Award programs, we have not attracted the numbers of students or the amount of tuition revenue necessary to make Wells healthy. 

While it is true that in higher education today colleges and universities cannot sustain themselves by tuition revenue alone, financially healthy colleges expect tuition to account for at least 40% and generally over 50% of an annual budget. In Wells’ case, tuition revenue provides only 22% of the current budget. We must increase this through a combination of higher per-student contributions toward expenses and, simply put, more students.

Despite temporary enrollment spikes for a year or two, the problems re-emerge. Clever marketing and admissions strategies will not sustain us as the basis for a strong college. It is not just about the how. We must focus on what we provide and to whom. We cannot ignore this reality. 

Our challenges in the highly competitive college recruitment market dictate that we must focus on core academic programs and consider the possibility of expanding the audience to whom we offer our programs. We cannot separate the two; program and audience are inextricably linked.

Consider that when most of the women attending Reunion 2004 were looking at colleges, their options were limited to the very few schools that admitted women. Today, women can choose from among 2,200 colleges across the country, over 240 of them right here in New York State.

Wells and our sister women’s colleges have been recognized for our development of generations of accomplished women who have become the first and the few in diverse fields. They are groundbreakers like Pat Parnie Purcell Wahlen ’66, this year’s Alumnae Award winner. Ironically, our very success in breaking gender barriers means we no longer have a relative monopoly on the brightest, most-able girls graduating from high school. Now, everyone wants these smart young women. 
 
Powerful as the evidence is for the value of educating them in women-centered environments, there is declining interest in single-sex education. Enrollments are lower, shrinking numbers of colleges are able to remain viable as women-only colleges, and there is seemingly constant pressure to justify our continued existence. In the broad marketplace of higher education, women’s colleges find ourselves somewhat displaced and considerably fewer in number: In 1960, there were 300 women’s colleges; today there are 66.

Additional changes in the college student population seriously challenge Wells’ traditional structure. While 90% of high school seniors expect to go on to college, nearly three quarters of students enrolled in higher education today are non-traditional students. They commute to college and are over age 25. Thus, they never participate in the residential experience. Twenty-eight percent of students seeking degrees attend college part-time.

In addition, the benefits of a liberal arts education are often under-valued by families and students whose main objective is to gain practical career skills. Research shows that about 70% of students identify wanting “to be well off financially” as their primary reason for attending college.

Students are consumers of education, and they are willing to shop quite extensively.  When you and I were applying to colleges, chances are that we looked at a handful of schools and applied to even fewer. Students today can easily consider hundreds, if not thousands, thanks to the proliferation of guidebooks, search sites, and electronic technology. They often apply to ten or more schools, and the shopping does not end with the acceptance letter or even with enrollment. Today’s graduate is more likely than not to have attended two or more schools before receiving a diploma.

Think of your own daughters and granddaughters as they engaged in their college searches. In all likelihood, their experiences were very different than yours. I know for most they were different in a very important way: They did not choose Wells. I hear so often that despite your encouragement, your daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and neighbors simply are not interested in an all-women’s college. It is not because we have not told them or showed them how wonderful it can be. They are simply growing and learning in a different era.

Our enrollment challenges are many and complex. Even with increased numbers of women attending colleges and inquiries from prospectives, we are still struggling to reach 400 applications per year. It is clear that to be viable, we have to increase our student body and that means radically increasing the number of applications we receive.

It is costly for us to recruit students when our numbers are so low and very expensive to support an endeavor where the central activity of the organization is highly individualized instruction. Yet this is the trademark and the attraction of a Wells education. It costs us nearly $11,000 to recruit one student. We spend approximately $40,000 to educate each student each year, but the average annual tuition revenue received from one student is just $7,800.

It is true that colleges and universities no longer depend on tuition revenue as their sole source of income. All private  colleges rely on a combination of auxiliary income, gifts, and endowment earnings to make up for the shortfall between what students pay and the real cost of the education we provide. At Wells, the shortfall is significant; and we must generate much more tuition revenue to bridge the gap. 

All colleges spend a portion of their endowment earnings to meet their annual operating costs. The trustees support a long-standing policy that the annual draw on the endowment should not exceed 5% of the market value averaged over 12 quarters. This policy is designed to ensure Wells’ long-term financial health, and it is not surprising to find the 5% rule is a national average for most colleges. For many years, however, Wells has drawn in excess of 5% to meet annual expenses. When investment returns were high, an excess draw on endowment earnings was not as threatening to the college’s stability. Last year’s $2.7 million budget deficit was funded through an overdraw on the endowment, which is a structural deficit. Without significant changes in our underlying structure, we will continue to draw a similar amount each year. We simply cannot continue to rely on our endowment to meet our annual expenses. 

In 1974, endowment earnings accounted for 12% of our income; and it has grown to nearly 30% currently. Clearly, this over-reliance must be stopped. In fact, our annual endowment draw must be cut in half. This can only be achieved by generating revenue in other areas because our annual budget is lean. 

Over half (53%) of our budget supports people in the form of salaries and benefits.  Academic and student programs, administrative expenses, plant, and auxiliaries (such as room, board, and the bookstore) account for the rest. The Wells community is expert at cost containment. This year all departments worked within budgets reduced 17-26% from the previous year; and we instituted a voluntary, unpaid leave program for employees. 

We know that in this context, Wells cannot reach financial security through austerity, continued budget cuts, or modest, incremental additions. To the contrary, we must radically re-invent our business model. We must invest in our own transformation. We must invest in quality, especially in programs and initiatives that have been identified as offering real possibilities to contribute to our long-term success. 

In my earlier messages, I emphasized the importance of considering truly transformative ideas to ensure Wells’ viability. I have asked you to consider the most radical possibilities.  As always, I have met with many alumnae throughout the year, received numerous letters and calls, and I have spoken with many during Reunion weekend. From your feedback, I know you understand our current situation. 

With focus, we will pursue excellence. We are located in one of the most beautiful regions of the world – rich in history, rich in education, and rich in natural beauty. We will make the most of our amazing location and our strengths in ways that allow our mission to live, but that life will be different. It must be. The reality of doing business within the higher education sector demands evolution and change. Change is a natural and ever-present fact of life. So it is for Wells too. 

I envision chosen change, not simply adaptation. We will move assertively in a direction chosen by us, creating our own path toward our future. This will not happen without hard work and a clear set of expectations and goals. Like all colleges, we are engaged in ongoing strategic planning and re-assessment. The board is responsible for the college’s direction, leadership, and fiduciary management. The college’s trustees and I are fully versed in the challenges facing Wells and the reality of our current and historical situation. We are also deeply knowledgeable about market strengths and position, and we have engaged in a full analysis of our challenges and opportunities in creating strategies for a viable future. We also understand the special nature of our community and appreciate how important it is to appropriately engage the community in discussion about the value of the Wells experience and the expectations for her future. 

Thus, in the spring of 2003, I convened the Sustainable Wells Action Team to review previous strategic planning work at Wells and to identify the college’s strengths and make recommendations for programmatic growth to increase enrollment and revenue.

The Sustainable Wells Action Team presented their recommendations, which were featured in the Winter 2004 Express, to the board of trustees at their October meeting. The trustees and I then spent the next three months reviewing the recommendations and conducting research. We refined the team’s original proposals to increase their chances of marketplace success and shared our decisions with the campus community in February.

Our initiatives build on the college’s traditional strengths: (1) student-centered learning, (2) curricular excellence, (3) partnership between the village and college to create community, and (4) our ties to regional colleges, universities, and other organizations. They breathe new life into our mission - the new ways in which students will be required to function in interdependent worlds, appreciate complexity and difference, and embrace new ways of knowing. Specifically, the strategic initiatives are:

• Further develop our already successful and profitable study abroad programs.
• Establish an engineering affiliation in partnership with Cornell University and explore additional collaborations with Cornell and other colleges and universities.
• Capitalize on Wells’ reputation in the book arts field by developing a summer institute to bring leading practitioners, scholars, and artists to campus for summer instruction. 
• Build on the strength of our undergraduate teacher education program by establishing a graduate program.
• Move forward with a full examination of the possibility of a transition to coeducation.

Wells’ study abroad programs are a significant source of revenue and with proper development will become an even greater revenue source. High-quality study abroad experiences have strong appeal to contemporary students. The potential for growth in study abroad is especially great when you consider that students across the curricular spectrum are interested in traveling. 

Developing study abroad programs in isolation from the curriculum in and of itself is not sufficient. We will surely fail if we look to any single solution as a panacea. Study abroad must be linked, completely and fully, to the academic program and the needs of our students and our world. All students in the 21st century must be globally literate. As a result, we have an opportunity to synthesize a market need with one of our strengths as we begin to develop a global studies emphasis.  In fact, our mission demands it, if we are to truly educate students who respond ethically to our interdependent world.

As we studied the market for study abroad programs, we were not surprised to learn that Wells’ programs occupy a very special niche. In terms of revenue, undergraduate study abroad is a $1.5 billion market. As is often the case, the 10 largest programs control much of the market; but our research also indicates there is ample opportunity for growth in the remaining segment. We recognize and are seizing this very real opportunity. 

Students, their parents, and their faculty advisers who are looking for study abroad that is an extension of their education, rather than those who are seeking a primarily social experience, tend to see the benefits and features of Wells’ programs as very desirable. Given our size and academic focus, we are able to leverage academic relationships, provide strong individualized attention, create “known” programs, and establish alumni networks, all factors that are appealing to the very type of students whom we want to attract. 

This is a very clear example of the opportunity to position ourselves so that our strengths are in alignment with the demands of the marketplace. I think it is just the type of entrepreneurship that would make Henry Wells proud.

Our three most popular programs in Florence, Italy; Paris, France; and Seville, Spain are growing. They are open to college students, men and women, from across the nation. Since 1990, 1,570 students have participated in the Florence program alone. The vast majority of these participants are non-Wells students, and they account for over 95% of the revenue generated.

In April, Harvard announced plans to “internationalize” its curriculum in response to the global society, one of its most significant curricular changes in the last three decades. A Harvard dean said, “When new students enroll, we expect them to bring their passports.” I say, we expect those Harvard students to bring those passports to Wells and enroll in our study abroad programs. 

Just as we want our students to travel abroad, we must also take full advantage of our regional strengths. Thus, faculty and academic administrators are proceeding with the initiative to establish a degree-bearing engineering affiliation for Wells students in partnership with Cornell University. An engineering affiliation with Cornell has the potential to attract students. At the same time, Wells can benefit from the vast resources available in Cornell’s programs. We also recommend that similar partnerships be developed with Cornell and other organizations. They are especially important because, as I have said, a stand-alone institution of 400 cannot survive in this highly competitive environment. Isolationism is not a wise strategy.

In addition to seeking programs that maximize resources off-campus, we are also looking at our own gems. In that vein, the Wells Book Arts Center has begun developing a summer institute to bring leading practitioners, scholars, and artists to campus for summer book arts instruction beginning in 2005. The institute will further increase Wells’ stature in the book arts field, attract new learners and visitors who would not ordinarily travel to Wells, and provide a modest new revenue stream. This program seeks to make better use of the campus during the summer months. In order to establish Wells and Aurora as a cultural center, connections between the book arts center and other disciplines at the college, including the fine arts, are being identified and developed. 

In May, the center hosted a successful international book arts symposium entitled Matter & Spirit: the Genesis and Evolution of the Book. Thanks to the efforts of the book arts team, two years of planning culminated in more than 175 participants who traveled to Aurora from the Northeast, Ontario, Kentucky, Iowa, Minnesota, and even Wales to celebrate the art of the book.

The symposium focused on the creative processes in the book arts.  Donald Jackson of Wales delivered the keynote address. He is the official Scribe to the Crown Office of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.  He is also the artistic director of the Saint John’s Bible project. Commissioned in 1998 by the Benedictine Saint John’s Abbey and University in Minnesota, this monumental project encompasses seven hand-calligraphied and illuminated volumes. 

It is clear that there are men and women willing to travel, literally, from all over the world to continue their studies – and pay for it! We know that with exciting and excellent programs, it is possible to attract people here to Aurora for continuing education. 

Knowing that and building upon the popularity and strength of Wells’ undergraduate teacher education program, the academic affairs division is exploring the steps necessary to establish a graduate program in education at Wells. The college charter already allows us to issue graduate credentials. This new program will expand opportunities for Wells students who wish to remain at the college to earn a master’s degree and attract new learners, such as teachers seeking a master’s degree to comply with increased New York State regulations and professional requirements. Again, this is an example of our strategy to align our mission and our strengths with demands of the market.

In order to survive, we must be attentive to the potential to grow the population we serve.  As I have said before, it is important to understand that even as a woman-centered learning environment, one of the populations Wells has long served is male learners; and we will continue doing so. Our study abroad programs have always accepted men, our book arts programs are open to men, we maintain cross-registration programs with Cornell and other coed colleges, and if we are to offer graduate study, legally those courses must be open to men.

The issue of coeducation has been revisited several times in the last four decades as part of responsible planning. As we chart Wells’ future, I ask you to be open to a range of possibilities that will allow the college to survive and thrive.

I know that in and of itself coeducation is not the solution, a balm to cure all of our ills; but it may help in concert with other changes. Academic program development will lead the way, but the issues of program and audience are linked: We must be sure that programs we develop based on our unique strengths are appealing to contemporary students and their families. They must be seen as compelling and having value within the range of choices in American higher education. 

Thus, strengthening Wells’ academic offerings so that they are appealing to talented students, including the possibility of male students, guides decision making. While the board has not recommended that Wells change status from a women’s college to a coeducational institution, we are actively exploring and discussing it. As we do so, we are mindful that small, residential coeducational colleges face many of the same challenges as small women’s colleges. We cannot simply shift the struggle. We need real solutions. We must position ourselves advantageously in the marketplace of higher education to attract sufficient numbers of students to create both a critical mass and vibrant student community and generate sufficient tuition revenue.

For a healthy community and financial viability, Wells needs a campus population of at least 450 full-time, residential students and additional commuter students as well as students enrolled in off-campus and part-time programs. We must attract new learners to reach this goal. We must also work toward a more balanced population in which more students are able to pay a higher amount of their expenses. 

Having just completed my term as chair of the Women’s College Coalition, I am acutely aware of the issues facing women’s colleges. Wells and other women’s colleges have demonstrated remarkable creativity and forward thinking, yet we continue to experience declining interest in single-sex education. Fewer and fewer colleges within our very small niche are able to remain viable as women-only colleges. In the broad marketplace of higher education, holding steadfast to a shrinking niche may not be our strongest position.

Even when it feels difficult, perhaps precisely when it feels difficult, we cannot back away from the possibility of true transformation. The urge to demand definitive answers, to grab at ideas that feel real or immediate or doable, can be very strong and very real. The path to the truth, to real, sustainable, long-term solutions is thoughtful; and it can feel slow. The truth will emerge. Our efforts must be multi-pronged and executed excellently to create a better foundation to maximize our future opportunities.

As I have said many times before, at Wells we must find innovative solutions to identify and shape our future or we will be doomed to the constant struggles and dangers faced by similar residential colleges and those who do not have the wisdom and the courage to change. It is not as easy as shuffling the deck chairs or opening up to men. If that were the case, we would have changed long ago under the leadership of other smart and good-hearted leaders. We would be thriving. The issues we face today call for real, outstanding, courageous leadership into new arenas of education. This is about opening our minds to what may seem unthinkable but is ultimately desirable.

I know there are real opportunities for new models of educating women, although they may look very different from the traditional and outdated views we have of women’s colleges. There is value and potential in providing women-centered education in which the intent is not the exclusion of men, but rather the focus on women. Of the 66 schools in the Women’s College Coalition that identify themselves as women’s colleges, many have degree-bearing programs that admit men. 

Consider, for example, that Bryn Mawr has coed graduate programs in more than a dozen fields. Their  students have 50 affiliated programs from which to choose, most at coed universities. Also located in Pennsylvania, Wilson College self-identifies as a women’s college but has a 14% male population due largely to its continuing education program. 

The Women’s College Coalition has its headquarters on the campus of Trinity College in Washington, DC. Although Trinity identifies itself as a women’s college, that identity is far different from Wells. Each year we see women’s colleges that merge or become part of coed universities, such as this year’s merger of Marymount College with Fordham University. The coordinate model, exemplified by neighboring Hobart and William Smith Colleges, is another example of how single-sex education can be offered in a coed environment.

Women-centered education and women’s colleges have evolved dramatically. We know that women can be educated successfully in a variety of models, including those that allow men to participate. We are discussing to what degree we will increase men’s participation in our programs. 

The strategic advantages of being identified as a coed college need to be explored in the context of comprehensive planning. We do not want simply to shift the struggle from one challenged model to another. Coeducation might be a better choice in terms of our long-term viability than remaining another women’s college that admits men. I say this because an examination of the research on women’s colleges that have made the shift to coeducation reveals a different story than you might imagine. 

When a women’s college transitions to coeducation, the school is not immediately flooded by applications from males, although applications increase significantly. Growth in the male population is slow and seldom reaches 50%, even over several decades. The paradoxical result of a women’s college choosing coeducation is that applications from women increase dramatically. 

At Wells, we have a history of innovation and providing access. It might be to Wells’ advantage to shift to coeducation. By becoming a former women’s college dedicated to gender equality, we would make an important contribution as an educational leader in the 21st century. In my work at the national level, I know that our country has the finest system of higher education in the world; but we are sorely in need of a new national model for delivering an education that is gender-equal and supports an individualized approach to offering the right balance of challenge and support that will enable each student to flourish. 

As we are moving forward to create a platform for success at Wells, the ongoing community dialogue has been helpful. As we look toward our future, one of the real bright spots is the generosity of our alumnae and friends. Your gifts really do make a difference. Your unrestricted annual support is particularly imperative and appreciated because gifts from alumnae last year provided in excess of $1,330,000 toward our annual budget, reducing pressure on the endowment and making funds available for investment in new initiatives that will move us closer to our goals. Patti Wenzel Callahan ’79 said to you in her recent Express article, “Have the courage to be generous.” I join her in saying thank you for that courage and for your generosity.

As you know, and your generosity shows, what we do at Wells matters. The individualized learning experience Wells offers changes women’s lives, and it has the potential to change many more lives in the future if we can take the steps necessary to attract new populations of talented learners. To achieve this goal, the college needs to establish a viable financial structure to support programs and the campus. 

Our work must be multi-faceted, and we must be courageous. I believe we are on the path to implementing long-term solutions, but much work remains ahead as we translate ideas into action. Within the context of institutional planning, extensive academic planning and a thorough assessment of the existing curriculum are necessary. This summer Vice President for Academic Affairs Ellen Hall, faculty, and staff members will be engaged in a summer planning institute through which the programs I have described will be developed. 

As I talk with you, I know you are excited about the possibilities for new programs and new directions that will shape our future. I know that we have a foundation of support for change. While there is a diversity of opinion about what change might actually look like, there is a shared understanding that the time for wandering is over. Wells cannot afford to meander toward a solution. We must act decisively and in a timely manner.

I understand the challenging and shifting landscape of American higher education. I know that small residential colleges are struggling to survive. As I have said, we must transform. I am leading us to a new stage in our journey to educate students “to think critically, reason wisely and act humanely as they cultivate meaningful lives.” 

Wells has made significant advancements in the past because she could count on the generous and enthusiastic support from alumnae and friends. Your devotion to the college has created the necessary momentum for these advancements to occur. As we courageously create a new future for Wells, I call on you to join me in these efforts. I ask for your continued support and generosity. 

Goethe wrote, “Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.” I assure you – we have begun.

Thank you.

Delivered Saturday, June 12, 2004 at Wells College.