This year’s State of the College address, which was delivered to students last year, provided Albion alumni the opportunity to voice their thoughts and concerns about plans to make changes to the college via Q&A.
On Saturday, President Wayne Webster kicked off Albion’s second annual “Purple & Gold Weekend” with a presentation outlining the current state of the college and plans for the future. The event, held in the Bobbit Visual Arts Auditorium, was open to visiting alumni and community members.
Webster’s presentation began with an overview of current events concerning the college, followed by an explanation of upcoming changes and a Q&A with attendees.
Changes to Liberal Arts Education
According to Webster, he and several other college presidents have been working with Rep. Tim Walberg R-Mich., to “shape policy moving ahead,” adding that current changes to higher education policy “puts a lot of issues on the table.”
“We now have to think about what liberal arts education looks like moving forward,” Webster said.
Adjusting to these changes means that Albion College will have to consider “curricular innovation” to support student success, Webster said, both during college and after graduation.
“We need to be preparing students to be well-rounded individuals and citizens,” Webster said.
Boosting Retention By Focusing on Student Success
Over the last few years, 71 percent of first-year students returned to Albion for a second year in the fall, according to Webster’s presentation. Though the school is projected to see 73 percent return this year, Webster said the college “really needs to be at about 80 percent.”
However, Webster said that while the goal is to increase the number of students who return to Albion, the focus needs to be on “accepting students who can be successful (at Albion),” and not “just chasing headcount.”
“We need to do what we can to make sure they can be successful,” Webster said.
The college has created a system with faculty to “meet with students in a different way,” according to Webster. This system involves direct communication with faculty and coaches about their students’ well-being.
“We’re being much more proactive in terms of reaching out,” Webster said. “And it’s thanks to input from those who are seeing these students day in and day out.”
Resource Allocation and Academic Changes
Webster said that deciding where the college’s resources will go has been a challenge.
“We have been focusing on academic program reviews,” Webster said. “We’ve been looking at how we can serve students, not in just terms of majors but also the curriculum as a whole.”
This review process led to the decision to dissolve the French and German programs at Albion College. According to Webster, faculty can work to avoid this by tailoring their teaching to be “more central to the curriculum.”
“There have been conversations about how to make the curriculum less siloed,” Webster said.
The college is now putting resources into creating an “experiential learning” experience, which will require Albion students to have done “applied learning,” Webster said.
“We’re still defining what that means, but you won’t graduate from Albion until you have this real world experience,” Webster said.
Questions From Alumni
At the end of the presentation, an attendee asked how the retention rate was being handled. Webster said the college is looking at student demographics for a better understanding of who is leaving.
“Sometimes it’s finance, sometimes it’s health and occasionally they want to study something we don’t offer,” Webster said.
When students’ displeasure with residence bathrooms was addressed, Webster said Albion’s renovations are a “priority of needs.”
“We’ve got to make some progress in places students can see and want to be,” Webster said. “We will continue to knock things off as the budget allows.”
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