July 29, 2024

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you are enjoying the summer so far! I’m writing to share some updates.

First, please join me in welcoming two new members of our cabinet. Provost and Dean of Faculty Elisabeth Mermann-Jozwiak has arrived in Walla Walla and begun work, succeeding Alzada Tipton. Our new chair of the faculty, Susanne Beechey, has also begun her new role, succeeding Rebecca Hanrahan. I am delighted to begin work with both of these excellent leaders!

Second, I wanted to share an update on the incoming class and our ongoing work to inspire future students to choose Whitman College. At present, there are 430 new students enrolled for the fall semester, very close to our goal of 435 students. While we expect that number will decline a little as some students choose to take time off before college or make other plans, summer registration assistance and other efforts are well underway to connect with and support our new students, and help them stay engaged with Whitman. As we all know, this was an exceptionally disrupted year for admissions across the U.S., due to the delays and uncertainties in the new Federal financial aid forms (FAFSA). My congratulations and thanks to all of the staff and faculty who have been part of recruiting and welcoming our wonderful new students, and special thanks to the teams in the Financial Aid and Admission offices, all of whom worked tirelessly to support students and recruit the incoming class despite the extraordinary challenges presented by the FAFSA delays.

Finally, an update on our financial planning work. As we’ve been discussing this year, fewer students are entering college nationally, resulting in significant competition among colleges to recruit students. Many colleges have not been able to fill their classes, and most are affected by decreases in what students and families are willing to pay for education. As we shared with faculty and staff this spring, while Whitman College has a strong financial foundation, we are experiencing the financial pressures that come from competition for students and resulting reduced revenue. We are undertaking a range of steps to ensure that we live within our means and make well-informed decisions to support the strength of the college going forward. These efforts include both work to inspire students to choose Whitman, as well as identifying ways to reduce our expenses. You can see more about the challenges and our approaches to them in our April presentations to staff and faculty, here. We recently commissioned a series of studies of the interests and decisions of prospective students, to inform our thinking and planning about drawing students to the College. We partnered with the firm Art & Science to perform these studies. The Art & Science team will be on campus September 9th and 10th to share with staff and faculty the studies’ results and insights.

To begin the expenditure reduction part of the work, the cabinet has been reviewing vacant staff lines quarterly to see where there are areas we may work in new ways. As promised when we discussed these plans in the spring, we want to be as transparent as possible in this work. Through the first two quarters (ending April 30th and June 30th) we have decided to eliminate six vacant staff positions, while authorizing searches to proceed on twenty-seven others. The positions eliminated are as follows.

• Student Employment Coordinator (CCEC)
• Development officer (Development)
• Circulation manager - mornings (Library)
• Archives assistant (Library)
• Marketing and Communications Fellow (CCEC)
• Campaign Communications Fellow (Communications)

The total compensation saved by not filling these positions is just over $400,000 per year. The compensation for these positions came from several budgets, including the College's operating budget as well as a variety of endowed and special-purpose accounts. While the loss of any position is difficult, each of the departments involved has been engaged in fruitful and creative discussions about ways the critical work of these positions can still take place. Departments are also discussing activities we will need to stop doing, prioritizing health and safety, student recruitment and retention, and our core educational mission, while also ensuring a fair and reasonable workload for staff. Following the recommendation of faculty leadership, we have also paused hiring into open tenure track faculty lines for the coming year. This pause allows a careful study and prioritization through faculty governance of which positions should be searched for, knowing that we will need to reduce the number of positions somewhat.

Our financial planning work will continue in the fall, and will include discussions of all areas of expenses, as well as ways to grow the financial resources that support our mission. There will be a number of opportunities for staff and faculty members to provide input into those discussions.

As we look forward to the fall, we are very happy to welcome 12 new tenure-track faculty members and 19 visiting faculty, as well as 22 new full- and part-time staff and 18 temporary staff. These new members of our community will bring so much to the college, as together we advance opportunities at Whitman for students to learn, grow and prepare for their futures. I am grateful to all of you for the role you play in this important mission!

With warm wishes and thanks,

Sarah

Dr. Sarah R. Bolton
President, Whitman College