Giving it the old college try | Thomas College hopes a new field house will help attract students from across New England

Every year, Thomas College in Waterville surveys applicants who choose not to attend the college in order to evaluate how Thomas, a private, career-oriented school of roughly 600 undergraduates, stacked up against its competitors. When the results of the 2004 survey came in, one of the overwhelming reasons students reported that they looked elsewhere for their education had nothing to do with classroom size or faculty research. It had to do with exercise.

In response to a survey question that asked students to compare the recreational facilities at Thomas to those at their chosen school, 36% ranked the facilities at their chosen school higher. The remaining 64% ranked the facilites equally. None said Thomas's recreational facilities excelled.

School officials were not surprised. Thomas College's 12 NCAA athletic teams must compete for limited indoor practice space and cramped exercise rooms attached to the student center. "It was really clear we were lagging severely behind what our competition has. Most of our students' high schools had more athletic fields than we had," says Eric Rolfson, Thomas' vice president for institutional advancement. "In terms of really rounding out the education of our students, this is really critical."

In an attempt to attract more students to campus, with a goal of doubling enrollment to 1,200 by 2012, Thomas College plans to launch a five-year, $9 million to $15 million capital campaign this spring. The crux of the campaign is a $1.25 million challenge grant announced in December from former Dexter Shoe President Harold Alfond for the construction of the $4.6 million Harold Alfond Field House. College officials hope the field house, as well as a planned 120-bed residence hall and a high-tech classroom facility and library, will entice more students to campus in a decade when many of the state's higher education institutions are bracing for a dip in the number of Maine high school graduates.

In addition to the drop in potential attendees, Persis Rickes, president of Rickes Associates Inc. in Boston, believes Maine's 2003 creation of a community college system will mean small colleges like Thomas will have to work harder to catch a local prospective student's eye. Rickes has worked as a college planning consultant for more than 20 years and currently is advising Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield on ways to increase its enrollment. "An institution like Thomas College is going to be in tight straits because it will have to be attractive enough to bring students in from out of state" to offset losses to the state's community colleges, says Rickes. "The community college system in Maine is getting stronger. There's a public competition that's starting in Maine."

But Thomas College President George Spann says his school is not in competition with community colleges, which tend to cater to commuter students rather than the on-campus students who make up 65% of Thomas College's student body. And regional demographic trends really haven't factored into the school's decision to expand enrollment either. The reality, Spann explains, is that small colleges need a minimum enrollment to survive and, with just over 600 undergrads, Thomas College isn't in the clear.

"Colleges which are too small are very vulnerable to the vagaries of the economy and to the popularity of the [academic] programs," says Spann. "So the college needs to get to a size of about a thousand students to have the stability it needs for the long run. In order to do that we need a more diverse academic program which attracts students from in state and out of state, and the facilities to accommodate them when they're here."

Assessing the competition
Since its founding in 1894 as a coeducational business and professional college, Thomas has outgrown two locations. In 1956, the school relocated from its original location in downtown Waterville to a private estate on Silver Street, where it remained until moving to its current location, 72 acres along downtown Waterville's West River Road, in 1971. Apart from a $4.5 million residence hall completed in 2003, a $2 million auditorium completed in 2000 and an addition to the student center in 1998, the campus has remained virtually unchanged since the move 30 years ago.

Located about three miles from the city's academic behemoth, Colby College, Thomas College offers a different kind of education from that of its neighbor. (See "Cross-town rival," p. 25.) Unlike Colby, which this year was ranked by U.S. News and World Report among the top 20 liberal arts colleges in the country, Thomas College is unranked. Thomas' endowment is relatively small ˆ— at $3 million, it's a fraction of Colby's $357 million endowment ˆ— and the majority of its students are in the first generation in their family to attend college.

However, Thomas College is distinguished by its unique guarantee, established in 1999, that graduates will find a job in their field of interest within six months after graduation or they can take additional Thomas classes for free. More than 80% of the school's graduates go on to careers in Maine in industries such as banking, finance and insurance. Government positions are also popular; the state is the top employer of Thomas undergraduates.

Due to the differences between the two schools, Thomas College's competition rarely stems from the school in its backyard. Instead, it competes for students with Maine colleges with similar student demographics (first-generation college attendees looking for practical, career-oriented degrees) and offerings in subjects such as business, accounting and finance ˆ— schools such as St. Joseph's College in Standish, Husson College in Bangor and the University of New England in Biddeford and Portland ˆ— as well as out-of-state schools and community colleges.

Since the beginning of the last spurt of campus development in 1998, Thomas College has managed to increase its enrollment from 355 to 617 students. And, in recent years, out-of-state students consistently have accounted for roughly half of the school's student body. According to Spann, part of Thomas' admissions strategy is to continue that trend.
"We expect to continue to get as many students from Maine as we have in the past but we expect there to be significant growth in students from New England," he says. "Where there is a broader recruiting area there is more stability for the institution."

However, demographic trends indicate that colleges and universities in New England ˆ— and Maine in particular ˆ— will be competing for a smaller number of students in years to come. According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, a San Jose, Calif.-based think tank, while the percentage of Maine's high-school graduates who are enrolled in college today is higher than a decade ago (27% in 1994, versus 31% last year), the state can expect a significant decrease in the number of high school graduates in the decade ahead. Between 2000 and 2015, the number of high school graduates in the state is expected to decrease by 16%, a casualty of poor regional job growth, migration and a weak local economy, according to the NCPPHE. Across New England, the number of high school graduates is expected to decrease by nearly six percent during the same period.

The power of video
Despite the region's declining college-aged population, Spann believes New England is a ripe market for Thomas College. "More and more students are looking further afield for colleges and careers," says Spann. "I think kids in New England tend to see the entire area as being possible college locations for them rather than just Massachusetts, Vermont or Rhode Island or wherever they happen to be. A lot of students in New England go to other states" to study.

In addition to their focus on New England, school officials plan to market the college in regions where students have expressed interest, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and, curiously, Bermuda. Rhonda Morin, the school's director of communications, says the marketing plan includes trade magazines such as the Chronicle of Higher Education and Peterson's Complete Guide to Colleges, as well as visits by admissions counselors to high schools across the region to encourage not only increased applications, but a higher matriculation rate among accepted students.

And the new field house will be front and center in much of that marketing effort. The rest of the college's expansion plans are in some ways purely logistical. Spann says the residence halls are filled nearly to capacity, although dining halls and classrooms can accommodate up to a 25% increase in enrollment.

Expansion, of course, requires money, which is why the school is planning what Spann describes as a "traditional" capital campaign ˆ— with solicitations aimed at board members, foundations, corporations and alumni ˆ— in which Thomas hopes to raise between $9 million and $15 million to increase its endowment and to supply the annual fund, which covers the school's operations costs.

Currently, one of the most popular majors at Thomas College is sports management. Appropriately, then, the Harold Alfond Field House, on which construction is expected to begin this year, will be located in the center of campus, right next to the main entrance to the college. "It will have the most prominent position on campus," says Spann. "When you drive down the main road, you'll see the renovated student center and across the way will be the new field house."

Alfond's gift to the school would not have happened without the effort of current Thomas College students, proof to some officials that the need for the athletic center is real. According to Rolfson, a group of Thomas students decided to create a video they hoped would catch Alfond's attention and convince him the school desperately needed a new field house.

Alfond saw the video and, after a tour of the campus, gave the challenge grant ˆ— which requires the school to raise funds to match Alfond's pledge of $1.25 million before the gift will be awarded ˆ— to the school. Alfond has a reputation for awarding funds to Maine colleges, often for the development of athletic facilities. According to his spokesperson Greg Powell, Alfond has donated to a long list of local schools, including St. Joseph's College, the University of Maine System and Bowdoin College. Alfond used to live in Waterville, and has a long history of donating to Thomas, including gifts totaling $52,000 in 1998-1999 for exercise equipment and athletic programs.

Powell, who also serves as a trustee of the Harold Alfond Foundation, says Alfond decided to make the current donation because he believes an athletic facility is crucial to the health of the college as a whole. Plans for the 38,000-square-foot facility include a three-court surface, an elevated jogging track and a state-of-the-art fitness center.

"It's an important part of the school's well-being not only for the students but also [for] quality of life at the college, which leads to rising applications and a more fulfilling environment," says Powell. "In this day and age, colleges are businesses. Colleges with athletic facilities tend to attract more students and do a better job" of recruiting and retaining students.

Spann, for his part, hopes the planned field house and other improvements will help his college gain prominence regionally. "Basically, with this field house, we'll get up to the level where we can compete with other colleges all over New England," says Spann.