The 10-Step Program To Revive Eastern
Well, we still have Eastern Washington University to kick around some more.
After much talk by legislators and state oversight groups in the last few weeks, it seems clear EWU and Washington State University won’t be merged anytime soon.
Instead, the Higher Education Coordinating Board has put together a long list of suggestions on what Spokane and EWU should be doing to improve the higher education opportunities in the region.
One suggestion is bigger than all the rest. It is that EWU write a new mission statement and operations plan and have them ready by Sept. 1.
This means Eastern has six months to redefine and reinvent itself.
A tall order, but a necessary rush job. Lest people forget the reasons Eastern has been given this directive, remember: Eastern has been losing students, 1,000 in the last four years.
Eastern has been losing focus. What was once a teacher’s college in Cheney is now a …?
Eastern has be losing its supporters in Spokane and around the state. The merger idea with WSU originally came from Spokane where the business community and politicians have begun courting Washington State in a big way.
The Eastern board of directors has the formidable task of drafting the revised mission and operations plan.
Here are 10 ideas that the board should consider as it tries to put Eastern back on track:
1. Hire Ron Popeil. Ron Popeil sells the pocket fisherman on late-night TV. He’s enthusiastic. You want to do business with him because he is convincing, clear, and upbeat. Ron probably isn’t available, but Eastern needs someone like him at the helm for a few years, someone who is part sales genius, part Oprah, who can tell and sell Eastern’s story.
2. Define a noble purpose. Sure, it’s great to say EWU is responding to the needs of business. But that’s not a song people want to dance to. Eastern needs a larger cause, a reason why anyone would want to be part of the place. Luckily that noble cause is already there. Eastern is a place where the gritty, the ambitious poor, and those needing a break can go for college. That’s noble. EWU: the people’s university, an institution helping solve the welfare mess, a university in search of America’s next great rags-to-riches success story.
3. Recruit in Carnation. This little town, and dozens like it, lie on the west side of Washington. It isn’t filled with people looking to move to Seattle. Find the students who are terrified of the big, bad UW. Tell them about the cozy campus in Cheney. When the B Basketball tournament brings thousands of small-town folks to Spokane each March, Eastern should invite every kid in the stands to tour the Eastern campus.
4. Remember Bob Herold’s daughter. Bob is executive vice provost at EWU. His daughter is a 38-year-old single mother of three who recently relocated to Spokane. Eastern is a campus where a person of her age and situation can get a good education. Life changes for people. Those who need midlife career adjustments will grow more numerous in the years ahead. This is a big, big niche for EWU.
5. Put Bob’s daughter in a Dodge Neon. A single mom with three kids isn’t not looking for a big, expensive place to go to school. The school she wants, like a Dodge Neon, offer a good bang for the buck, with a touch of class. EWU must strip away the chrome, keep costs low, and position itself as a bargain education with a great warranty.
6. Go one-on-one. Eastern’s faculty may be its biggest asset. They teach. They know students by name. They have doctorate degrees. WSU and UW offer huge classes with TVs or TAs for teachers. Point this out. Get every faculty member and every department involved in recruitment and retention, one-on-one.
7. Focus on the three Cs. Computers, classroom teaching, and composers are but three places where Eastern excels. Eastern must first identify those programs where they match up with Western Washington University and WSU and then make sure every student in the Northwest knows about them. Start with EWU’s computer science program, its teacher education program, and its music program.
8. Free snowboard passes. No, we don’t have the ocean, but we have the mountains. Give every new student a snowboarding or ski pass to Mt. Spokane as part of the enrollment package. Form a snowboarding team. Put the snowboard on every ad. Kids would go for it.
9. Keep asking WSU to move to Spokane. If Washington State University ever were to relocate to Spokane it would use Eastern as its main campus. That’s not going to happen. WSU only wants to bring graduate programs to Spokane. But those programs need undergraduate support to thrive. That support will come from Eastern. The more WSU graduate programs shift to Spokane, the stronger Eastern’s position becomes as an undergraduate four-year institution.
10. Call it Spokane State. The Eastern faculty live here. The major pool of employers for Eastern graduates is here. Both Eastern campuses lie within the boundaries of Spokane County. A name change would help focus the attention of people about the purpose and place of EWU.
Spokane needs EWU. Eastern also needs Spokane.
This marriage can be saved, but it will take some work and time is growing short.
, DataTimes MEMO: Chris Peck is the editor of The Spokesman-Review. His column appears each Sunday on Perspective.