How should The Evergreen State College best retain its students? We asked them

OLYMPIA — The Evergreen State College has taken a number of steps to grow enrollment and retain students, initiatives that recently paid off with a 17 percent increase in fall undergraduate enrollment.

But the retention numbers were not as strong — total fall continuing students fell 4 percent — some of which can be attributed to graduating students. Still, it has been a concern for the college, which had a fall enrollment of 2,126 students. That was less than half the nearly 4,900 students enrolled at the college in 2009.

But what do students think the four-year public liberal arts college in Olympia could do better? We headed to the campus this week to ask them. Here’s what they had to say.

Shane Overbeck is a senior at Evergreen and a board trustee. Coming out of the pandemic, Overbeck thinks the college needs to work on rebuilding its sense of community. The college needs to deepen its engagement on social media and hold more in-person events, including on Red Square, to generate more awareness about student organizations and clubs.

Overbeck also believes the college needs more resources to help students navigate financial aid, registration and knowing who to email on campus.

“There are not enough people in these positions,” Overbeck said.

Trygve Vandal, the Geoduck Student Union representative to the board of trustees, shared his thoughts during Friday’s board meeting. He said students are aware of the strides the college is making, but the school needs to continue to work on its messaging to them.

“There’s a lack of consistent messaging,” he said. The information students receive often leaves them asking, “What does this mean for me in my next 1-3 years at the college?”

The students want to know how the college is progressing and how it impacts them, he said. He referred to a previous meeting in which the board discussed improvements to the student experience and support services.

“Those initiatives they need to hear about,” Vandal said.

Here’s what other students had to say.

• Dante Faulk, undergraduate

“Invest in more marketing and more students will come here, and if more students come here, then we have more funding and accessibility to do things,” he said. “The other school I went to, South Puget Sound Community College, has a much better marketing presence, and its overall presence with social media is way better than Evergreen’s. They stand out more.

“I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love Evergreen and I’m glad that I’m here, but I have mentioned the college to friends on the East Coast and in other countries, and they are like: ‘How have I never heard of this school?’ This is a place they would absolutely want to go, but they have never heard of it.”

• Ben Michaelis, graduate student

“Double down on what the school offers, which is an integrated education of liberal arts where what you’re going to do with your life is try and do something for your community and find some meaning. … What the school here has to offer is an integrated program — evaluations and all the things that make it unique. I’d hate to see us sacrifice what the college really is. It’s better to make a pitch to say, ‘Yeah, it is different, but that’s something we have to offer.’”

• Xyzlena Guy, 2019 graduate

“More classes tailored to student needs and bigger diversity among the staff and students. I first went to Oregon State University and I preferred Oregon State, honestly, because they had a wider variety of classes and there were things tailored specifically toward the degrees the students wanted.”

• Connor Bailey, undergraduate

“Spend a bigger proportion of their money on faculty, so there’s more variety and offerings each quarter. The biggest complaint is the lack of choices. I’m studying climate science, but in the spring I don’t know what to take because there’s a limited number of choices, and a solution for that is to offer more things every quarter, but the only way you can do that is by hiring more teachers and spending more money on education — instead of on stuff that isn’t about learning — the core mission of the college.”

• Cedar Turner, undergraduate

“Allocating more funds to paying faculty and creating more courses, giving a broader diversity of classes to students.”

• Katrina Ellison, undergraduate

“I think adding more classes in general, especially for the summer session because there seems to be limited classes during that time, and offering more language classes. Right now I’m taking a year-long Spanish immersion program but it’s only offered every other year. We have been talking to the college about offering regular Spanish immersion programs. No complaints, otherwise. More variety of classes is all I would request.”

• Quinn Allen, undergraduate

Allen was adamant that Evergreen is underselling itself.

“Right now I’m in a class with 30 students and two professors, both of whom are putting in a huge amount of work, time and energy per student compared to what you could get at any other institution of higher learning, especially as a Washingtonian, for this dang price. It’s a screaming good deal.

“Honestly, I’m getting access to a very high quality education. I actually know my professors and I can talk to them anytime. They make tons of time in their schedule for us. Accentuating that value exchange is probably one of the best ways that we could show the opportunity that this college has the capacity to provide. It has the capacity to provide that in a big way.”