Ramona Pierson, the newest Fort Lewis College strategic officer, announced that the college will transition into a STEM-focused school during the all-campus meeting Thursday afternoon in the FLC Ballroom.
The all-campus meeting was announced a week prior via a campuswide email, and its goal was to increase transparency about the transformation process.
Roughly half of the meeting, which was scheduled to run for 90 minutes, consisted of Pierson explaining her backstory. The rest of the meeting was a question-and-answer period about FLC’s change to STEM.
Pierson argued that changing to emphasize STEM is the best option for FLC, citing national trends that indicated STEM studies are growing and humanities are becoming less popular among students.
During the Q&A, many students and faculty were upset to hear that the liberal arts college they attend and work at is changing to STEM.
Introducing Ramona Pierson
College president Dene Thomas introduced Pierson, who is an FLC alumna and a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur.
Pierson was hit by a car in 1984 which left her blind and put her in a coma for 18 months, she said.
Pierson had to relearn everything, from speaking to walking to reading in Braille, she said.
She empathizes with change because she understands how difficult it is, she said.
The Pierson Perspective
“We’re on this precipice, we have a choice,” Pierson said. “We can allow ourselves to continue on and die or we can innovate and continue.”
Emphasizing STEM is the best way to improve enrollment and provide students with skills for the modern world, she said.
Humanities and liberal arts are valuable and teach student’s skills and must be integrated into STEM disciplines, Pierson said.
Pierson argues that stressing the STEM disciplines is the only method that ensures the existence of FLC in the future.
Questions and Answers
Students and faculty members had many questions and not everyone had the opportunity to voice their concerns before the meeting was over.
Those who did expressed concern about the decision to change FLC’s focus to STEM.
Faculty member Becky Clausen commented on FLC’s relationship with change.
Clausen, the chair of sociology at FLC, said that it is wrong to say that FLC is not good at change.
FLC is capable of change and creates a culture for change, she said.
The sudden announcement that FLC is switching to STEM doesn’t reflect the school’s willingness to change because faculty and students haven’t participated in this decision, she said.
“This process is off,” Clausen said. “There’s no context for change.”
Students and administrators participated in the school’s discussion of its liberal arts mission statement and values last year, and to be told that FLC is changing to STEM without input from those people is disorienting, she said.
Students, mainly from the sociology, political science, music, and English departments, said FLC was their school of choice because of its liberal arts and humanities focus.
Students and faculty members participated in the Q&A part of the meeting, asking questions about why STEM was the answer to enrollment issues, if the STEM focus would cut from the humanities and if the diverse population of FLC would be given a voice in this decision.
The administration is still working on the process and adding STEM will help FLC fix its financial and enrollment issues, Pierson said.
An English major expressed her concern that making FLC a STEM school would result in an assembly line education where students were given labor skills instead of the critical thinking skills that the humanities teach.
Pierson argued that students nationally and at FLC aren’t joining the humanities so the school needs to increase its STEM programs.
Another student asked Pierson if her plan was still open to change. The student was also concerned that putting funding into STEM would cut from the humanities and wanted to know how that was going to be handled.
Pierson said FLC would find a balance between the STEM and the humanities and focusing on STEM would help enrollment at FLC.
A sociology student said she has friends who want to attend FLC because of the liberal arts and that they couldn't because of the expense of living in Durango and the cost of on-campus housing. She said there must be another way to deal with the issue of enrollment that doesn’t involve changing FLC’s liberal arts identity.
Pierson said expense and housing is an issue that she faced herself when she attended FLC with her seeing eye dog, but STEM is the solution that FLC needs to fix its enrollment issues.
Mitch Davis, the public affairs officer at FLC, sent out an email with information about FLC’s decision to focus on STEM, citing seven points the meeting would go over. Not all of the topics were specifically discussed at the meeting.
The Future of FLC
STEM needs to be the focus at FLC and the humanities will be integrated into that, Pierson said.
“The humanities won’t go away,” she said.
Pierson was hired as the strategic officer to help the college address financial issues due to decreasing enrollment at the college, Thomas, the college president, said.
The college has been through several different organizations as it tries to fix its financial issues and hiring Pierson is the latest solution. Pierson is the second consultant this year hired to improve enrollment.
The next campus-wide meeting is May 16, Pierson said.