{"id":57246,"date":"2013-09-23T22:53:16","date_gmt":"2013-09-24T04:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/enrollment-climbs-above-4000-at-fort-lewis-college\/"},"modified":"2013-09-24T04:53:16","modified_gmt":"2013-09-24T04:53:16","slug":"enrollment-climbs-above-4000-at-fort-lewis-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/enrollment-climbs-above-4000-at-fort-lewis-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Enrollment climbs above 4,000 at Fort Lewis College"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Thomas\"
Thomas<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Fall is off to a happy start at Fort Lewis College, where enrollment this fall rose above 4,000 students for the first time since 2004.<\/p>\n

Total enrollment is 4,065 students, an increase of 174 students, more than 4 percent, compared with 2012, the school announced. The college\u2019s goal was 2 percent growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see our enrollment numbers exceed expectations, especially in the face of a challenging recruiting environment across the state, is a reflection of FLC\u2019s growing reputation as a world-class academic institution,\u201d said FLC President Dene Thomas. \u201cI have traveled across the nation and around the world to spread the word about our remarkable college to bring new students and new opportunities to Durango.\u201d<\/p>\n

The numbers also reflect two years of growth after a trend of decreasing enrollment. FLC reached its lowest level in a decade in 2009 with 3,685 students. The economic downturn and the fact that the college raised its admissions standards in 2008 might have had an impact on those numbers.<\/p>\n

Other upswings show a 2.2 percent increase in incoming freshmen, a 3.7 percent rise in continuing students and a 6.6 increase in transfer students.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy overall sense is that the college made a significant investment in marketing and admissions, and we\u2019re starting to see the fruits of those efforts,\u201d said Mitch Davis, FLC\u2019s public affairs officer. \u201cWe\u2019ve taken a pretty diverse approach, getting admissions counselors out into the field more and advertising at major events where the people they draw might be interested in Fort Lewis.\u201d<\/p>\n

One place where FLC has made a prominent appearance is at collegiate and professional cycling events.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe national exposure Fort Lewis has gotten from these national events has put us on the map,\u201d Davis said. \u201cWe have a student from Alabama who was introduced to the college through the (USA) Pro Cycling Challenge,\u201d which in 2012 began in Durango.<\/p>\n

The higher enrollment numbers also include FLC\u2019s first graduate students, 37 enrollees in its new Master of Arts in Education program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were aiming for 25 students for the master\u2019s program, so that\u2019s really good,\u201d Davis said. \u201cAnd for the first time anyone I\u2019ve spoken to can remember, we have students from all 50 states.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis credits the Welcome Center at Eighth Street and Main Avenue and the Durango Area Tourism Office for part of the heightened awareness of the college.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have at least one student enrolled here because his family came to Durango on vacation and saw Fort Lewis information at the Welcome Center,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Out-of-state tuition has not gone up in four years, which is probably also a factor, Davis said. Annual tuition is about $5,200 for in-state students and $16,072 for out-of-state.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in the past kept referring to Fort Lewis as a hidden gem,\u201d he said. \u201cThat seems like a compliment, but for a college, it\u2019s important to get its name out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the next weeks and months, the school will be analyzing the data for the 2013 student body to see what other lessons it can learn from this year\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do know that, typically, once people get a look at our campus, they tend to come here,\u201d Davis said. \u201cSo getting people to come look is critical.\u201d<\/p>\n

abutler@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

9 years, above school\u2019s goal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[132,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-57246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-fort-lewis-college","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57246"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=57246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}