We all know the feeling. The dreaded blue envelope notification from our school’s Outlook email, announcing a memo along the lines of “You are receiving this message because you have not viewed the most recent eBill statement.” This time, it was the start of fall quarter, and I had just added four credits to my course load for individual study, knowing that I should expect an increase in my tuition. What I didn’t expect to see was an extra $231 – unrelated to my tuition – charged to my student portal. Despite being enrolled entirely online through the Tacoma campus, I had been billed for Student Wellness Services, CAB Renovation, Recreational, and Clean Energy fees – all of which apply to students enrolled at the Olympia campus. I had created a study contract that I had deemed simple, but puzzled our school’s staff – I had a faculty sponsor from Olympia while being enrolled at Tacoma.
A bit of context: all individual studies at Evergreen – whether it be an Internship Learning Contract (INT) or an Individual Learning Contract (ILC) – require a faculty sponsor, AKA a member of our college’s faculty or staff, to oversee and evaluate your study path. Oftentimes, this sponsor is a professor with whom students have developed an academic rapport beforehand. My chest tightened as I tried to remain confident and explained my situation to Evergreen staff members at different phone extensions – trying to be clear about how a family medical emergency had caused a last-minute campus switch, and the need for a sponsor who knew me well enough as a student to approve my contract. I could hear the receptionists shifting in their seats as they sighed and transferred me to the next office, and I felt the embarrassment rushing to my cheeks as I explained why I couldn’t afford an extra $231. I wish I could send the college my call log as a receipt of my efforts; I was on the phone every day for two weeks trying to get a hold of someone –– anyone — who could tell me – is there a way to waive this charge? And if there isn’t, why not?
I was eventually transferred to the supervisor of registration and records, who told me that there was nothing more that I could do, and that academic policy was academic policy. “I don’t make the rules, I just enforce them.” He said to me, terminally.
“Well, who should students reach out to when they feel that academic policy isn’t fair?”
He took a breath, not trying to hide his annoyance at getting his personal extension reached by a pokey student. “You’re going to have to take that up with the deans.”
As I awaited responses from the deans at the Olympia campus, I found myself in the same dilemma that many students across the nation are facing – how do I pick my battles with the institution that determines the very fate of my future? Was writing to my college’s higher-ups about this going to inspire change to academic policy, or would it bite me later?
According to The Evergreen State College’s 2024 AdHoc Report, between 2016 and 2021, The Evergreen State College faced a drastic decline in student enrollment, with total Fall headcounts shrinking by nearly half – from 4,089 total students in 2016 to 2,116 in 2022. Socio-political indicators for potential causes of this decline – such as the 2016 presidential election of Donald Trump, the negative media attention that the school received in 2017, the Covid-19 pandemic, and rising tuition costs nationwide, for example – were analyzed to different degrees by our school’s faculty and staff. However, one fact remained obvious – the school was losing money. The Adhoc Report also states that in 2022, Evergreen’s initial operating budget deficit was $7.3 million. How was the school supposed to recover?
One of the found solutions was to increase enrollment to regain institutional financial stability. The college created a strategic plan to increase the breadth and depth of the student population by developing programs that catered to a variety of learners. Examples of this include accommodating working adult learners with online study options (such as the Professional and Continuing Education Initiative, or PaCE), a Latinx Youth Summit to encourage Latinx high school students to attend Evergreen for their higher education, and efforts to encourage shared academic experiences between the Olympia and Tacoma programs to increase co-curricular enrichment and accessibility. As I awaited my response from the Academic Deans, I stewed on how our current policy – which allows students to only enroll in one campus without paying steep fees – aligned with these seemingly progressive enrollment initiatives.
After a few more days of waiting, I heard back from Dr. Kristina Ackley, Evergreen’s academic dean for Native Programs and Experiential Learning. My inquiries were received with much more empathy than that of the records and registrations supervisor who had pointed me her way. Dr. Ackley apologized for the mandatory, unwaivable fees for my unique enrollment status. However, when I asked her the same question that I had asked before – how students should go about advocating for change in academic policy – she gave me a guideline of where to start. In this case, it would begin with bringing concerns to her and Dr. Marcia Tate Arunga – Tacoma’s academic dean – to voice how financial accessibility could be improved for students in similar positions to mine, who had to curate a study plan specific to their needs.
Suppose you, too, have feedback about Evergreen’s learning model and accessibility. The Cooper Point Journal encourages you to collaborate with us about how we can start change-making conversations. Together, we can utilize student media to shed light on how the reality of our college’s policies affects real, everyday aspects of our lives. If you have an idea for an article or would like to submit your own through our rolling submissions for all students, please email us at cooperpointjournal@gmail.com to see how we can help facilitate your voice.
