Thomas College's plan for expansion deserves support

Thursday, December 8, 2005

Thomas College is looking to become a bigger player in higher education.

Its future relies on it.

The Waterville business college fills an essential role by educating many of those who stay and work in central Maine and across the state.

They include managers, accountants, computer professionals and marketing and sales representatives.

As a measure of the school's reach, its president, George R. Spann, said there are about 120 companies and organizations in Maine that employ four or more Thomas graduates, and many more businesses or groups have at least three.

The numbers affirm Thomas' significance within and contribution to Maine's professional community.

For that contribution to continue and increase, Thomas officials say, the 111-year-old college must improve its campus and boost enrollment -- significantly.

To their credit, Thomas officials are not afraid to admit the college's future hinges on nearly doubling its undergraduate enrollment -- to 1,042 by 2012 -- and raising money for a $7 million residence hall and café expansion and construction of a $4.6 million, 38,000-square-foot athletic center and a $3.5 million academic building.

Thomas is nearing the end of its largest-ever fundraising effort: a $9.6 million capital campaign aimed at supporting efforts to increase the college's appeal, enrollment and revenues. (Local philanthropist Harold S. Alfond has pledged $1.25 million toward the cost of the new field house -- the largest gift Thomas has received for campus construction.)

Raising almost $10 million is no easy task, especially as competition for donors' dollars has never been fiercer.

At the same time that Thomas is asking people, businesses, foundations and organizations to donate, Colby College, for example, is undertaking a $235 million fundraising campaign, with about half the money already secured.

Many other schools and groups, including service and relief agencies helping victims of Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters, are also vying aggressively for contributions at a time when expenses -- such as fuel costs -- are more burdensome than ever.

But Spann and Conrad L. Ayotte, chairman of the Thomas board of trustees, are not stymied by all the competition for people's altruism.

Knowing that Thomas must grow to survive and flourish, Spann and Ayotte, a 1977 Thomas graduate, and other trustees and school representatives are spreading the word about the college founded on Main Street in 1894. (The school moved in 1956 from its downtown location to a large, private estate in Waterville and, beginning in 1966, to the 70-acre campus where it now sits along the Kennebec River.)

The message from Spann and Ayotte, who is the chief financial officer and a co-owner of J.S. McCarthy Printers in Augusta, is that Thomas College must get its undergraduate enrollment -- now 614 -- to the point that it and the tuition it generates allow the school to enhance academic programs, staffing and facilities.

As their main selling point, Thomas officials are using the college's past success in producing skilled graduates, 95 percent of whom find good jobs in their fields within 90 days of earning their diplomas. Just as encouraging, about half of Thomas' student body is first-generation college students.

Many colleges and universities would be thrilled to have their graduate-placement rates be within 20 percentage points of Thomas' or to attract so many students who are among the first in their families to attend college.

Best of all, most Thomas graduates -- about 85 percent -- pursue work in-state. This is vital as Maine continues to lose many recent college graduates to other states.

Thomas College's plan for expansion and growth is encouraging and deserves broad support, especially given the school's commitment to keeping college degrees accessible to area students.

We hope Thomas becomes a bigger player in higher education -- for its own good and for the students and employers who stand to benefit.