Dear Willard College Learners and Learning Facilitators and Learning Facilitator Facilitators,

I know that you have been reading stories of colleges that have gone belly up. Wells College, College of St. Rose, and Cazenovia come to mind. But let me be clear, it will take more than a demographic cliff, high debt, high debt to income ratio, chaotic and ever shifting curricular planning, chronically low enrollment, deferred maintenance costs that outstrip income and endowment, and an endowment that is in the negative territory to kill us.

We are Willard Strong. Willard College’s future is bright.

Focusing on the negative, as Cheryl Tina Faye Cotton so often reminds me, and us, only leads to negative manifestations which lead to negative outcomes.

What can you do? Stay positive. Don’t get into the weeds about what the administration is doing and how much we are compensated to do that which we do, and give support, emotional or even financial, to the team of experts, who in consultation with Erie Consultants, is going to turn this ship on to a new course. Soon. Very soon.

With warmthly love, Henry Cotton, your president