Colleges, universities pivot in order to meet needs, establish community, for incoming freshmen

As students look to the year ahead, seniors are finally catching a glimpse of a long-awaited finish line after 12 years running a circuitous race. For most, though, graduation will not be the end of their educational journey, but the start of its next chapter. In a survey conducted this October, 83 percent of seniors who responded said that they planned to pursue a two or four year degree at some point in the future, and 72 percent listed enrollment at a four year university as one of their potential plans for immediately after high school. According to West’s school profile, 39.2 percent of the Class of 2024 enrolled at a four year institution after graduation. 

Students are drawn to higher education for a variety of reasons. In the October survey, many discussed motivations to go to a university to meet new people, develop skills and knowledge about subjects of interest, and grow as a person. However, the most prominent themes in responses focused on financial considerations like needing a degree for a certain career or distinguishing themselves in the job market. These factors are weighing on senior Kylin Butler as he works on applications.

“I want to go to college to get a better education and because it’s part of the career I want in the future. I want to be a social worker,” he said.

Dr. Tracy Slagter, who has taught in the Department of Political Science at UW-Oshkosh for 20 years, believes student engagement in the classroom in recent years reveals a greater concern with employment and financial success than in the past.

“I think it feels a little bit more transactional. Come to the university, get a degree, get a job, where it doesn’t feel like it’s so much about an exploration of ideas or understanding how the world is connected,” she said. “And I think that that’s a shame because we have a whole host of problems that are going to require really sophisticated thinking.”

There are significant financial benefits to getting a four year degree. Drawing on 2024 census data, researchers at UW-Madison projected that median lifetime earnings of Wisconsinites with a bachelor’s degree are $900,000 higher than those of individuals who have only graduated high school. 

However, college itself also bears a significant cost. According to the Education Data Initiative, students in the US borrow an average $31,960 to earn their bachelor’s degree from a public university, and student loan debt represented an average 7.1 percent of borrowers’ personal income in 2024. Many students at West with aspirations of attending college worry about their ability to afford it. Freshman Marla Schultz had been committed to attending college to further her education and pursue her creative passions. But, in the October survey, she reported working as her primary plan for immediately after high school.

“I was originally going to go, but I now think about the cost and worry that I may risk being in debt just to no longer want to pursue the career I went to college for,” she wrote.

Dr. Ed Martini, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at UW-Oshkosh, believes that even as students plan their careers and worry about affording college, their ambitions transcend economic stability.

“Gen Z and the generation that’s following do really want to be part of something bigger,” he said. “If there’s things that we can tap into while they’re students with us and expose them to new things—whether that be about sustainability, climate change, democracy, or whatever they’re passionate about—if we can find those things that they can work on, I really think it will be a tool to show students what kinds of value they can get out of a higher education degree.”

Senior Will Amel, who plans to earn a law degree after completing college, hopes to use his education to make a positive impact on the world.

“I’ve always really wanted to go into a career that would help others. Especially if I go into a line of work like public defense or immigration law, I could really help people,” he said. “I think having a successful life looks like, to me, having a life where I can impact many other people’s lives in a positive way.”

In the October survey, a common theme was students’ worries about their ability to succeed when faced with higher standards and a greater workload in college. Responding to the question, “what worries do you have as you prepare for the future,” one anonymous senior wrote, “Going to school for four more years though I’m already burnt out from high school. I’m worried for how I’m going to do well with much harder material along with more work and away from home and my family.” Another senior responded, “Figuring out how to do things without the instruction of people around me.”

Martini notes students’ higher prioritization of their mental health now than in the past. He says that UWO is using a stronger system of check-ins from faculty and staff, organizing new clubs and sports teams, and offering a more comprehensive orientation to connect students with resources to promote a sense of community.

“We try to always reinforce the message that, if you’re here and we accepted you, that’s because you belong here,” he said. “We’re here to support you in your journey, and we also want to make sure you have the kind of connections that are going to be meaningful to you, not just in the classroom but out of the classroom.”

This philosophy has also meant adapting the traditional university model to meet new student priorities and changes in the economy. According to Martini, UWO is working to ensure students do not need to sacrifice getting started on their career to pursue their studies and the financial security of a degree.

“We’re trying to develop pathways working with our local partners and companies to say, if a student comes to you, can we partner with you so that that student can continue to attend classes with us in the evenings or online, but maybe also earn some credits for the things they’re learning on the job, so that when they wake up in ten years and robots come for their jobs, or their job’s not there anymore, they realize they need to go back to school but not start from scratch,” he said.

The university is also expanding outreach to adult learners, who accounted for 33.5 percent of total postsecondary enrollment nationwide in 2021 according to the Postsecondary National Policy Institute. Martini says that delivering programs to meet these students’ needs is critical to the university’s mission.

“If you’re 30 years old and you’ve got a family and a mortgage and a job and other responsibilities, you’re not going to want to come to class at 9:30 or 11:00 on a weekday,” he said. “You’re going to want to take them at night, you’re going to want to take them online, or maybe in a hybrid format.”

Even with student support and accessibility initiatives, communicating the opportunity presented by a university experience has posed a challenge, according to Martini.

“The number one competitor for UWO is not another institution, it’s no college at all,” he said. “Especially in our region, where there are so many jobs, there’s so much opportunity, unemployment is still relatively low, we see more and more students going directly from high school into the workforce.”

The polarized national political climate has also created messaging challenges for universities as they confront hostility from some public figures and face pressure to take an institutional stance on various issues. Terms like the liberal arts, which refers to analytical, interdisciplinary learning designed to promote broad reasoning skills and inquiry, can cause confusion about the mission of universities, according to Slagter.

“When we say liberal arts education, you get people freaking out thinking that we’re telling everybody to be Democrats. That’s not what we’re doing,” she said. “Liberal arts education has always been about the empowerment of the individual. So I think the university is attempting to nimbly respond to societal demands and pressures at the same time as society is shifting really rapidly.”

Students also feel pressure to meet the demands of a quickly changing world, with many citing uncertainty about their future path as a major source of stress.

“I don't know what I want to do in the future quite yet and I'm worried I won't find out in time,” one anonymous sophomore unsure of their postsecondary plans wrote on the survey.

Assistant Principal Heidi Wheaton, who previously worked in West’s counseling office, highlights the resources available to connect students with college and career paths early on.

“What I would recommend is talking to people, taking some surveys so you’re finding out these are the classes I like, these are the skills I have, this is the environment I like to be in, and seeing where all of those things connect,” she said.

However, Slagter suggests that coming to college without a firm commitment to a particular major or career can create its own opportunities.

“You might think that you know what you’re interested in, but the chances of it changing are so great, and the risks associated with being stuck in something that you really don’t love are also too great,” she said. “It’s almost better not to have a major already determined because then you can truly explore.”

Amel believes that West could do more to facilitate this sort of exploration before students graduate by offering a wider range of courses and creating more opportunities for students to work closely with counselors.

“Sometimes I wish that counselors at the school were more hands-on with helping students find a plan that’s right for them and making sure people are on track for what they want to do,” he said. “I think having a hands-on approach, especially with students who are unsure of what they want to do, would be really helpful to not only get them to succeed here and go to college, but also succeed in college.”

by Aria Boehler

Published November 3, 2025

Oshkosh West Index Volume 122 Issue II