May 21, 2007
From the Nashua Telegraph:
Footing the Bill: a look at how local colleges handle the challenging economy
DWC shoots to increase enrollment via athletics

The following article was published in the Nashua Telegraph May 19, 2008
A link to the original article can be found by clicking here.

By Tom King
Nashua, N.H. – Phil Rowe was happy being a Division I men's college basketball assistant coach at George Washington University, after a few years of banging his head against the wall as the head coach at the University of New Hampshire.

His days as Daniel Webster College's athletic director seemed another lifetime ago.

Until the phone rang in his office with a call from Susan Elsass, the DWC vice President for Student Affairs/Dean of Students. She presented him with an offer to return to the school to head up an athletic department mandated to turn recruiting into dollar signs and competitive teams that could eventually lead to a new facility and new look in five years.

"I have to tell ya," Phil Rowe said, "when it was first brought to my table, I was sitting in my office in Washington, and I said, 'Are you serious?' "

The answer was yes. And now recruiting is not only necessary, it's part of the college's business plan under Rowe. His role as VP for Student Affairs/Athletics: oversee the recruitment of athletes and assist in financial development of the program.

The plan is the brainchild of school president Dr. Robert "Skip" Myers, who explained that the necessary shot in the arm athletics needed could be a tool in raising the enrollment numbers. Or as Rowe put it, "impact the growth of the institution." So within a month of assuming the presidency, he convened a task force.

"Really, what I wanted to do was pretty quick," Myers said. "And when the task force (which included school officials such as Elsass and current athletic director John Griffith) came back to me with their plan, I said, 'Well, we need a leader to drive the plan' and up popped Phil."

The crux of the plan: coaches meet with Rowe, determine a target number of recruits for the next year's incoming class that they would like to see. From there, every communication – email, phone call, text message, visit – is documented and placed into a weekly report each coach must submit.

"It's really a systematic program," Rowe said. "It's hard work, but it's definitely there in concrete and we all know where we're headed and what our responsibilities are. It's based on each coach recruiting students that may not have learned or known about Daniel Webster in the past. It's a different approach."

"The way (Rowe) has it in place helps us to be more organized," men's basketball coach Jeremy Currier said. "Here's the plan, follow through with your plan."

According to Rowe, the athletic department has brought in about 50 new students in the last year. Basically the deal is since athletic funding at a small Division III college is tuition-driven, the more recruits brought in, the more dollars can be routed toward the department. That helps to make coaches full-time, it adds equipment and more.

"It's a benefit-reward situation," Rowe said. "Everybody has a minimum. If everybody brings in their minimum, their salary range is X-to-Y. If they go a bit above that, we're able to grow the program for the next cycle year, meaning put more into travel, gear, those kinds of things."

As gas prices soar, Rowe hinted that each coach may be asked to add to their minimum number of recruits to help to potentially offset those costs with added tuition dollars.

Indeed, it's recruiting as a business to add dollars and not just wins. It's necessary because Rowe hopes in two years his coaches will all be full-time.

"It's a trend of small schools everywhere," Griffith said. "You have to look at a way, in admissions, how to attract students. And athletics is a significant part in this day and age. Especially in Division III."

The coaches, although certainly hit with more paperwork than in the past, say it's the way to go.

"We only have to turn in reports once a week, I know a coach at Quinnipiac who has to turn them in daily," Eagles girls soccer coach Tom McGuinness said. "The directive we've been given with recruiting is helpful in getting our name out there. It's a players' market.

"It's going to be interesting here in the future the way the economy is going. The way economic times are taking may reshape things for us."

Rowe says that the numbers game is something the school pays close attention to.

"We know nationally that most students that look at schools tend to apply to five schools before they make their choice; they tend to visit 4-1/2 schools before they make their choice," he said. "That's average (coming from the SAT board surveys).

"So say a coach needs to bring in five recruits. That means they've got to generate 25 applications, if you think about it. Now, what we're doing is kind of a research project. We're, over the five year plan – we stay on top of that weekly. We know how many people they've evaluated, how many coaches they've called, we know all that information. What we're doing over the five-year plan is figure out how to save ourselves, cut costs, but still generate the applications that we need."

Adding three programs will certainly generate more students. The Eagles will have field hockey and women's lacrosse as well as men's volleyball next year. More athletes means more dollars, especially when tuition, room and board is roughly $35,000 a year. The school's enrollment is currently, Rowe said, at 710 but hopes to jump to 1,200 in the next couple of years. The goal is to have a good percentage of that increase linked to athletics.

The Eagles are also going into the newly-formed New England Collegiate Conference this fall, a move designed to improve the competitive nature of their program.

"At Division III, we have a modest athletic budget," Myers said. "Mostly from tuition, but also alumni donations and philanthropic dollars. We want to produce a program and establish it so it's, quite honestly, worthy of support."

Going back to that phone call two years ago, Rowe asked the college then to send him the plan.

"I called them back, and I said again, 'Are you serious?'" Rowe said. "And when I met with Skip, he looked me right in the eye and said, 'Oh yeah.'

"And then I asked him, 'As long as we do our job, will we continue to grow?' And the answer was yes."

Rowe hopes that continues to be the case by Year Five. If all goes well that should see the school with a new athletic facility, either up and running or well along in the planning stages.

"I think what you do is you produce," he said. "It's all about production, and we have to do our job . . . We're striving for excellence and we're going for it. If we produce, we'll be rewarded for it and our students will be rewarded for it."