ALAMOSA — Adams State University (ASU) President David Tandberg spent a few minutes with Alamosa City Council on Wednesday night, starting out by introducing Vice President for Advancement Jacob Rissler, who’s been with the university for almost seven months. Rissler will be focused on alumni affairs, community engagement, fundraising, marketing and promotions.

“That rounds out my executive team,” Tandberg said, “So, we’re at full horsepower now.”  

Tandberg then reflected on the first time he spoke in a formal setting with council when he made a commitment for the university to be “more involved in the affairs of the community, a true partner, a university of destination for students and a collaborator” in addressing opportunities and challenges.  

“I think we still have some work to do there. I think partnerships need to be nurtured and worked on every year,” he said. But in one area there has been distinct improvement. 

In 2022, the year Tandberg was first before the council, ASU had the lowest number of Valley students enrolled – that he could find on record - and the smallest share of students coming from the Valley. 

Since 2022, the number of students attending from the Valley has increased by 73% and are now at record number of students from the Valley and record share. 

“I’m really proud of that,” he said. “It’s taken real investment, strategy and effort but I think it has paid off in dividends and is something that I think we are committed to moving forward as very much a valley perspective on what we’re dong.  

Our enrollment will always include students from outside of the valley, outside of the state and even outside of the country, he said. “But we want to keep our commitment to the founding principles of Adams state to serve the Valley.”  

Tandberg touched on specific things that have been done to encourage more students attending from the Valley, including inviting students to campus and him visiting all the high school. Also, every graduating student in the Valley gets a letter of acceptance from Tandberg personally welcoming them Adams State, something that could not be done without “the support and partnerships with high schools in the Valley.  

“I’ve been stopped by parents and grandparents who have told me how much that meant to their kids to get a letter that says.”  

He also talked about the Adams Promise that says “any kid coming from a family that makes $70,000 or less goes to Adams State with no tuition or fees. Also, if a student comes from the Valley, there is extra funding for books and living on campus. “It doesn’t cover the full cost but makes them more affordable.” 

Tandberg also discussed “big projects under way” with construction of a new facilities building funded by the state and a new IT building that is going through expansion and a remodel and are in the midst of an energy performing contract that should do some pretty cool things to save us a lot of money but also helps us to conserve resources in an area of the country that really needs us to do that. 

Enrollment is up for the second year in a row, a “365-day-a-year-fight” but one that seems to be paying off as applications are up more than 160% compared to last year. “The key will be turning those into actual enrollments.” 

Finally, Tandberg brought up a constructive conversation he recently had with Konnie Martin, CEO of SLV Health. ASU is actively engaged in an ongoing partnership with SLV Health to enroll students in nursing school. The university is also part of a large-scale Opportunity Now grant and “we have nearly closed the gap” with their need for nurses.  

That’s not all due to Adams State, Tandberg said, but, according to Martin, it took “Just one year and they were able to fill the gap.” 

He pointed out an important aspect of the nursing degrees offered at ASU as they are degrees that allow students to “move up” and transfer, perhaps, into management or higher-level nursing. “We find in nursing and teaching, if we can get a student from the Valley to enter our degree program and work in one of those high need areas, they stick around. So, it’s part of an ongoing ‘grow your own’ approach.”