The 2026-27 academic year has started in earnest, inviting change in many respects. For first-years, it means adjusting to college life. For returning students, it means adjusting to new schedules and living arrangements.
For President Manya Whitaker, the new year means doing a lot of “change management.” CC’s organizational structure, budget and marketing are all undergoing shifts, requiring lots of communication from the administrative level.
Whitaker’s communication tasks at the start of term include in-person dialogue, email communications and clarifying questions from the community. She plans to hold a presidential pop-up for students on Sept. 28, hoping to provide a space to shed light on matters of interest to students.
“I’m here more and travelling less, so I’m able to connect with the community in ways that I couldn’t last year,” she said.
One of the main changes currently going into effect is the reorganization of Colorado College administrative offices. This reorganization effort began on Sept. 25, 2025, with the most recent changes going into effect on June 1, 2026.
“What I’ve been doing is moving things that basically serve the same function or purpose into the same division so that there’s more coordination,” she said.
Offices like the Butler Center and the Chaplain’s Office moved from Student Life to Institutional Equity and Belonging. The Title IX and Office of Civil Rights were previously reporting to the Chief Operating Officer and have now moved into Finance and Administration due to the fact that Finance and Administration has compliance, risk management and legal under its jurisdiction.
The college also received an institutional review report on Aug. 4, 2026.
“The biggest takeaway is that we lack coordination across campus and that multiple offices are doing the exact task in different ways on different timelines,” Whitaker said.
Whitaker said that there is both a digital and verbal disconnect between offices, causing students to get conflicting information from different offices about the same question. The overall organization and communication within the college is fragmented at present, she said.
“I think I have four email addresses,” Whitaker said. “Our systems do not talk to each other, so it creates outdated and conflicting data that we use for something.”
She explains that offices and departments don’t always know how the work they do contributes to the bigger puzzle. In an effort to fix this fragmentation, this year Whitaker is trying to push for more communication and coordination between offices.
“It’s a big cultural change here that I’m trying to push,” she said.
This year, Colorado College enrolled 20 students fewer than its enrollment goal. Whitaker says this underenrollment is not a “numbers issue” but a “composition of the class issue.”
“We ended up giving more in financial aid than we thought,” she said. “The rate of students who are going to college now who have high need has gone up faster than we predicted.”
Whitaker also notes that the liberal arts college experience is less popular among current applicants.
“This generation of applicants are going to large regional public [colleges] because they have a social scene that small private liberal arts colleges don’t,” she said. “Right now, private liberal arts colleges are not the cool thing. But it’ll swing back.”
Colorado College will not compromise its identity to match current trends among applicants, but rather spend resources to further identify students who are the correct fit for CC right now, Whitaker said.
The school is boosting marketing efforts following this year’s admissions turnout. Specifically, the school intends to increase attention to each accepted student. Some ideas include sending them a handwritten note of congratulations from faculty or a video from a faculty member.
“Personalization matters and it’s how we move ourselves to the top of people’s consideration list,” Whitaker said. “We also want to use more digitization and personal outreach.”
Despite the lower admission numbers in the past three years, Whitaker said that the budget is still healthy.
“We are not in a crisis,” she said. “There is no budget deficit.”
This year and next year, the school will be reducing expenditures to match its revenue. According to Whitaker, these cuts are put into effect proactively so it doesn’t have to be done in the future. All school departments, including departments outside of academics such as athletics and student life, were asked to cut 10% of their budgets over the next two years, with each individual department deciding where to make the cuts.
“What we did was, in the Spring Semester, have every division at the college […] over the next two years, […] cut 10% of their budget,” she said. It’s up to each department to decide where these cuts come from.
Even amidst all of the changes Colorado College is undergoing, Whitaker is excited for the school year and looking forward to sharing moments of joy with students.
“I just want to pause and make space for laughter, for fun, [and] for silly moments.”