By Stephanie Robbins Boeding ’99 | Photo Julie Pagel Drewes ’90

Returning to Waverly in 1989, Edie Phillips Waldstein ’73 couldn’t have imagined the scope of her own career in higher education as her husband, Fred Waldstein ’74, became the first Irving R. Burling Distinguished Chair in Leadership at Wartburg. Leaving a German faculty position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Edie thought she might continue her career teaching at Wartburg. But over more than 30 years and through her work with multiple presidents, her efforts would impact the college in a much different way, through administration. This summer, Edie retired as vice president for enrollment management, a role she has held since its creation in 2001, after serving earlier in her career as the registrar, a part-time faculty member, and the associate vice president for academic affairs and associate dean of the faculty. She shared her thoughts on her time at Wartburg and the changes she has seen through the years.

Q: What do you remember most about being a student at Wartburg in the early 1970s?

A: What I remember the most is May Term and study abroad in Vienna. I was gone for just about every May Term. I did a creative writing class with Sam Michaelson, and we drove out and spent the entire May Term in San Francisco, and attended lots of cultural events that were supposed to contribute to our creative writing. What I remember more than the creative writing is hearing a poetry reading by Ferlinghetti and going to a theatre premiere of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

My junior year abroad in Vienna was a wonderful educational experience, and very different than today, because we had to set up most everything ourselves. … And that’s where I met Fred. He was traveling that May Term across Europe. Dr. Al Riep had told him we were in Vienna, so he stopped by, and that was the first time that I had met him.

I really remember some great professors: Sam Michaelson and K.D. Briner in English, and Al Riep and Harold Brands in German. And the innovative study abroad opportunities; more colleges have that now, but back then the college was way ahead of the game and doing experiential learning very well.

Q: What has stayed the same at Wartburg since you were a student, and what have been the biggest changes?

A: In about 2000, President Ohle was interested in creating an enrollment management division. He saw that would be important for the future at an institution like ours, being more purposeful about managing enrollment with the demographics that we could already see were coming on the horizon. He asked me to look into that and what all could be included in that division. We looked into that for several months, and in 2001 he established an enrollment management division and asked me to be the VP.

At that time, it included admissions, financial aid, the registrar, the Pathways Center, and information technology. He had a great vision for that and was ahead of the game in my opinion. Some public universities, but hardly any private colleges, were doing that. The whole purpose was to say, ‘How do we get the enrollment in the quality and numbers that we want? And how do we manage that, everything from recruiting students, enrolling them, and supporting them and making sure they have a satisfactory experience so they graduate?’ I really give him credit for thinking of a different model at Wartburg. … I’m glad I had the opportunity to be part of that and help people understand their role in the larger concept of enrollment management.

Q: What have you found most fulfilling with your long career at your alma mater?

A: The students. We have the best students in the world! That’s the most fulfilling part, to watch what they do and have the privilege of working with our students, watching them grow and seeing what they do afterwards. I’ve been here long enough now to see them in their careers and have families and in their communities.

Q: What work are you most proud of?

A: Envisioning and implementing the Pathways Center; it’s not just my accomplishment, but I had the opportunity to facilitate and lead conversations that led to it. It was a large group effort, and that was under Jim Pence, then the dean of faculty, who asked me to pull people together to study how we could better support students. We did a lot of research and discussion, and put together a proposal that really is what the Pathways Center is now: A one-stop shop that included everything from serving as an advising resource for students and faculty, partnering with faculty on designing and offering first-year general education courses, coordinating and providing disability services, to supporting students in their vocational discernment and career aspirations.

The Pathways Center is at the top of my list because it is so obviously student-centered and gave me the opportunity to work with many people across campus to collaborate on an exciting new idea at that time.

In all of the various positions I have held, I have had some, and sometimes a lot of, responsibility for facilitating the retention of students.

In my 32 years here at Wartburg, the overall student retention rate has increased from 82.7% to 87.6%. And the graduation rate has increased from 64% to 70%.

I’m proud of the initiatives we took to diversify our student body. Since 2001, we have significantly increased our out-of-state, U.S. multicultural, and international student numbers.

Q: What will you miss the most?

A: The people. I will miss the students and my colleagues. Wartburg is a very community-minded and collaborative place, good at crossing those administrative boundaries to serve the students, and I will miss that. I have great staff and everyone at Wartburg is so good. I have no doubt great things will continue.