Speaking of Northern and its need to boost revenues, NSU President Timothy Downs is recommending offering more summer classes:
In Aberdeen, Northern is looking at increasing summer offerings to increase revenue.
“Really, there are three terms,” said President Tim Downs. “There’s fall, there’s spring and there’s summer. So if you’re going to be in town and work, take a class online or take a class at night because you might be working during the day. Really figure out what those students need” [Katherine Grandstrand, “Northern to Make Changes as Budget Tightens {paywall},” Aberdeen American News, 2019.12.02].
More summer courses mean more summer profs. Getting our scholars to give up another month of two of their precious summer research time will mean more pay, so summer courses aren’t an automatic moneymaker.
However, Downs’s comment about figuring out what working students really need gets me thinking about a broader possible reform for higher education that’s been brewing in my head lately.
Since World War 2, we’ve driven larger portions of our youth population and older workers toward higher education. Increasing portions of the job market require higher education. But fewer of the people who need higher education want or can afford the traditional on-campus, four-year version. I get the sense, from working on a college campus, from reading, and from listening to the economic and cultural vibes, that the route to survival and success in the 21st century for institutions of higher education is to focus less on offering a one-time experience and more on offering lifelong support and service. Most people seeking higher education for employment purposes don’t need a compact, intensive, residential experience that purports to pack all the knowledge they need into one degree prior to their professional career. Most people need a regular, reliable source of continuing education that allows them to pick up new skills as they need them and as the need for those skills appear and evolve in the marketplace.
Perhaps Northern and other colleges need to act less like home builders—one intense relationship before you move in—and more like the electric company, providing regular service to their customers throughout their lifetimes. Instead of graduates and alumni, perhaps our universities should produce ongoing students who return regularly to campus (in person or online) to pick up a class now, a credential next summer, constantly refreshing their skills, staying up to date on new developments in their fields.
If a university builds that kind of ongoing relationship, it could find that getting several hundred dollars each summer (or winter, or whenever works) from a larger cadre of ongoing learners could provide a more reliable and flexible revenue stream than constantly plying alumni to send checks and buy season tickets.
I treasure my university experiences—packing the van, heading off to campus, living among other scholars for a few years, thinking big thoughts in the library and on the campus green. But my ideal of campus life is perhaps not the model for a majority of those who need higher education. They don’t need higher education to be a separate, early period of their lives; they need it to be an ongoing component of their lifelong professional development.
But you’ve still got to pay those profs to put on extra courses. Be ready for that.
Universities wanting to maintain, perhaps increase, relevancy should read the likely the most important sociological work in recent memory, “The War on Normal People”. It’s taught in leading sociology courses.
One may purchase it, or listen to it on youtube, or read a pdf of it. The latter 2 are free.
Takeaways: – college costs increased 2.5 times in the past generation while college is not 2.5 times better.
– college costs mostly increased through adding layers of administrators without teaching or research duties, diluting the authority of professors.
– college is not for everyone and pretending that it is. The statistic is pretty firm that only 1/3 of adults graduated college. Thus, politicians’ tropes of ‘free college for all’ are worse than lost leader proposals ignoring underlying issues.
Find recommended solutions for college and other of societies challenges in the book.
When I first came to Northern, the summer sessions were extremely busy. They attracted quite a different student body. Many teachers attended the summer sessions for courses which they used to keep their credentials updated or to get more experience in their areas of study. Professors were anxious to get summer contracts out of financial necessity.
It was a time when specialty courses could be offered in our areas of scholarship. A summer contract is for two courses. We professors would teach one standard course, which would exceed the minimum enrollment requirements, and offer one specialty course which would attract fewer students who had a need or interest in such a course. At t/he time, we could meet the minimum enrollments if the total enrollments for both classes divided by 2 met the minimum requirements for a course “to make.” The minimum requirement was 12 students, I believe. If a standard general education course enrolled 28 students but a specialty course enrolled 6, the total enrollment for a contract would be 34 students, or 17 per course covered by the contract. The standard courses could subsidize the speciality offerings, which added significantly to Northern’s curriculum.
The Regents changed all that with rile that each course offered had to meet the minimum enrollment. Summer school enrollment dropped because the speciality courses that attracted some students were no longer listed on the schedule of offerings.
Those specialty courses provided opportunities in continuing education for people from the Dakotas and Minnesota that were not otherwise available to them.
In second from last graph, should be rule. Which did rile the faculty.
I think summer courses are of growing interest, but I believe that taking certain classes over the summer may impact the credit hours that can be supported by financial aid for the student.
But if we are talking about supporting the continual education of professionals, that may not be as important….particularly if companies are helping to re-train their employees.
My graduate school, Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, had more flexibility as a private institution, though it did need to continue meeting accreditation standards. Nonetheless, the school was very attentive to student needs and changing demographics.
It was initially a 4 year, residential, male only program of two semesters. Luther assesses itself and makes major changes as needed. When I was there they had just switched to a quarterly schedule and a compressed, 3 year schedule was available. There is a chiefly online program now that I believe only requires one semester residency on campus. In addition, the one year internship can be converted into a full time call.
I have been impressed with the school’s willingness to metamorphose as necessary to meet students needs as they exist, rather than trying to force students into the school’s predetermined shape.
Every higher education source ought to do the same. Talk to current and prospective customers/students and believe them. Read demographic information.
Lastly, continuing education ought to be mission critical. It needs to be easy to access, fit needs and be affordable.
“Most people seeking higher education for employment purposes don’t need a compact, intensive, residential experience that purports to pack all the knowledge they need into one degree prior to their professional career.”
Cory, if this part of your plan is enacted, does that mean the demise of a liberal arts education? Does that mean colleges teach skills, but not critical thinking? Please elaborate further.
David, I appreciate Freudian typos. In this case, as you note, your typo is instructive.
I also appreciate your perspective on the strong summer programs NSU used to offer. Using high-enrollment classes to support specialty courses is a great idea! Each specialty course may bring only a few students, but a lot of good specialty courses will bring a lot of paying students, which is exactly what Pres. Downs wants.
Debbo, I would hope the liberal arts would suffer no such demise in the lifelong-learning shift I’m envisioning. Remember, the big skills employers are looking for don’t appear to be tied to specific technology or business processes; employers need better critical thinking, creativity, and interpersonal communication. And remember, David Owen of the SD Chamber says the problem isn’t a skills gap but a character gap.
If those skills and character are really in demand, then employers should recognize that sending their employees to take courses in the liberal arts is in their business interest, and NSU and other institutions should sell their lifelong learning programs on those points.
I note that renewing a teaching certificate in South Dakota requires taking six graduate credits every five years. A lot of the credits offered are dreary education-specific courses, but the state accepts any kind of credit. Teachers can take classes in business, computers, music, literature, anything in their field or not. In teaching, at least, South Dakota recognizes that any ongoing higher learning is good learning.
Cory,
To clarify, teachers DO NOT need to obtain 6 graduate credits every five years to renew their teacher certificates. 3/6 need to be transcripted credit, while the remainder can be a combination of continuing education hours (formerly known as renewal credit).
One other clarification, college professors are hired to teach a certain number of credit hours, and the number depends on if the credits are graduate or undergraduate or a combination of both. With decreased enrollments and fewer courses offered, it stands to reason that some professors have room in their credit hour load to teach summer courses at no additional cost to NSU. Something to think about. . .
Professors are not under 12 month contracts like department heads are. They have to be paid if they are going to teach over the summer.
Now the nice thing about the summer is that if the class is under-enrolled with respect to the 7-10 rule, the class can still be offered. That doesn’t mean the university is under an obligation to pay full salary in that case…you still need the approval of the department head to put it on the schedule. Professors can agree to take salary in accordance with the number of students that have enrolled in the class…that is worked out with the department head. But the full salary comes with a full class.
Thus the summer can be a place to offer boutique courses that would likely not be offered during the regular academic year. Or one can offer a course to a student before he or she will graduate.
My favorite summer courses was self-created investigations.
One summer I wrote a paper about WWI trench war because because my grampa fought there. I made arrangements with one history prof at SDSU because I was living near Brookings at the time. We did the entire thing over the phone, never met. I dropped the paper off at his office and picked up there later. Worked really well.
I did a similar thing in summer grad school, either alone or with a few similarly interested classmates. It was a great opportunity to dig into a very specific target.