The common conception of a university involves a sprawling campus filled to the brim with 18-to 22-year-old students, but the University is trying to make sure that isn't the only group integrated into University life.
The 18-to 22-year-old viewpoint excludes one of the major groups that enroll at colleges nationwide: nontraditional students.
Nontraditional students include students who have been out of high school for four or more years, are working toward a second bachelor's degree or students who have taken fewer than 12 credits in more than two semesters.
"Nationwide, nontraditional students make up the majority of college and university undergraduate students today," said Richard Novak, associate vice president of the Rutgers University Continuous Education and Distance Learning department, at an Academic Forum on Nontraditional Students held yesterday at Trayes Hall in the Douglass Student Center. "We know today that the nontraditional student has become the traditional student," Novak said.
The forum featured a panel of experts on the subject of comfortably integrating nontraditional students into university life.
Novak served as moderator to the forum, which comes amid sweeping changes to the University's academic structure slated to take effect next fall.
At that point, University's four undergraduate liberal arts colleges will be consolidated into the School of Arts and Sciences. This change will happen as per the recommendations of the University's Task Force on Undergraduate Education. Issued in July of 2005 and adopted last spring, the recommendations integrate University College into the SAS, but the task force did not focus on the needs of nontraditional students.
A second task force will undertake that responsibility.
University President Richard L. McCormick, one of the first speakers, stressed the important role nontraditional students play in life at the University.
"It is important to make sure that sweeping changes do not inadvertently put a student at a disadvantage," he said. "I support the work of the task force, and look forward to seeing its recommendations," he said of the panel.
The first panelist to speak was Mitchell Nesler, assistant vice president of Outcomes Assessment/Institutional Research at Empire State College. Nesler displayed several models he uses to track the success and academic patterns of a typical nontraditional student. ESC is a New York state university that caters specifically to nontraditional students, offering a wide variety of courses and flexible hours.
Nesler said he and his colleagues have found that many students will enroll, complete a few credits, and then experience a long period of latency where they are not involved in any sort of academic progress. These same students will return, sometimes after years, to complete their degree.
Emily Richardson, dean of University College at Widener University in Delaware, elaborated on the tendencies of nontraditional students. Most nontraditional students are seeking degrees, she said, adding that most study part-time.
"A nontraditional student prefers to travel less than 40 minutes from their home, and less than 40 minutes from their work," she said. "They prefer an actual campus location as opposed to a rented room in a building because it gives off the feel of an actual university."
After Richardson was Doug Lynch, vice dean for Graduate Admissions and Executive Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Lynch mentioned how to partner schools for nontraditional students with major corporations, such as Verizon, to provide applicable first hand experience to the concepts that students are learning. This concept, which he has helped to develop at the University of Pennsylvania, is called the value chain, and Lynch says it is beneficial to nontraditional students as well as the university that they attend.
Christopher John, a student representative for the University College Governing Association, offered his insight as a nontraditional student himself.
He didn't realize just how special University College was until his National Guard Battalion was put on active duty, he said. His position in the National Guard had demanding hours but because of the flexibility of University College, he was able to work on his education despite his other engagements.
John mentioned several important issues that could be improved upon to help other University College students succeed. He discussed the importance of parking issues, childcare services and the necessity of online classes.
"The upcoming consolidation [of the University] would be an excellent time to begin implementing online courses for nontraditional students," John said.
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