Continuing with his mission of connecting with NVU-Lyndon students, Provost Nolan Atkins hosted the first installment of his academic series, Open Sessions. These open meetings offer opportunities for anyone and everyone to find out the latest developments on campus as well as discuss anything they want to bring to the table.
A low attendance turnout doesn’t phase Atkins, a true sign of his dedication to our small school. Atkins wanted to begin with addressing recent concerns with course scheduling. He reported that he’s been informed from both campuses of the difficulty some students encounter with course scheduling, specifically with the 10:00 am to 2:30 pm timeframe. To help resolve this, the distribution of classes is monitored throughout the day as well as the week, and if there is clustering, the Administration goes to the departments and asks the faculty if they can accommodate alternate timing to unpack the cluster. This helps remove conflicts to allow more access to the courses students need. Atkins noted, degree programs often collaborate together to ensure courses don’t conflict for students double majoring and such.
Student Elijah Clarke wanted to know, from a business point of view, if online education is profitable, and if it will be profitable in five or ten years. Atkins responded saying that campus schooling has different costs than online schooling. With campus schooling, it is largely supplied from student tuition. The expense side has direct expenses of instruction such as faculty, as well as in-direct expenses such as the registrar’s office, financial aid office, and overall campus maintenance. These campus expenses are significantly larger than expenses for online education. When the numbers are analyzed, online education is definitely profitable.
Clarke mentioned his worry about the loss of connections students make as well as the credentials colleges offer with the on-campus experience students receive. Atkins acknowledged that campus colleges will always be there, but also that the market is shifting. Small private colleges can’t compete with tuition rates other larger colleges can offer, how people get their credentials has been changing already, and hybrid and online opportunities provide more access to higher education. Not to mention, online schooling can offer more opportunities for students who are non-traditional, out-of-state, or live with disabilities. From there, much is left to the future. Atkins says we need to think about the educational needs of individuals beyond a bachelor’s or master’s degree. Higher education needs to keep up with the continuum of education in general, such as offering certificate programs and offering up-skills training to people who can reach farther than entry or mid-level positions. We need to bridge the continuum, says Atkins, since the economy and workforce are changing so much; and sometimes people just want to change their careers and need different educational opportunities to attain that.
So what makes NVU-Lyndon students successful? Here, we have opportunities to have access to everybody in our school, from professors to financial aid to academic support and more. In larger schools, accessing faculty and help is much more difficult to find–here, that is just not the case and something the Lyndon community can be proud of.
What is next for Open Sessions in April? Atkins says he would like to see more students attend these meetings since these meetings are for them. It’s important that the Provost hear from students directly, as he puts it, “It helps us do our job better, quite frankly.”
Join Provost Atkins on April 2 at 11:30 am in ASAC 216 to share your questions, inquiries, suggestions, and anything else relevant to our haven of higher learning.
Feature Photo by Sabra Anne Snyder || Provost Atkins posing from his Open Session series in the fall semester.