By Steve Babcock
University College began a makeover on Wednesday as the Faculty Senate voted for changes that would increase the larger university’s involvement in overseeing the school, and ultimately increase the value of the degrees.
Major changes to the university’s outlet for part-time and night classes included a name change – the School of Professional and Continuing Studies – and a re-working of the governing structure of the school that will, for the first time, include university administration and professors if the resolution passes the Board of Trustees and the president.
The changes, according to the administration, look to increase Northeastern’s notoriety in the field of part-time education. Boston, is laden with more colleges offering part-time programs than most towns going after the same potential students.
Vice President for Continuing and Adult Education Christ-opher Hopey said the name change in itself represented a chance for Northeastern to be “more competitive with other colleges in the market.”
“We have surrendered a lot of quality students in the part-time market, and this is a chance to get those back,” Hopey said.
The name change occurred after a study done on prospective students and alumni found University College to be confusing and ambiguous, Hopey said.
Many Faculty Senate members said they had always believed the name to be confusing.
“University College is a synonym for the family dog,” said English professor Stuart Peterfreund. “It means everything to everyone and nothing to anyone.”
On a programming level, the changes will provide University College with more full-time faculty to teach courses and oversee the course work.
Provost Ahmed Abdelal said such changes were needed because, like the rest of the university, University College has become “reliant on part-time instructors.”
“Until last year, there were no full-time faculty in University College other than administration,” Abdelal said. “We need to be more aggressive about finding full-time faculty.”
In order to accomplish that, the legislation passed by Faculty Senate calls for a new administration in University College that will include full-time professors from the larger university.
Previously, University College had operated independent from the rest of the university with its own administration that made its own decisions about coursework and professors teaching courses.
“What the new structure will provide is more full-time faculty involved in the full process,” said Gerald Herman, assistant history professor, assistant to university counsel and chair of the faculty committee that offered the legislation. “It will provide university-wide involvement where it previously didn’t exist.”
In turn, Herman said the value of a degree from University College will rise because the courses have been taught and accredited by full-time faculty rather than the part-time faculty and internal structure it had previously been reliant on.
The increased faculty oversight will allow University College to offer their own degrees and set criteria for its admissions, two things it had not been able to do in the past.
The Faculty Senate approved the changes almost unanimously.
“This is really quality control on the education we’re providing to part-time students,” Peterfreund said. “This new structure will create programs that allow students to graduate with pride so they can move on.”
For the university, many at the meeting on Wednesday agreed that the changes would provide new revenue because of the increasingly competitive education offered at the re-vamped University College.
“[The changes] are going to lead to a lot of good things for every department,” said College of Arts and Sciences Dean James Stellar. “And by good things, I mean money.”
Abdelal said the changes are part of a larger university vision to increase the all-around education and revenue at the university.
“We are doing the same thing with University College we are doing with the day school in terms of providing more full-time faculty,” Abdelal said. “There was a reason we allocated $2.1 million to University College as part of the Academic Investment Plan.”
