UNIVERSITY CORNER: Berkeley College
MAE 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 6 (November/December)
A: We’ve noticed a significant increase in student veterans looking for opportunities to get their degrees, and most of it related to the Post-9/11 GI Bill. I think a lot of colleges like ours are becoming a lot more open and willing and able to accept the veterans coming back.
Q: Anything you’ve been doing of late to improve facilities for veterans, on campus or online?
A: We’re part of the Yellow Ribbon program. We’re also part of the Navy agreement in which 34 colleges and universities [provide] distance learning through the U.S. Navy. We have seven approved programs with them. More important, at least in my presidency, I appointed Richard [Robitaille] as the assistant vice president to head military and veterans affairs, so it’s a full commitment by the institution to get somebody who is knowledgeable [about military issues] and a veteran himself. We’ve grown dramatically over the last six months, from 60 to 190 [military-related students] in a period of several months.
Q: More generally, how would you describe the identity of Berkeley College?
A: It’s difficult because Berkeley has a name that people confuse with the University of California at Berkeley [and] also the Berklee School of Music in Boston. But Berkeley has a business curriculum, to begin with, although we also have criminal justice and fashion and interior design. Traditionally it’s been known as an institution whose core programs are business. It also has a very dedicated student center. We require internships that a lot of schools don’t require. We also have a very high graduate employment rate, about 90 percent. We’re very committed to the placement of students upon graduation.
Q: So there’s a focus on practical experience?
A: It’s career oriented. Berkeley’s not a liberal arts college and it’s not a research, doctoral institution. Our faculty are committed to teaching, but they’re also practitioners in their own fields. Even though they do develop themselves professionally and do research, their primary responsibility is in the classroom. We also put a lot of additional money—$28 million of institutional aid—in support of our students to be sure they are able to meet the costs of their education, in addition to being eligible for Pells or any of the state grants, along with the military [benefits]. We also have multiple campuses. We have four different locations in New York, four in New Jersey and online.
Q: What’s your take on the merit of online versus on-campus education?
A: What I’ve seen in the last 10 years or so is that primarily the online students tend to be your own students. You might assume that your online [schools] get students from across the country and across the world. In general, that’s not the case. We get the students who are traditionally our own students, who just want the flexibility of time and schedules and so on. Second, we find there are a lot more women online than men. There are more women in college to begin with [and] at least at Berkeley there are a lot more women online.
Q: Any reason for that—family reasons?
A: Yes. I think also the age group, the online population tends to be older, so what you find is that the average age might be over 25 or 40, and many of them have all the responsibility, with their parents and their children and they work full-time. We have hybrid courses, a mix of on-site and online, and [students] can also use [all] our facilities. We don’t make a distinction between faculty who teach online and faculty who teach face to face, so our best faculty members teach both. In a lot of places you have two tiers of faculty, those who you never see and teach at a distance. We don’t do that.
Q: Any particular programs that militaryrelated students seemed to be especially interested in?
A: Right now we’re seeing a direction into business management and criminal justice as the two dominant programs that those students are looking at. For a lot of them, like many students, they’re not necessarily 100 percent sure, as you know, in determining what their careers may be. So they have a choice to select and then transfer to what may be more appealing for them.
Q: Any final thoughts?
A: The only other thing is that I’ve just been named to a commission with the American Council on Education, the biggest umbrella for higher ed in this country, [that is studying] women in higher education. We just had a conference call looking at women veterans—what institutions are doing [to help] women veterans.
The other main thing [Berkeley is doing is] working on developing ties to the Wounded Soldiers Foundation in order for us to support the wounded soldier educationally and with the medical and psychological support they need, as well as with job opportunities upon making the change from not only [injuries] but back to school and then getting a job. ♦