Western
Nebraska Distance Learning Consortium Governing Board
November
29, 2000
Chadron
State College
Schools Present: Morrill, Mitchell, Gering,
Scottsbluff, Minatare, Bridgeport, Hemingford, Gordon, Rushville, Hay Springs,
Chadron, Crawford, Sioux County
Schools Absent: Kimball
A meeting was held in the Student Center on the Chadron
State College campus with the WNDLC Governing Board meeting with Dr. Tom
Krepel, President of Chadron State College and Dr. John Harms, President of Western
Nebraska Community College.
Dr. Tom Krepel of Chadron State opened the meeting by
sharing some demographic information on CSC. He said that Chadron State is
currently attracting a high quality level of students based on ACT scores of
incoming freshmen. He said that Chadron State is losing ground as far as state
aid is concerned and placing more burden on students to cover costs. We all are
facing some of the same challenges.
Dr. John Harms of Western Nebraska Community College said
his biggest fear is that we all are going to face declining enrollments and a
need to re-tool and restructure to meet that environment in the next decade.
Harms believes that partnerships are one of his top priorities. He said that
Rural America is going to struggle in the next decade as population shifts to
urban areas. Harms admitted that some efforts that WNCC has started with their
K-12 partners have failed but that he wants those efforts to improve.
B.J. Peters, Coordinator of the Western Nebraska Distance
Learning Consortium opened the floor with a discussion about some of the
concerns that arisen with higher ed among the Principal Council meetings. He
said that the biggest issues are with Chadron State and their policies
requiring all distance learning students to pay a $20 per credit hour distance
learning fee and with the minimum number of students policy that CSC has in
place. The policy says that all undergraduate DL classes must have a minimum of
10 students total and a minimum of 3 students per site. Peters noted that
comparing CSC costs with WNCC costs is not a fair comparison but that it is
happening and is causing students to pick and choose. At the current tuition
and fee structure Chadron State courses are double the cost of WNCC classes.
Gary Fisher of Crawford also said that dual-credit courses
are an important issue. Dual-credit refers to courses taken by high school
students where they can get both high school credit and college credit. At this
time only two classes offered on the WNDLC system fit that description and that
is because high school teachers that have qualified as adjunct college faculty
teach them. At this time all offerings from WNCC and CSC that are taught by
full time college instructors are strictly college credit only.
As far as getting the dual-credit situation changed, John
Harms felt that the only way might be to get legislative help to make it
happen.
It was noted that the Teacher's Union has fought hard to
not allow college instructors to be certified to teach to high schools. The
changes need to come in Rule 10 & 21 where it talks about the certification
process.
Dr. Krepel said that he has doubts that college instructors
even want to get certified to teach to high schools.
In the area of fees, Krepel said that CSC is not even adding
faculty because of declining state aid. Chadron State has only state aid and
tuition and fees to rely on as income while WNCC also has property taxes coming
in, so Chadron State must place more of a burden on their students to cover
more of the costs involved.
Dr. John Cruzeiro of Sioux County said that the evening
adult ed courses are vitally important to his community but it will very
difficult for them to be a host site because of the enrollment minimums.
Steve Taylor, the off-campus program director for Chadron
State, said that CSC works with three different distance-learning systems that
cover a lot more area than the WNDLC service area. He said many courses need to
be sent to communities outside the WNDLC area like Sidney or North Platte and
the various DL systems don't cross-connect. He said that they are looking at
some kind course rotation system in order to meet the needs of each area.
Dr. Diana Doyle of WNCC said the group needs to understand
that higher education is being faced with accountability issues as well. They
must make sure that all dual-credit courses taught by high schools meet the
same quality level of a college level course. She said that it will become more
difficult to qualify high school teachers as adjunct faculty in the future
because some colleges have already made the decision to not accept any
dual-credit courses. John Harms said that we may need legislative help to
address dual-credit and how it is accepted and defined. Harms also said that
high school teachers must adhere to college course descriptions and syllabi to
be an adjunct. He said WNCC needs to work better with high school faculty in
letting them know the college's expectations.
Ed Hollinger of Hemingford expressed his belief that
dual-credit courses may not be as big an issue as it is made out to be. He
doesn't think that many schools need dual-credit courses to meet Rule 10
requirements to fill out their curriculum. He said that those will be met by
sharing classes with other high schools. Hollinger thinks that students will
take the college classes because they want to get a head start on college.
Hollinger said that he is more bothered by the minimum student requirements
that Chadron State has imposed.
Dr. Tom Krepel of Chadron State said that the state
college's faculty has negotiated an additional stipend per distance learning
site when teaching any DL course. He noted that the minimum total student
numbers have been in place for a long time even before distance learning was
started. He basically said that it is a cost issue, but didn't think that it
was a irreversible issue. Dr. Joyce Hardy of CSC said that it takes 10 students
just to pay an adjunct faculty salary. She said that the $20 per credit hour
distance learning fee does not cover the faculty stipend, line charges,
marketing of the course and staff time.
Krepel said some of the problem comes back to the
demographics of the region. CSC can't compete with the numbers that colleges in
eastern Nebraska can generate for some of the same classes.
Ed Hollinger of Hemingford asked if we can negotiate on the
fees to get a class in a community and negotiate on a per class basis and
negotiate where a class is held. Joyce Hardy of CSC said that is would be very
difficult to market classes by listing all sites where it could be viewed at
because some of the distance learning systems that Chadron State uses need
quite a bit of lead time for scheduling and teachers who would take some of the
classes we are talking about traditionally register at the last minute.
Dr. John Harms of WNCC said that WNCC at this time does not
place any minimum numbers on their distance learning classes although they do
have minimum numbers in place for all classes but not on a per site basis. He
admitted that this could change as technology costs increase. As far as
distance learning fees are concerned Harms said that he doesn't feel that
remote site students should be required to cover all the costs associated with
the delivery of the courses.
The meeting and discussion came to a close with no
resolution of the main issues at hand….the distance learning fees and minimum student
numbers for Chadron State College courses. Terry Miller of ESU#13 suggested
that the WNDLC Executive Board convene in the near future with representatives
of both colleges to further discuss these issues. B.J. Peters said that he
would take the lead in getting that meeting arranged and scheduled. The meeting
will be held sometime after the first of the year.
