COLLEGE ACCESS CONCERNS Online courses
outweigh talk of campus closures
Oklahoma’s 25 public colleges and universities serve 214,000 students on 50 campuses from the Panhandle to the southeastern corner of the state.
Whether that’s too many campuses has been questioned for years by both proponents and critics of higher education.
Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant has a branch campus 90 miles away in Idabel. It’s the only college campus in a three-county area. Rogers State University in Claremore has a branch campus just 17 miles away in Pryor. Four other universities have branches in neighboring Tulsa County.
The state’s task force on the future of higher education — which studied multiple issues last year — looked at the need for each institution and whether any should be consolidated or eliminated.
“Concerns were raised regarding the number of campus locations across the state and the fiscal viability of smaller institutions,” said Dan Little, who chaired the task force’s subcommittee on system structure.
The closure of institutions was considered, but not recommended largely due to concerns about access, said Little, an attorney from Madill.
“College access is critically important to our college degree completion initiative, and Oklahoma is still below the national average in terms of the percentage of our adult citizens with college degrees,” he said.
Less than one-quarter of the state’s adult population has a college degree, compared to 31 percent nationally.
A growing number of students access college courses through online education rather than attending classes on campus.
Every campus in the state’s system has the capability to
deliver online courses, said Angela Caddell with the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.
“Our latest data show that of 194,097 unduplicated student enrollments in 2016-17, 57 percent took at least one online course,” Caddell said.
The Southern Regional Education Board ranks Oklahoma’s four-year universities and twoyear colleges as fourth among the 16 SREB states in the percentage of undergraduate students enrolled in e-learning, she said.
The latest data show approximately 10 percent of students who enrolled in online courses in 2014-15 did not complete those courses, Caddell said. That compares to 7 percent of all students enrolled in a course, she said.
President Cheryl Evan of Northern Oklahoma College said the higher dropout rate for online courses is because online education isn’t a good option for every student.
“Students have different learning styles. Some can excel in online courses, but openaccess students thrive in a room with a professor who notices their challenges,” Evans said.
Open access refers to colleges that accept all students without admission requirements. Many are the first in their family to tackle college.
“Some are motivated by the professor in the classroom,” Evans said. “Some don’t have the discipline to succeed online. They are very rigorous classes.”
Structure recommendations
The subcommittee that debated campus closures decided a better approach would be to consolidate the oversight of institutions — putting most schools under one of three governing boards.
That will expand cooperation in academic programs and administration, Little said. The opportunity to share functions like human services, payroll, purchasing, financial, legal and information technology is expected to result in future cost savings and more efficient business processes, he said.
The task force report, however, does recommend the Legislature provide financial incentives to encourage the voluntary merger of institutions in cases where the merger would maintain access, improve student success and maximize cost savings.
“There is evidence that some Oklahoma institutions are interested in voluntary mergers to save resources and better align academic programs,” according to the report.
“Voluntary mergers have a high probability of success because all parties enter the discussion understanding the benefits,” the report states.
Any consolidations — of institutions or their governance — would require the Legislature’s approval.
Student needs
Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa, the state’s oldest community college, opened campuses in Enid in 1999 and Stillwater in 2003.
Like all university and college branch campuses statewide, they came about because of need and community support, Evans said.
The Stillwater site abuts Oklahoma State University. It primarily serves as a gateway program for students who want to attend OSU, but don’t meet the admission requirements.
“Our specialty happens to be helping people get off the ground,” Evans said.
Students get more one-on-one attention in smaller classes as they are “learning to learn,” Evans said. “Mostly, they get the self-confidence to know if they work hard, they can succeed.”
When the students complete 24 credit hours, they can transfer to OSU.
“It’s a big transition for students to go to college. This eases them into the university environment,” Evans said.
OSU students also can enroll in NOC courses. They may choose that option because it fits their schedule or because they want the smaller class for a challenging subject, Evans said.
The Enid campus offers access to people who cannot make the two-hour round trip to Tonkawa because of work or family obligations, Evans said. It also benefits low-income students who don’t have reliable transportation or the money for gas, she said.
Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva also has an Enid branch, which is adjacent to the NOC campus. The Bridge Program between the two institutions makes it easy for NOC students to transition to Northwestern to complete a four-year degree.
A better question?
Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College in Miami has a branch campus in Grove, which opened in 1999 to provide general education courses.
NEO President Jeff Hale said the annual enrollment in Grove ranges from 200 to 225 students, who are a mixture of high school students taking concurrent classes, college students taking classes from the Miami campus by interactive video and students who are enrolled at both campuses.
The city of Grove owns the building and NEO leases it at no cost. NEO pays about $100,000 annually for one fulltime administrator, utilities and technology upgrades, Hale said. The campus generates at least that much revenue, so closing it wouldn’t save money, he said.
Asking whether the state’s higher education system is too big is the wrong question, Hale said. A better question is, “What do we do to make our system better?
“My view is grow the enrollment to keep Oklahomans in Oklahoma,” he said.
Many NEO graduates go on to four-year schools in nearby Joplin, Missouri; Pittsburg, Kansas; and Fayetteville, Arkansas, where they are charged in-state tuition, Hale said.
It would benefit Oklahoma to retain those students by offering some four-year degree programs at two-year schools located near the state’s borders, he said. Agriculture would be a logical choice at NEO, but the degrees could vary according to what makes sense at each location, Hale said.