Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Branch Campus Quality: Tell Your Story


Years ago, when I was associate dean of the Mansfield Campus of Ohio State, I was talking with a department chair on the main campus who had been especially resistant to allowing one of our tenure track faculty members teach a course for which he appeared to be well qualified.  The chair said, “We have to be sure that the quality of a regional campus course is equivalent to that on the main campus.”

I jumped on his use of the word “equivalent.”  “You mean,” I said, “We should make sure we have 300 or more students in introductory sections and make sure that we have TA’s teaching most of the lower division courses, rather than using full-time faculty?”  The chair was surprised by my directness, but I was tired of the nonsense.  It took some more work, but eventually the faculty member was cleared to teach the course.

At about the same time, a local business leader and main campus alum challenged me on that same issue of quality.  My response was, “The only time we differ from the main campus is when we can do better.”  I repeated the point about class size and described our hiring standards for full-time faculty, as well as our practice of following main campus department requirements for hiring adjuncts.

My point is that branch campus faculty and staff members know that we often engage with students in ways that yield a stronger educational experience than many students have at the main campus.  No, we probably don’t have a climbing wall in a fancy student fitness center, but our students aren’t looking for a climbing wall.  We don’t get a lot of recognition, and the mythologies of higher education will never give us (or our students!) the credit we deserve. 

To be sure, regional and branch campuses differ enormously in their practices and just how closely they work with main campus departments on faculty qualifications.  Sometimes branches emulate the main campus when it makes no sense for the branch mission, and I’m sure that some branches have compromised quality at times in order to get things done.  But branch campuses deserve positive recognition, when positive goals have been attained.

Institutional politics are real, of course, so one shouldn’t react to every insensitive or uninformed comment that comes along.  Nevertheless, I encourage faculty and staff members to speak up in order to tell a positive story that documents an important mission achieved.  Tell your story!

To that end, here is a very positive, polished video from the University of San Francisco, a Jesuit institution with branch campuses.  I should note that I have no experience with this university, so I am simply sharing an impressive message that tells a nice four-minute story about the value of branch campuses:  https://www.youtube.com/embed/M8NZic0lDss?ps=docs&controls=1.