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.
