“The flip side,” said Calaway, “is how do you stay connected to people once they have finished?” He believes that the answer lies in having strong connection to employers. “Keeping them close on a regular basis helps you out and helps you keep programs revitalized,” he added.
Calaway conceded that it is very tough to annual programs, especially when there are collective bargaining agreements in place. One possible strategy, he suggested, is to explore whether those in an obsolete program have talents that might be useful in another discipline.
Gordon Mapley sees internships as one way to make disciplines for which there is little market demand more commercially viable. Missouri Western is now pushing applied learning for all students. Mapley thinks this is especially important for students coming out of political science, history, sociology, and those areas where job placement is not obvious.
Outreach
Ron Slepitza, president of Avila University, believes that the whole idea of practical experience scholarship is critical in general. “I think that is how are students are learning,” he said. “I think they look for (practical experience), and it gives them the grounding to complement of what they are learning in the classroom.”
Slepitza added, “Even if (students) are going on to professional school or grad school, practical application in that setting prepares them to succeed.”
Michael Droge, acting president of Park University, believes that another way to help students find employment is to connect with the professional organizations and to look to their credential requirements.
“I think there are a lot of things we can do to help out,” said Belinda McCarthy. Missouri State is looking at internships, which have become much more purposeful in recent years, undergrad research, and study away experiences.
“Just when you think you were the most complex organization in the world, you become more complex,” said Terry Haines, provost at Ottawa University, “and I think we are all feeling and experiencing that.” Ottawa is instituting a new system that is focused on the wellness and success of the student. In fact, as Haines noted, every single student will have a success coach.
Patricia Long, president of Baker University, believes that the days of being a college and only a college are over.
“At this point, we have to be partners with each other and have to be partners with businesses,” she said. Baker, for instance, partners with Stormont-Vail HealthCare in Topeka, which provides all the space for Baker’s nursing program. “Those days are over where we can be isolated and just do one thing,” added Long. “None of us will survive if we are just what we used to be.”
Doug Dunham, interim provost, noted that Northwest Missouri State is developing relationships with its community college partners, most notably an RN-to-BSN completion program with North Central Missouri College. With the help of a federal grant, Northwest Missouri has launched a center of innovation and entrepreneurship. “These partnerships are helping both the students and the citizens in Northwest Missouri,” said Dunham.
“That is the same kind of thing we have experienced with the Jordan Valley Innovation Center,” said McCarthy of the Missouri State initiative. “The idea isn’t just that we are preparing people for the jobs that exist, but we are creating the jobs and industries our students will work in as students and join as grads.”
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