Thoughts on 2012 and beyond

Let me begin by wishing you all a happy and healthy New Year.  I am taking advantage of some quiet time to share my thoughts about 2012 with you.  As President, it is part of my job to keep an eye out for trends that will affect the College in both positive and negative ways, and adjust our course to address those trends. The break between Christmas and New Year is a good time for such contemplation.

We are always striving to increase the number of areas of study we offer our students, and continually focus on building programs in sectors of the job market that are growing.  Health care is one such area and, after performing a careful scan of potential online programs, we chose Health Information Management (HIM) as the program in which we would invest. I am happy to report that this decision has been met with great enthusiasm in the health care industry.

The development of our HIM degree is moving quickly.  We have identified and contracted with a subject matter expert who has developed the curriculum and program learning outcomes for the degree.  These will be in alignment with the Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA) Examination and licensure that graduates of the program will achieve.  We have identified qualified faculty from across the country to begin working with our Instructional Design team to build the 12 specialized courses that this program will require.  Our Provost and Dean are preparing the documentation we must present to our Board of Regents and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges to gain approval for our new program.  And we have set the second term of fall 2012 (October) as our planned launch date.  So this important new program is moving forward according to schedule.

But I am continually wondering what to expect from the larger landscape.  Will the economy improve?  Will our adult students continue to see our offerings as important to upgrading their workplace skill sets?  How will we all respond to the economic challenges facing our country? 

Here is what I think.  In Connecticut, we have a Governor who is aggressively addressing the state’s economic challenges.  Working with our General Assembly and the state’s workforce, he has produced a balanced budget through a combination of new taxes, spending cuts, and union givebacks.  None of this has been easy, but he has persisted.  His plans included re-organizing our sector of higher education into a Board of Regents, and that entity is beginning its work.  So at the state level, we are working hard to put our economic house in order.

And I see similar efforts, all a little different in terms of their emphasis on cuts, revenues, and pension adjustments, in the surrounding states.  In effect, throughout our country, we have 50 laboratories experimenting with approaches to doing more with less.  Unfortunately, on the national front, our Congress has not yet begun its work.  It is my hope, as the various states begin to see positive results from their hard work, our federal representatives will adopt approaches that mirror the best thinking from those efforts.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments section of this post. How has the economy affected your life? What are your thoughts on the responsiveness of state and federal government to the economic downturn?  Please let me know what you think.

I will keep you posted as the year progresses, and I wish all the best to you and yours from the team at Charter Oak.

Serving Our Nation's Finest

Charter Oak State College is dedicated to educating adults. All our services are designed with working adults in mind, and our success is measured by their ability to finish their degree and improve their workplace success. One important sub-set of that population is our nation's active military. These students are working to finish their degree while holding down a job and raising a family -- just like all our other adult students -- but they are often doing all of that while stationed overseas or at the frontlines.

With the 21st century military providing advanced communication capabilities, our active military students are able to continue working on their online courses while they are deployed. For me, someone who has been promoting distance learning as a major tool for increasing access to higher education, these stories about our soldier-students are tremendously compelling. We are truly transforming education from a location to an activity -- an activity that is available wherever the student finds herself or himself.

It is also true that our military members have always been at the forefront of distance education; in fact, they invented it. As a result, these students also expect us to provide a quality product. If increasing access was the first challenge for distance learning, improving quality is today's challenge. Our active military students serve as excellent evaluators for testing and improving our educational products.

For a student perspective, you can meet student and military mom Diana Jones who is featured in our "Community" video. Her video spotlights the tight virtual community that Charter Oak cultivates through its online classroom, and in her piece, Diana talks about the bond she has with her fellow students, which has fostered friendships beyond the classroom. She also expresses her appreciation for the loyalty of her admissions counselor, and the quick, positive feedback she receives when she has questions -- whether she is taking courses stateside or while stationed overseas.

Finally, I want to extend my gratitude to all of our military members who have served, or are now serving, our country.