Announced last week with the intention of being launched next semester, Drew’s newest college has garnered a lot of attention in a relatively short amount of time. President Hilary Link and Interim Chief Academic Officer Steve Johnson introduced the unnamed new college as an innovative ‘prototype’ with emphasis on mentorship and individualized learning. It will exist as a separate entity from the other colleges, and will have no effect on students who wish to remain in the traditional pathway–financially or academically.
The designers of the program promote the core of this new college as problem-solving. The prototype of the program will revolve around one core faculty member who will work with students individually to challenge a problem the student wants to solve. Positioned as the main mentor, the core faculty member will work with each student, a learning council composed of faculty members from each of the other colleges and artificial intelligence to create an individualized learning path with the end goal of solving their problem. Students will be advised on a path forward, but will ultimately chart their own course.
The first cohort of students for the new college will be composed of 12-15 volunteering sophomores from the College of Liberal Arts who devote half of their course schedule, 8 credits, to the program. Students in the initial cohort will pursue bachelor’s degrees in these self-designed programs, but as this is only the prototype, the type of credentials gained in this program might change with further iterations of the college, revealed Link during an info session on Nov. 10 in Crawford Hall.
Many students are asking: Why introduce this new college now, in a period of such financial turmoil? And the reason, says University administration, is exactly that period of turmoil. Link explained in an exclusive interview offered to the Drew Acorn that to ensure Drew’s sustainability, change must occur. She elaborated that, overall, the future of higher education is in turmoil, and many small, private institutions across the country are closing pretty much once a week, she claims, for two main reasons: they have a financial situation that is not sustainable, and because we are now in the moment of what is widely known as the demographic cliff.
Financially, private universities like Drew appear to cost so much that many families don’t even consider them as options; moreover, because of the very high levels of financial and merit aid discounting tuition, institutions are actually not bringing in enough revenue to sustain themselves, Link claimed. She continues with an explanation of the demographic cliff: during the U.S. financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, people stopped having children, and the country never truly came back up to the original birth rate. This means that for the next twenty years at least, there will be fewer traditional college-aged students to go anywhere – every institution is now competing for probably between 15 and 20 percent fewer students. Moreover, Link continued, the country is also facing a deficit of international students who are less likely to come to the U.S. due to many recent federal immigration policies.
Link stated: “…so, demographic issues, the cost model doesn’t work, the discount model doesn’t work, higher ed is extremely politicized, … and there’s also a really big question of the ROI: the return of investment for the student, or the parent. If I’m gonna send my kid to X institution and pay a lot of money, are they guaranteed a job at the end of this?” The answer is: likely not. In order to stay ahead of the curve and prevent any possibility of the university closing, according to Link, Drew needs a change. In Steve Johnson’s words: “…this is where we can start making a really positive impact, and shape a future that we want, instead of sort of being passively tied to a collapse scenario.”
With the advent of the new college, new investors will hopefully take an interest in Drew, and the money that the college draws in will aid the other colleges and other aspects of Drew’s campus. Drew has already partnered with the Milken Institute and an anonymous industry partner with an interest in getting the college off the ground.
For those who are interested in Drew’s new college, more information can be found on a new page that has been added to the Drew website, which also holds a short interest form students can fill out. Drew is already being recognized at a national level for the work being done surrounding the new college: for those curious about Drew’s new seat at the table, more information can be found in Rachel Toor’s Inside Higher Education Article.
Elliot Yap is a sophomore majoring in art and minoring in photography.
