Subject: Sustaining access to high-quality education
Disposition: To the Chancellor for implementation
The commitments of Indiana University and Purdue
University to provide general access to high-quality postsecondary education
were greatly extended by the founding of the several regional campuses
of the two universities. Certainly Indiana University-Purdue University
at Fort Wayne (IPFW), founded 25 years ago, has been constant in its commitment
to educating adults of all ages and circumstances. At IPFW today nontraditional
students constitute some two-thirds of the headcount, and they enroll for
about one-half of the credit hours. But this is not a new situation. Nontraditional
students--students who attend school part-time, students who are older
than 22 years, and students who are heads of households--have always been
the majority at IPFW.
The challenge of educating nontraditional students
stems from the major conflicts with and distractions from school that they
experience. Many are admitted with academic deficiencies. Many have uncertain
educational objectives. Many are strained by the need to be financially
independent. Many are anxious about the adoption of new roles. Slow progress
toward educational goals, due to part-time and discontinuous registration,
breeds frustration among even the bright and well-motivated.
IPFW has pioneered means of seizing the opportunities
that the nontraditional student presents and is experienced in adapting
educational policy and pedagogy to a diverse student body. Now that this
student population is so large nationally--50% of the 13 million students
in American higher education--others are responding too. Indeed, the intention
of universities nationwide--even residential campuses in nonurban settings--to
respond coherently and forthrightly is signified by redesignating nontraditional
students as the "New Majority," an act of adoption.
The coincidence of nationwide recognition of the New Majority with IPFW's
25th anniversary suggests a reaffirmation of the commitments
of Indiana University and Purdue University to provide general access to
a high-quality university education in northeastern Indiana.
Therefore, be it resolved, That IPFW reaffirm its
commitments to New Majority students:
1. By recognizing research on topics related to the education of these
students,--for example, attitudes toward postsecondary education, learning
styles, access, retention, and assessment--as areas of professional activity
leading to promotion and tenure
2. By supporting research on topics related to the education of these students--directly,
through IPFW-sponsored research grants and summer faculty fellowships for
research; and indirectly, by encouraging the development of grant proposals
for submission to external agencies
3. By facilitating faculty and staff professional-development activities
by sponsoring seminars and workshops related to educating these students,
and by underwriting travel to such gatherings elsewhere
4. By encouraging presentation of evidence about adaptation of instruction
to these students in personnel and department annual reports and in promotion
and tenure dossiers
5. By encouraging the continued expansion of services and service hours
necessitated by the personal and academic constraints imposed upon these
students
6. By fostering among campus personnel, especially academic advisors, knowledge
of the support services available to these students--for example, transitional
studies, the women and returning adult students' center, child care, financial
aid, the minority affairs office, and the career counseling and testing
center
7. By continuing to review the appropriateness of IPFW's academic policies
and programs to these students
8. By ensuring the appropriateness of student affairs policies and programs
to promoting the general social, cultural, and practical welfare of these
students
9. By promoting further contact between faculty and these students through
faculty participation in curricular and noncurricular programs.