The University may be able to accept more than 200 additional students for the 2009-10 school year if it can begin its dual enrollment agreement with Southern Oregon University a year early.
SOU and University administrators signed an agreement March 17 that would allow freshmen admitted to the University to attend SOU for two years and complete their general education requirements on the SOU campus in Ashland.
The agreement originally stated the new system would begin in fall 2010, but University Provost Jim Bean said it may start this year because more students have applied to the University than the administration anticipated.
“This is a way for us to basically increase our capacity,” Bean said. “I find it difficult to say no to lots of qualified students.”
SOU Provost Jim Klein said he sees it as an opportunity for both schools to help students access higher education. “We’re very excited,” he said. “It’s a great way to serve especially Oregon students.”
The 200 to 250 additional students would attend SOU, pay that school’s tuition and attend classes in Ashland, but would have University student IDs and possibly be able to attend University athletic events for free, Bean said, although likely not football or men’s basketball.
Elizabeth Bickford, University director of financial aid, said students will receive financial aid from SOU while they are there and from the University when they are in Eugene.
The difference between participants in the program and normal transfer students is that “we’re going to be aware of these students so we can make sure the transition is streamlined,” she said.
The dual-enrolled students will not, however, be allowed to receive PathwayOregon or Presidential Scholarships from the University.
One of the largest obstacles for the program is the curriculum. The intent is for students to complete their general education requirements, but no one is sure what to do for students whose majors require specific classes for freshmen and sophomores.
Music and architecture students will not be able to enroll at SOU, Bean said, because those majors start during the freshman year.
For majors that require a pre-major, Bean said no one has decided what to do. The pre-major classes won’t be offered at SOU, but there is the possibility of televising them, he said.
University Senate President Paul van Donkelaar said the faculty has had some trepidation about the program, and distance learning is one concern. Faculty members will likely not travel to SOU to teach classes, van Donkelaar said, and video is probably the best solution.
However, enrollment in the program “is most likely to happen with the bread-and-butter courses in the College of Arts and Sciences,” he said. “It’s less likely to be able to work with the professional schools.”
Al Stavitsky, associate dean of the School of Journalism and Communication, said pre-major classes such as Grammar for Journalists could work well online. However, the school’s new Gateway sequence likely wouldn’t.
“Some classes work in that model and others don’t,” he said.
Journalism professor Tom Wheeler, who teaches Writing for the Media in the pre-journalism sequence, said, “I would like to find a way to make this work, but I have reservations.”
Writing must be taught in an interactive manner, he said, and he isn’t sure how a televised or online class could allow for student questions, professor feedback and assignment re-writes.
Wheeler said he doubts whether students at SOU could get the same pre-journalism education from a distance that students can on the University campus in Eugene.
Bean said there are other obstacles and unknowns in the dual enrollment program, but he thinks it will be a good solution for both schools. It will help SOU with its budget problems, he said, and allow the University to enroll more students without overflowing the residence halls.
“This is an experiment and hopefully it will work,” he said.
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