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Lake campus expands program |
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Wednesday, 03 October 2007 |
By Kay LOUTH
Staff Write
CELINA — As a part of long-range plans for Wright State University Lake Campus, university officials announced the addition of two new degree programs — English and liberal studies.
“We’re looking to expand our offerings in order to increase enrollment,” said Dr. Martin Kich, professor of English at the Lake Campus and coordinator of the new degree programs. “We’re putting an increased emphasis on sustained enrollment.”
Lake Campus Dean Dr. Jim Sayer said he wants to keep students at the campus while expanding its current roster of programs. Sayer said doing so would help the campus continue to grow.
“The two things we want to do is retain our current students and do a good job with them at the same time and we think a lot of people in the area could benefit from the programs,” Sayer said.
In addition to the two new bachelor programs the Lake Campus offers 4-year degrees in Organizational Leadership and early and middle child education.
As the paperwork gets completed, Sayer said he anticipates beginning with an associate’s degree in engineering tech prior to the program becoming a four-year program. Sayer said having enough faculty to teach the new courses should not be a problem.
“The searches will get us up to eight by the end of the year and should give us a pretty good core of faculty to accomplish some of these things,” Sayer said.
The two new degrees take advantage of the resources already available at the campus and are a natural extension of those resources.
“As you know, we have a relatively small faculty,” Kich said. “One department where we have full-time tenure track (professors) is English. It’s natural to look for programming in that area.”
Kich said the liberal studies is focused on a humanities concentration and is a multidisciplinary course of study including communication, history and English. The program offers graduates the opportunity to work in a variety of fields. It is also a way for a student who already has a lot of academic hours in various degrees to build on for a bachelor’s degree.
“We’ve got several young faculty that are very energetic and enthusiastic,” Kich said. “(They) already have impressive curriculum vitas.” A search is underway for a professor of British Literature. Kich said the two programs allow the campus to expand each offering in different directions.
For example, the new English degree offers a literature concentration but in the future the campus could offer concentrations in creative writing or professional and technical writing.
“We might expand into these areas if there is general interest demand,” Kich said, noting a high degree of interest among students could boast the offerings. “We’re trying to be intelligent about how we’re doing things and not overextending ourselves. For people on our campus the major attraction, for those that are place bound and need some sort of degree to advance in their company and offers an alternative to Organizational Leadership.”
The degree offerings have generated some modest interest on the campus and are being offered now at the campus. Instituting the programs on the Lake Campus required the main campus’ approval
“There’s a set process and we go through Dayton and certain parts take longer than others,” Kich said, noting the new programs received approval in June. “We have a commitment to offer the coursed for the program.”.
The two new offerings follow the exact programs offered on the Dayton campus. The sequence also is offered on a two-year cycle.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 06 October 2007 )
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