Part-time students often overlooked

Published 11/19/98

Although the stereotypical college student is someone between 18 and 21 years old and away from his or her family for the first time, at Point Park College there is another student community that is unseen and unheard.

They are part-time, adult students.

These non-traditional students normally don't take part in student activities, and they aren't typically seen in the Point Cafe smoking cigarettes and talking about dorm life. Part-time students make up a significant, and different, portion of Point Park's identity, and the school is currently trying to enhance that image now more than ever before.

According to a report published by the Office of Part-Time and Accelerated programs, there are 325 newly enrolled part-time and accelerated students. Although falling eight part-time students short at its Fall 1998 semester goal of 240, Point Park was able to exceed its goal of 80 accelerated students by 13 to 93.

These students are a contrast from the full-time student body at Point Park. Although fine, applied and performing arts is the largest full-time student body department, FAPA is the smallest segment of the new part-time and accelerated student body, with only six enrolled.

The largest department that part-time and accelerated students occupy is business, with 49 part-time and 69 accelerated students, 36 percent of the new student body. Natural sciences and engineering technology is second with 73 part-time students, a 26 percent share of the new enrollment.

Most of the part-time and accelerated students are between the ages of 25 and 39, which make up more than half of the part-time Fall enrollment. They are almost gender-equal in numbers with 166 males and 159 females, and almost two-thirds of them are transfer students. In addition, less than half receive some sort of tuition remission from their place of employment, or, in other words, their employer pays for some or all of their tuition.

There are 22 different companies reimbursing their employees to attend Point Park, and they range from Alcoa to Westinghouse. Although most of the listed companies compensate two or three of its employees, PNC Bank has 18 employees enrolled.

Dean of Part-Time and Accelerated Programs Judy Bolsinger said part-time students are an asset to the Point Park community and should be recruited as diligently as full-time students. Although saying that Point Park didn't effectively go after the part-time market for several years, Bolsinger said the college is back on par with other local schools in terms of recruiting part-time students.

"We have more part-time students than most other schools," she said, noting that adult enrollment rose 12 percent between the Fall 1997 and 1998 semesters, reversing a 30-percent slide in enrollment from 1990 through 1997.

One way Point Park has increased its number of part-time students is by establishing cohort groups with other businesses and schools. A cohort group is a handful of employees at a business being taught by a college's professor at the company's site. Bolsinger said Point Park has recently begun to do this and currently has two cohort groups in operation. One is with the USX corporation, and the other is with the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

"If there are 15 or 20 students at a site, we'll bring the program to them," Bolsinger said, noting that this feat benefits both parties involved. Point Park gets a block of new students, and the students don't have to fret over commuter hassles like parking.

"This is what the other schools are doing," she said.

Dr. Mark Farrell, NSET chair, said a student in his department who also works at USX suggested that Point Park bring the college to his workplace. This resulted in a systems process control engineering technology course that is currently being taught at USX's Braddock branch. It is scheduled to run for the next three years over at USX, and the Point Park faculty decides what classes will be taught each semester.

"The system rotates courses based on need," Farrell said.

Currently, classes are taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the late afternoon.

Farrell, who said the arrangement is going "very well" with USX, adds that the school is looking for other potential cohort group sites.

Another cohort group that Point Park teaches is at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, where the humanities and human sciences and government and international studies departments are splitting time guiding a group of AIP faculty members toward a degree in general studies.

Amy Kim Bell, HHS chair, said that although the AIP faculty are well-versed in specialized areas of teaching like photography, art and design, they are participating in the cohort groupp in order to have a bachelor's degree that requires other courses like government, psychology and sociology.

Bell said the group should be finished by the spring of 2000.

Dr. Joseph Corrado, an HHS professor who teaches cultural anthropology this semester for the AIP cohort group, said one of the biggest differences between teaching a cohort group and traditional students is the constant enthusiasm the cohort group shows.

Corrado said the way he teaches both types of students is different. "Here (at Point Park) I give tests. With cohort groups, I set up what they have to do to get an A, B or C," he said.

The advantages of teaching cohort groups, Bolsinger said, is Point Park can focus on enrolling a group of students instead of targeting each one individually. However, to attract non-traditional students to the college, Bolsinger said a different advertising approach is needed from its pursuit of full-time traditional students. Instead of using one universal advertising campaign, Bolsinger said the college created individual marketing objectives for full-time and part-time students.

Bolsinger said the school's current radio advertising campaign, which is scheduled to run through Christmas, is geared at the 25-45 age demographic. In addition, by appearing in multiple media, such as radio and print, Bolsinger said Point Park has a better chance at reaching out to adult students in the competitive Pittsburgh environment.

Instead of relying on Point Park's name, which isn't as recognized like Penn State University or the University of Pittsburgh, Bolsinger said the college should rely on a more service-oriented approach.

"We are not going to win on name recognition," Bolsinger said. "We have to know what we're good at, and that's service."

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