Responses
Jaime Discussion:
Southern New Hampshire University was an institution that needed to make a change in order to help keep their doors open. They saw a niche in the online education market that they felt they could tackle. With online education becoming popular with nontraditional students and for-profit institutions like the University of Phoenix under fire, it would seem that a non for profit in this setting could capitalize very well.
Prior to such change, Southern New Hampshire was faced with declining enrollment (2000 students total), a name unknown to most (not helping their revenue or enrollment status) and finances that could not help the university stay afloat; now it has an enrollment size of 34,000 and the schools treats each student as a customer really aiming at giving students that hands-on customer service approach (Kahn, 2014). Prior to such a change, Southern New Hampshire was falling to the trends of higher education where many smaller institutions were seeing a rise in tuition and a decline in enrollment; a recipe for failure especially with the economy. How would institutions increase enrollment when they keep increasing tuition, but how do institutions close their budget gap without raising tuition? It became a lose lose situation. However, President LeBlanc saw a vision and was able to help Southern New Hampshire find that niche in the market.
President LeBlanc along with SNHU trustee Clay Christensen was able to present the idea of using technology to help SNHU rebuild their brand and survive the decline of Higher education in the recession (Kahn, 2014). Building such a case would need consistent data and figures showing how online education has helped institutions build their brand up and help gain a specific market of students that are not being reached. These are mostly the nontraditional students who need the flexibility of balancing their work and family life with their educational life. One challenge to that is to ensure how the institution will do that without becoming to gimmicky or too much like the for-profit schools that this is modeled from. Southern New Hampshire needs to stand out as the leading nonprofit institution and separate themselves from schools such as University of Phoenix. Another great opportunity is the freedom to hire faculty from all over the world essentially to teach at Southern New Hampshire. However, the challenge to that is many of these professors want the freedom to teach their own syllabus in their own way and that is not what they will get from the uniformity in Southern New Hampshire’s model. The new program that SNHU is trialing for professors include professors who are not encouraged to publish, are making lower than the traditional assistant professors, and are set to teach students and give feedback based on the curriculum set up for them (Kolowich, 2014). While some professors may thrive on the chance to not be an adjunct and get to just teach, others may not take a liking to the guidelines set forth. It will limit the job pool for some and could present as a challenge in the beginning when presented for fear that one will not get the professors they need to keep the program running. If it was up to me, I may have given more academic freedom and liberties but at the same time, this assures that as students move from one class to another and reach their capstone that all students were set up for success as they graduate. This idea is one that should be presented from the beginning. No matter what, all students will graduate with the opportunity to have the same knowledge and expertise as their fellow graduates as they enter the next phase.
Reference
Kahn, G (2014, January). The Amazon of higher education. In Slate. Retrieved from
https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/01/southern-new-hampshire-university-how-paul-leblancs-tiny-school-has-become-a-giant-of-higher-education.html
Kolowich, S (2014, May). Southern New Hampshire U. designs a new template for faculty jobs. In The
Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/southern-new-hampshire-u-designs-a-new-template-for-faculty-jobs/?cid2=gen_login_refresh&cid=gen_sign_in
Denita Discussion:
When Paul LeBlanc became president of Southern New Hampshire University in 2003, he knew that the university needed to position itself differently to be financially stable to sustain educational changes within society. In addition to catering to the20% of the traditional student population and shifting to include 80% of the non-traditional student population. LeBlanc enlisted his friend Clay Christensen a former Harvard Business professor, to be a part of the SNHU trustee committee to aid in his vision (Kahn, 2014). President LeBlanc needed a business expert to lead SNHU to a more technological platform that offered a satisfactory online experience that included non-traditional students and more outstanding faculty members.
Southern New Hampshire University is a non-profit organization, which differs from other colleges and universities that offer online courses. SHNU changed its view of students and started viewing them as customers, which focused on incorporating good customer service strategies. With the investment in the technology department, the SNHU website allows for a precise landing stop to gain all the information needed to pursue an educational goal. Having 160 admission counselors available to answer questions and shifting their adjunct faculty to full-time instructors for online instructors (Kahn, 2014). Having full-time faculty members, that work remotely across the globe gives SNHU the flexibility to hire good quality professors from a wealth of experience to contribute to the online education objectives. The ultimate goal for SNHU is to focus on a stead faculty team and stable resources for student support services (Kolowich, 2014).
The structure that President LeBlanc envisioned for SNHU to be the leading online educational outlet was set forth for the future layout of the university. LeBlanc knew that the educational industry was changing and the targeted group of older students needed to be incorporated into the plans. Expanding SNHU to be inclusive to the non-traditional students allowed SNHU to remain relevant for future experiences by maximizing its high quality of academic programs. The more reason SNHU has a faculty with an extensive academic career to bring forth on campus and online students. Allowing SHNU to award full-time faculty members an award for contributing to the advancement of education on social and ethical issues facing today’s global environment (SNHU, 2021), having a high-quality educational facility that wants nothing but the best faculty members to educate the students on campus and online at Southern New Hampshire University.
Resources
Kahn, Gabriel (2014). The Amazon of Higher Education.
Kolowich, Steve (2014). Southern New Hampshire University Designs a New Template for Faculty Jobs.
Southern New Hampshire University (2021). Campus Faculty
https://www.snhu.edu/student-experience/campus-experience/campus-academics/faculty