A. No. State lines will not be used to support the new school.
Q. How much will startup cost and where will you get the funds?
A. A driving concept of the new school will be that it operate in a high quality but efficient manner. A corollary is that, after the first three or so years of operation, the new school will be expected to return an annual surplus, for redistribution by the academic administration in support of on-campus priorities. Startup costs are seen as an initial investment in revenue generating programs.
The University’s budget request for FY 2002 sought approximately $16 million in funding beyond our adjusted base; approximately 25 percent of this increase was requested for expansion of our off-campus programs as outlined in the CAPS proposal. State government executive officials, business and industry leaders, and members of the legislature all have expressed higher levels of expectation for Rutgers’ involvement in workforce development needs as well as providing leadership to geographically bound adults and professionals for program access. Rutgers has consistently argued that we must keep out-of-state institutions from becoming licensed in New Jersey to serve the place bound adult. We cannot continue to argue this position without being willing to assume our role as the land-grant public flagship institution, and provide some level of distributed access to degree programs. The off-campus initiative was included in the budget request precisely in response to these higher expectations being placed on us.
Given roughly an $8 million increase in the Rutgers base budget that is in the governor’s recommended budget, a 25 percent proportional allocation of these NEW resources beyond our current base would make more than sufficient resources available for initiating CAPS. The President, Vice President Winterbauer, and other senior executives will obviously be involved in final allocation decisions for these new resources when the budget is approved. Nonetheless, receiving even a lower proportion than that originally sought (25 percent) will provide sufficient new resources to move forward with CAPS.
Since prior requests for increases to our adjusted base budget (for
other program areas) have not been funded in many years, Another reason
for moving the CAPS proposal now is that the state has responded positively
to this year’s proposal, which included an expanded off-campus initiative
now embodied in the CAPS. Frankly, not following through will jeopardize
not only our credibility in future licensing proposals from out-of-state
institutions but also in future budget negotiations.
Q. Will you support an Executive Committee similar to the one in the written proposal (see below)?
Q. Will the School in the next five years have a regulatory role
over extension schedules, pricing, etc. (i.e. will the new school begin
to regulate the off-campus programs of existing schools)?
A. Definitely not. Existing outreach efforts of schools such
as GSE, SSW, GSM, SCILS, SMLR,
GS-N (Nursing, Public Administration), and others will continue as
they currently operate. We do not intend to regulate calendars, schedules,
pricing, or approvals of off-campus programs offered by existing units.
Existing schools may choose to work with the new school, or make use of infrastructure developed by the new school; but in all such cases, it will be voluntary and the result of mutual agreement.
This question also relates to "relationships to other schools" in that existing professional schools will continue to have jurisdiction over their own outreach efforts. For example, CAPS will not offer an MBA, nor will it offer degrees in Social Work, Pharmacy, Education, Communication, Human Resource and Labor Relations, nor other professional areas represented by traditional on-campus units.
The primary mission, providing off-campus professional and applied programs for adults and degree completion for adults who are geographically place bound and unable to attend classes on-campus (for either financial or personal reasons) provide a powerful market separation between potential CAPS constituents and our traditional applicant.
Q. What programs are to be offered (very preliminary, tentative,
even hypothetical)
A. Degrees currently being considered for CAPS would include a Bachelor in Applied Science (B.A.S.), a Master Degree in Applied Science (M.A.S.), and a Master of Civic Administration (M.C.A). These new degree titles are envisioned as yet another way to differentiate the nature and type of proposed programs. There is no intention to offer an M.A. or M.S. or other traditional liberal arts degrees. The following majors and programs, from a larger number of possibilities, have been mentioned or discussed for delivery through CAPS:
(2) Internet and network technologies, focusing on IT (not CS), digital
publishing,
and Web-based technologies (both BAS and MAS)
(3) Master of Civic Administration degree (MCA)
(4) Hotel and Hospitality Administration (preliminary discussions for
cooperation with the
School of Business-Camden)
(5) Recreation administration with a specialty in course and turf management (BAS)
(6) Family Financial Planning (possibly BAS, perhaps MAS)
(7) Applied Nutrition and Health (preliminary discussions for cooperation with Extension)
(8) Aviation (preliminary discussions with the FAA National Research Center in Pomona)
A. No.
Q. Will CAPS duplicate on-campus programs?
A. No. CAPS will not offer an off-campus degree in the core area of a professional school that duplicates existing degree programs, or existing extension programs, even in a distance education format. For example, GSM currently offers the MBA off-campus, although not through the internet. CAPS will not develop an alternative form (online version) of the MBA, even if GSM declines to do so.
Q. Admissions
A. CAPS will consider for admission any student who has completed an associates degree or who can present completion of 60 credits in good academic standing, and who is also required to consider an off-campus program alternative. Students admitted to CAPS must have completed all lower division general education requirements and pre-requisite courses. Most of these students tend to be adult, over 25, and currently employed. If an on-campus Rutgers student wishes to major in a CAPS program, that student will need to transfer from their current school to CAPS. Rutgers College (or other undergraduate college) students will not be able to major in CAPS programs. Since all CAPS programs will be available ONLY at off-campus locations, this would mean that a student would have to decide not only to change majors, but also change their status from an on-campus student to an off-campus student. The student would not be eligible for housing or certain other benefits. CAPS courses are not ordinarily open to on-campus students. On-campus students should receive permission from their home department to register for a CAPS course.
Transfers from CAPS to an on-campus school would require the same application review as any other transfer from one campus to another. While CAPS courses will meet free elective credit, whether CAPS courses fulfill on-campus major or collegiate general education (distribution) requirements would be left entirely up to the faculty or fellows of the individual schools.
Q. How do you balance the need for flexibility with (a) tenure at some level, (b) the need for academic freedom, and (c) a quality mechanism?
A.
We must also recognize that the demand for certain professional programs may decrease in the future. While there are many powerful arguments that would mitigate against reducing or eliminating many liberal arts disciplines which might appear to have few majors, these arguments are less cogent in purely applied or professional areas. CAPS must have the ability to respond appropriately to programs that are no longer in high demand, or that are providing little or no collateral service. CAPS must be able to shrink programs, or even eliminate programs. This would not be possible in an organization staffed entirely by tenure track faculty.
Unionized Environment
There are several ways we can try to balance these issues. For example, although CAPS faculty will not be appointed, at least immediately, on tenure track lines, CAPS faculty would be represented by the AAUP. To the extent that this body has represented faculty well through the establishment of a variety of jointly negotiated processes and procedures, CAPS faculty would be afforded many if not all of the same protections against arbitrary and capricious action by administrators as tenure track faculty receive. Issues of academic freedom become less absolute in an environment that is conditioned and protected by collective bargaining. Is a term appointment the same as tenure, no; but we are also operating in a union environment … arbitrary and capricious actions are unlikely and term faculty will have both protection and representation against such action should it occur.
Involve Tenured Faculty in Recruitment
The probability of recruiting a high quality faculty can be increased in the short term through the introduction of tenured faculty into several processes. For example, it is possible to insure hiring of high quality core instructional staff by including tenured faculty from related disciplines on faculty search committees. During the planning year, for example, the new school will likely engage searches for a dean and as many as eight full-time faculty, several of whom may serve as program directors. Several search committees, each constituted primarily of tenured faculty, can help insure that a high quality core faculty is recruited.
Involve Tenured Faculty in CAPS Appointment and Promotion Committee(s)
In similar fashion, appropriate tenured faculty can and should be involved in the ongoing review and reappointment of CAPS full-time and part-time faculty. Appointment (Reappointment) and Promotion committees should exist for each broad area developed within CAPS, and appropriate qualified faculty from throughout the University can constitute a significant membership on these committees.
Involve Tenured Faculty in Instruction Where Possible
Although CAPS will be developing programs that are different than those offered on-campus, there are likely to be a number of faculty in related areas who may be interested in participating in CAPS in a number of ways. On one level, tenured faculty in related fields or with a specialized expertise in a relevant subject may be willing to participate in "program curriculum development and review committees". On another level, tenured faculty may be qualified to teach in a CAPS program. In these cases, it should be possible to develop a number of mechanisms to facilitate this type of integration. However, in such cases extreme care must be taken to insure that (1) such participation is entirely voluntary on the part of the faculty member, and (2) that the result of the faculty member contributing to CAPS will not draw away from on-campus programs resources necessary for the on-campus program.
While I’m not sure that a formal body of "fellows" is the best way of accomplishing this two-tiered involvement, certainly there must be the possibility, minimally, for tenured faculty to receive a "joint faculty appointment" in CAPS, paralleling other common situations throughout the University whereby a faculty member budgeted to one unit can hold membership in another faculty or school (e.g. GSE and the GS-NB, or FASN and GS-NB).
The CAPS proposal is an attempt to broaden reach of the state university in New Jersey so that it provides the breadth of academic programs across the lifespan as other state universities do. This is a specialized audience with specialized degrees that are distinct from what is typically done on campus. While the involvement of tenured faculty in the review and hire and promotion of CAPS faculty can be instructive and helpful, it should be noted that there are other "non-traditional" factors to which the review faculty must be attuned in order to preserve the CAPS model.
So, while there are strong pressures from within Rutgers to preserve quality in a new off campus school, the market pressures are perhaps as strong, the risks even greater and the incentives much more real for the proponents of CAPS. This is not a "Field of Dreams" where, if we build it, they will come. There are many players in this "space" of continuing, applied and professional education - we need to deliver quality in order to be successful.