EDITORIAL: World-wide impact
Central Michigan University's Global Campus provides 7,211 students with online classes.
In his State of the University Address in October, President George Ross said he wants to increase that number to at least 10,000 by the year 2020.
We applaud Ross for focusing his efforts on the growth of the award-winning program, which was ranked 13th in the nation for its online bachelor programs and fifth for its online graduate education programs by U.S. News this year.
CMU offered its first online course in 1994. Online enrollment has fluctuated ever since, down from the record 7,535 in 2005 but up from its decade low of 6,913 in 2009.
Students and administrators may ask, why put resources into a part of CMU that isn't on the physical campus? Michigan is facing a decline of both high school graduates and enrolling college freshmen over the next decade. CMU needs a plan to compensate for this loss of students.
CMU's status as the fourth largest university in the state, according to Forbes Magazine, is in part due to its Global Campus enrollment.
Other universities in the state will face the same challenge to maintain enrollment, but they will be following CMU's lead. We already have highly-ranked online programs thanks to the Global Campus.
Global Campus also reaches out and competes with online programs internationally.
To ignore a faction of the university so vital to its health and future survival would be nearsighted. To put time and dollars into a campus that less and less high school seniors plan on coming to would be equally misguided.
Just because fewer millennials are showing interest in physically attending college does not mean fewer people are seeking an education.
Any number of personal or family-related reasons could keep potential students in their hometowns. Global Campus allows students, young and old, to learn from the comfort of their own homes.
Not only does the Global Campus provide CMU with a potential solution to chronically declining enrollment, but it can be a boon to on-campus students as well.
While a CMU student will pay $2 less per credit hour for a class taught on-campus rather than through the Global Campus, online courses have their advantages.
Substituting an online course for one taught on-campus can sometimes make or break a student's schedule. Balancing classes, employment and extracurricular or clubs sometimes necessitates taking a course or two online.
No matter the reason for taking an online class, students should feel confident in their highly-ranked Global Campus and its ability to keep CMU afloat in the midst of a statewide student decline.
