(Enrollment Manager, January 2012 – by Scott D. Miller)
Founded in the rugged foothills of one of the world’s ancient
mountain ranges, Bethany College is West Virginia’s oldest private institution
of higher education — older, even, than the state itself — with its creation in
1840. Since its beginning, Bethany has earned a reputation as the only liberal
arts college in West Virginia to have achieved national prominence. Its long history
of resilient response to challenges confronting the nation — the Civil War, the
World Wars, Great Depression and more — has developed in the College some of
its greatest assets, including flexibility and a keen awareness of the changing
realities impacting the liberal arts.
Today, when so many private colleges have been forced to change
course in the face of significant economic hurdles, Bethany has instead remained
true to its mission, advancing the remarkable vision of its founders while maintaining
contemporary relevance.
Guided by a comprehensive institutional review completed in 2008
and a subsequent 10-year Master Plan, Bethany continues to expand strategically
upon its educational offerings. As a result, student enrollment — the most
vital indicator of college growth — has increased in quantity and quality.
Since the implementation of the Master Plan, total attendance has increased
from 803 to 1,020, the largest headcount since 1976-77.
Among Bethany’s recent transformative ventures is a series of vital
partnerships. Drawing on its national reputation, the College has spearheaded a
variety of synergistic collaborations throughout the country and across the
globe. Such agreements work to provide greater service to students while
strengthening Bethany’s visibility and impact, directly affecting its
enrollment efforts.
Bethany’s latest enrollment-related initiatives include
articulation agreements with West Virginia Northern Community College and the
Art Institute of Pittsburgh. The plan establishes a Junior Year College Affiliate
Program and Transfer of Credit Agreement that enables qualified Bethany College
students to pursue specific Junior Year College Affiliate Programs at The Art
Institute of Pittsburgh — and defines a path enabling graduates from The Art
Institute of Pittsburgh to articulate seamlessly into Bachelor of Arts and
Bachelor of Science programs being offered at Bethany College. After completion
of the Junior Year option, during which time Bethany participants study in one
of 15 selected programs such as advertising, fashion and retail management,
game art and design, hotel and restaurant management, or industrial or interior
design, students return to Bethany to complete their senior year and all
graduation requirements.
The College has also re-affirmed professional articulation, or
“seamless study,” agreements with Case Western Reserve University, Columbia
University and Duquesne University, providing greater options for students with
sights set on graduate school. Such initiatives also enhance Bethany’s
marketability and potential enrollment pool.
Students in Bethany’s engineering
program, for example, may choose to earn both a bachelor’s degree from Bethany
and a B.S. in engineering from Case Western Reserve University or Columbia University
after completing a five-year sequence of study. Participants spend three years
in the liberal arts environment at Bethany and then attend one of the
participating universities for two years.
Bethany
has partnered with Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pa., to offer an innovative
three-three program that allows students to complete three years of
undergraduate work at Bethany and then enter the Duquesne University Law School
for completion of the J.D. degree after three more years of study (four years
in the Evening Division). Students earn a bachelor’s degree from Bethany after
successfully finishing their first year of the law program.
Significant
expansion of distance learning and continuing education programs also offer increased
marketing possibilities for Bethany. Students can now take summer online
courses through Bethany’s participation in the Online Consortium of Independent
Colleges and Universities. With up to 12 credit hours to choose from, this
program enhances Bethany’s course offerings and availability to students.
Bethany
also continues to strengthen key ties with prestigious colleges and
universities across the world. With strong relationships in 18 foreign
countries, Bethany is moving steadily toward a global studies requirement. The
College joined the InterAmerican Consortium, consisting of seven American and
11 institutions worldwide to foster global collaboration for students, faculty
and staff. Bethany also has an agreement with Harlaxton College in the United
Kingdom in which 15 American colleges partner to offer a variety of innovative
programs on Harlaxton’s castle-like campus. Participants study British and
European cultures and learn about them first-hand as they complete an extensive
travel component throughout Europe.
Closer
to home, exciting academic initiatives are flourishing. Business and economic
majors, for instance, now have the rare opportunity to serve as investment
professionals responsible for a $1 million endowment as part of the McCann
Family Student Investment Fund. As participants apply their classroom learning
to the real world of investment management, with support from an expert
advisory council, they gain valuable experience researching stocks, making
responsible investment recommendations and executing trades. The fund,
established by dedicated alumnus Robert McCann and his wife Cindy, made Bethany the first college in West
Virginia to offer a student-led investment opportunity of its kind — and one of
only a handful of small colleges across the nation to do so.
Bethany
recently launched its first graduate degree, a fully accredited Master of Arts
(MAT) in Teaching. This progressive program serves as a valuable enhancement to
the College’s ability to serve education majors and liberal arts graduates in
all areas who aspire to teach. Degree-holding individuals who wish to advance
their careers find significant professional development opportunity through the
MAT, which also enables participants to acquire teaching certification in their
area of expertise. The program coheres smoothly with Bethany’s liberal arts
mission, affirming teaching not only as a profession, but also as an act of
service to the greater community.
Also
visible on Bethany’s historic campus are significant physical improvements
tailored to the expectations of the modern student. In the past few years, the
College has completed more than $3 million in recreation and athletic enhancements,
including artificial turf, lights, a rubberized track and field upgrades at
Bison Stadium, a new softball field, expanded weight and locker room
facilities, and a new 24-hour fitness center. The school also acquired and
renovated the town’s former Bethany School, transforming it into the new Judith
R. Hurl Education Center, home to the teacher education program.
To
support growing enrollment, Bethany has expanded parking throughout campus, and a $4.5 million
renovation of Cochran Hall, built in 1910, was completed in summer 2010. The
re-opening celebrated the creation of modern, suite-style student housing for
72 additional students in the heart of the campus.
One
more powerful example of Bethany’s ability to strengthen its national and
international stature by capitalizing on local resources is the College’s
equestrian offering, which utilizes the 160-acre Pegasus Farm Equestrian Center
only four miles away. This award-winning program is a highly visible recruiting and enrollment feature, with more than 20 declared majors and
minors and a membership of over 40 riders in the traveling Equestrian Club Team
who earn top placements in competitions throughout the world.
With
the total of new students in each of the past three years comprising the
largest classes since the mid-1970s, a current student population reported to
be the most diverse in Bethany’s history by federal standards, a much wider
geographical representation than in past years, and an incoming class academic
profile that was the finest in 11 years, Bethany College is poised for continued
success in this new era of higher education. At the heart of the College’s
enrollment strategy is its ability to draw upon and develop the energy inherent
in both its local and global landscapes in a constructive, forward manner,
allowing each to strengthen the other. This cyclical process respects the
setting and values in which Bethany was founded while also developing the broad
impact that gives Bethany its national and international significance, placing
it among the best liberal arts institutions in the nation.
The
challenges confronting the liberal arts and potential enrollment pool —
including economic distress and an increasingly unpredictable job market — may
limit the public’s confidence in the power of a college education. But they
also make the founding function and effective enrollment strategy of Bethany as
a liberal arts college more necessary than, perhaps, ever before: to educate intelligent,
informed citizens prepared to use their talents to benefit humanity as they honor
their responsibility to go forth and serve the greater world.
# # #
Dr. Scott D.
Miller is President and M.M. Cochran Professor of Leadership Studies at Bethany
College. A graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College, he has served as
president of three private liberal arts colleges during the past 21 years.
