Recommendations for Daytime-EWS (Evening and Weekend Studies) Integration
Workgroup: Stephen Beck, Lori Blewett, and Kathleen Eamon, co-leads; Steve Blakeslee, Lin Crowley, Maria Isabel Morales, Paula Schofield, Suzanne Simons
Creating Flexible Pathways to Degree: Elements of the Provost’s Spring 2021 Charge
In spring 2021 the college moved forward with its enrollment recovery plans in the form of a broad initiative to create more flexible pathways to degree for schedule- and place-bound students, by means of both the Olympia undergraduate curriculum and a new School of Professional Studies. In partnership with the Faculty Agenda Committee, interim provost David McAvity charged our workgroup to make a recommendation for integrating offerings traditionally situated in the EWS program (Evening and Weekend Studies) into the college more broadly. The components of the “Creating Flexible Pathways to Degree” charge that guided our work are excerpted and paraphrased below. They apply primarily to part-time coordinated studies programs (8-12 cr.), as opposed to course offerings (typically 2-6 cr.), which are currently slated for reassignment to existing daytime paths.
1. The workgroup should identify structures to preserve a broad general liberal arts part-time pathway to degree for schedule-bound students, while also connecting this curriculum to existing (= full-time, daytime) Paths.
2. For example, part-time regular faculty hired to EWS could either affiliate with and support one or more of the existing Paths by means of part-time options in the evenings and weekends, or choose to affiliate with a newly designed Path.
3. The workgroup should recommend whether a part-time general liberal arts completion program should be situated in the School of Professional Studies and offered specifically to schedule-bound working students, or should be a new Path in the undergraduate curriculum.
Points to consider:
a. The possible costs and benefits of separate admission for these students and the support they might receive within a School of Professional Studies.
b. The need for a structure to coordinate offerings that support degree-seeking students—e.g., a system for online faculty coordination, a designated coordinator role, an advisory team, and/or a Flex Center).
c. Systems and policies to support the overall coherence of the undergraduate curriculum.
d. Faculty assignments to teach this element of the part-time curriculum in the mode and time that support the adult students for whom this program is designed.
Summary of the Workgroup’s Recommendations
After considerable discussion, as well as broader consultation with EWS faculty, the workgroup makes the following recommendations:
• In keeping with the current organization of the full-time, daytime curriculum, we believe that the best way to serve the college’s part-time students is to create a Flexible Studies Pathway that is responsive to their needs and interests.
• The curriculum for this pathway will continue to provide a broad liberal-arts education to our part-time students, as opposed to a more narrowly focused set of offerings. As such, it should remain an integral part of the Olympia campus’s undergraduate curriculum.
• To serve the maximum number of enrollees, including the many daytime students who sometimes enroll in EWS offerings, this curriculum should remain accessible to all students at the college. There should be no separate admission process.
• Given its reach across academic divisions, this pathway would ideally continue to be managed at the academic dean’s level. At a minimum it will require a CAT leader and the creation of clear lines of authority for final hiring and curricular decisions.
• We recommend that the new pathway plan three years of projected offerings, beginning in fall 2022 and ending in spring 2025. Toward the end of this period, faculty associated with the path will assess its effectiveness and placement within the college’s organizational structures.
• We also support the establishment of a Flex Center, as time and funding allow, to provide useful resources to the students, faculty, and staff associated with part-time studies at the college.
The full scope of the workgroup’s report can be viewed here: https://evergreen0.sharepoint.com/:w:/s/NewDirectionsProject-NADProjectLeads/EYtuWh7_6AFOrTwm0LJA4b8BSf5F9dd0vLkJzhf587l0Zg?e=yEKnc7
The workgroup welcomes your feedback on these recommendations. Please email comments and suggestions to Lori Blewett (blewettl@evergreen.edu).