The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey’s ReEnrolling Adult Learners program is set to help individuals 20 years old and older, who have not yet finished their college degree due to financial and academic hardships, complete their education.
People eligible for the program must have been out of school between one and 10 years, have at least a 2.0 grade point average and at least 64 credits from any New Jersey institution. So far, 50 students have re-enrolled at Stockton through this program.
A free informational session regarding the program will be held at the school’s Manahawkin instructional site, located at 712 East Bay Ave., on Wednesday, April 10, between 5 and 7 p.m. A light dinner is included.
The program is funded by a one-year, $65,000 grant, awarded to the college by the office of the state secretary of higher education through the Disengaged Adults Returning to College grant program.
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| Photo by Ryan Morrill Stockton College's REAL program is helping people re-enroll in school and obtain degrees. |
“It’s a good thing to do, to try to reach out to students who have almost completed their degree but walked away from college for one reason or another, and to try to find ways for them to complete their degree,” said Peter Hagen, director of the center for academic advising and planning at Stockton. “It’s good for the entire population of the state of New Jersey that we have more people that have graduated from college. It’s also a good thing for any college to do to improve their graduation rate,” he added.
The program can help alleviate some outstanding fees, which have barred students from taking further classes. Although tuition is not covered, costs such as graduation fees can be compensated.
A certain amount of money from the grant is also being used to buy textbooks, as well as online versions of textbooks, which have become rather costly for students to obtain. Supplies, such as iPads, which are lent to those without access to a computer, may also be provided.
“It costs a lot to attend school, and it costs a lot to buy books,” said Hagen. “We’re finding more and more students are not buying books because they can’t afford them, and they’re not doing all the work in their class, and their grades are suffering. That simply draws out the time toward graduation,” he added.
New online classes, as well as online adaptations of existing classes, are being formed to make coursework more readily available to students. Classes in psychology, nursing, general studies, communication disorders and other areas can be taken online, though no one major can be entirely completed online at this point.
“Stockton is about to turn a corner with regard to online learning,” said Hagen. “We are now searching for an associate provost for e-learning, whose job it will be to foster the development of online learning across the board. We have many online courses, but not nearly enough. We expect that things are going to change in the next year or so,” he explained.
The liberal studies major has also been modified to help students who wish to tailor a major to a specific area of expertise and graduate as soon as possible.
“We are expanding the LIBA degree to make it easier for people who have walked away for one reason or another to complete their degree and make it a bit easier to obtain,” said Hagen. “We’re taking the idea of the liberal studies degree and giving it a bit more form so that we’re now going to have a liberal studies BA that’s available in the arts, and one in the humanities, and one in the social sciences. Our hope is that students can latch onto one of those plans and finish without having to complete all of the rigid requirements of some other major,” he explained.
Exceptions for students who cannot complete the last 32 credits of their degree at Stockton will be made on a case-by-case basis.
Stockton will reapply for the grant program in July to help continue funding the program.
“I think we’re doing things that colleges ought to be doing in general,” said Hagen. “To sweep away institutional barriers, that’s certainly a good thing to do. Any college has an obligation in this day and age to do what it can to cut down on the amount of debt that students incur after graduation.”
For more information about the ReEnrolling program, visit intraweb.stockton.edu/eyos/page.cfm?siteID=245&pageID=48.
— Kelley Anne Essinger
This article was published in The SandPaper.
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