Student Tuition as UAF Cash Cow

Should a public university make more money when students fail?

By Susan B. Andrews and John Creed

Commentary

KOTZEBUE- In the old days they were called "correspondence study" classes. The University of Alaska Fairbanks has been offering them for more than four decades. Today, the new, improved, politically correct term for these courses is "independent learning."

This type of education formerly known as “correspondence study” can be ideally suited for students who can work autonomously and at their own pace. Independent learning at UAF, however, in some ways has become a “cash cow” that earns more money from students who drop out than from those who succeed.

We are not making this up.

Today correspondence study/independent learning is housed at UAF’s Center for Distance Education and Independent Learning in Fairbanks. Since 2002, Curt Madison had been CDE director. A few weeks ago, Jennie Carroll, acting vice chancellor for UAF’s College of Rural and Community Development, transferred the controversial Madison out of CDE. He now works in UA’s Office of Information Technology.

http://www.alaska.edu/OrgCharts/uaf-chancellor-brian-rogers/vc-rur.-comm.-ed/dir.-dis.-ed.-dev.-curt-m/

How do most independent learning courses work? Students pay for the tuition, fees and materials up front to take these correspondence courses, just like at most educational institutions. If the student finishes a course that includes 15 lessons, then CDE has paid the instructor to correct all 15 lessons. No problem.

But if a student completes just two lessons and then drops out, CDE does not pay the instructor for the other 13 uncorrected lessons. CDE still pockets the tuition money in most cases, however.

Whether or not UAF or CDE has been consciously driven by the incentive to make more money from failing students, these classes have clocked huge dropout rates over the years.

Ron Illingworth, a retired career military man and today a long-time professor of English and developmental studies at UAF, worked with Madison at CDE a few years ago. Illingworth now teaches for UAF’s Interior/Aleutians Campus. When Illingworth worked for CDE, he said the independent learning arm was racking up shocking student dropout rates to no apparent concern of the now-former director.

“I think Curt saw his job to enroll students in classes,” said Illingworth. “After that, while they certainly liked students to complete, Curt and CDE make money by not having students complete classes. That’s their business model.”

When Illingworth finally left CDE a few years ago, he calculates that the student dropout rate in independent learning courses was hovering around 70 percent. That even exceeds Alaska’s notorious high school dropout rate, among the nation’s highest. When seven out of 10 UAF students are dropping out of a program, they are not only staining their academic records but also throwing their tuition money away.

Curt Madison

University of Alaska photo

“Some classes had higher success rates than others,” Illingworth said. “But when I worked at CDE, it looked as though the overall completion rate was about 30 percent. The completion rate for some isolated courses was fairly good, but in reality, just about everything was fairly low.”

Independent courses might have increased retention rates in more recent years, but others could hardly have been worse. For example, among the worst dropout rates in more recent years have involved some of UAF’s most vulnerable students.

Some UAF Background

UAF has a huge, sprawling mission. It blends community college, vocational and Cooperative Extension offerings with world-class cutting-edge science and arctic research, engineering, mining and fisheries along with traditional liberal arts offerings and more. It is UA’s overwhelming Ph.D.-granting institution. UAF also serves students from satellite campuses in the Bush and reach virtually the entire state. That means UAF students live throughout the state in an area more than twice the size of Texas. Few other higher education institutions have such a breadth of academic responsibilities, particularly as an open-enrollment university that takes all comers. UAF may be one of the most diverse universities in the nation.

Developmental Education

All college students must be able to write a coherent essay and handle higher-level algebra. Following a national trend, increasing numbers of incoming students at UAF require remedial English and math. Illingworth points to studies that show students who successfully complete development courses have higher certificate and degree completion rates in the long run.

In the past two years, CDE set up several developmental English and math, independent learning courses designed for under-prepared students. They would provide another avenue for new students to build basic college-level reading, writing and math skills. The dropout rate was astounding.

UAF faculty who were monitoring the process decided to yank the classes from CDE’s independent learning roster after they tallied a 95 percent dropout rate in some cases.

“This might have been the only contact these students had with the university system,” said Illingworth. “Who knows how many of them were discouraged enough not to return.”

Did CDE keep the tuition money or return it to students? If they did, great. If not, they have been rewarded once again for failing students.

Independent Learning Course Are Not “Cross-Regional” Classes

Correspondence or “independent learning” courses are not to be confused with classes taught mostly through UAF’s satellite campuses in Kotzebue, Nome, Bethel, Dillingham, Interior/Aleutians, and also from Fairbanks itself. Students taking these “cross-regional” classes throughout rural Alaska, including outside UAF’s official service area (such as Southeast and the Anchorage area), attend regularly scheduled distance classes.

Enrollees often develop close bonds with fellow students and their instructors despite considerable physical and cultural distances. Students do drop out, but not at the same sky-high rates found in correspondence courses. (Also, dropouts in cross-regional courses do not generate extra revenue for UAF. Course instructors are still paid to teach the rest of the class.)

Most cross-regional classes meet just like traditional face-to-face classes, typically twice a week for 90 minutes. Delivery modes include audio conferencing and the Internet. Students experience regular instructor interaction. Studies have shown that learning and student satisfaction, and rigor, typically equal or exceed traditional classroom instruction. (Nevertheless, distance teaching is labor-intensive and challenging. The traditional classroom, with all its obvious and subtle opportunities for learning, remains the optimal educational setting.)

Unfortunately, CDE’s independent learning/correspondence classes stand in stark contrast to UAF’s other modes of distance delivery. Most correspondence instructors work as part-time adjuncts. They get paid similar to “piece work” in a factory: Correct a paper, earn a little—a very little--wage. In some ways, independent learning instructors resemble glorified paper graders. Considering the pay and working conditions, though, who can blame course instructors who do not or cannot provide a high level of student feedback? Many correspondence instructors are nonetheless excellent, well-respected, dedicated educators. It’s not the instructors but the system that should shoulder the bulk of the blame.

Minimal Student-Instructor Contact

Typically when students sign up for a correspondence class through CDE, they pay their tuition and fees. Some time later, their course materials arrive via snail mail. After that, students are pretty much on their own. We know that from enrolling in some of these classes ourselves. Even computer-moderated classes have proved to be mostly of the “canned” variety with minimal instructor feedback. From our own experience, we consider this model a generally inferior brand of higher education in its present form. Add the “cash cow” element, and this situation becomes outrageous.

The current form of independent learning may work fine for students looking to fill in a gap in a degree program or who for some reason cannot enroll in a more traditional class, but dropout rates must improve if this program is allowed to proceed.

In our own regular cross-regional classes taught statewide from Kotzebue, we tell our students to call us at any time, even at home, if they need help. Since correspondence course instructors are paid by the number of lessons they correct, it’s little wonder some seem put off if a student contacts them by phone. We learned this from personal experience. Curiously, though, neither Curt Madison nor CDE ever seemed to suffer much blowback from the university administration, regents or even the faculty senate for these practices, much less scrutiny from the general public.

For Madison to have condoned such poor results in education is disturbing.

Some years ago CDE asked us, as UAF faculty members, to develop some correspondence courses. Part of the deal included the requirement to deliver them for a full year. Not a desirable task. In fact, we came to detest teaching independent learning classes about as much as the average Alaskan hates to use an outhouse at 60 below. The delivery model is structured for minimal student-instructor contact. As course instructors, we never got to know our correspondence students like those in our regular cross-regional classes delivered from Kotzebue. We were relieved when our contract year ended.

We also have experienced at close range how Madison has fought tooth and nail to prevent a student from obtaining a course extension in a semester-long correspondence course with ambiguous completion dates. Only after the student went over Madison’s head within the university system was the issue resolved. (Ironically, the course instructor had no problem agreeing to the extension or any other reasonable request from the student. Indeed, Dr. Madison was attempting to roadblock the request without even consulting the course instructor.)

After all, the system has the built-in incentive to grab the tuition money without providing the service to students. In other words, CDE’s “business model” for independent learning provides more incentives for students to drop out than to complete their studies.

Imagine the private sector’s reaction if it learned that a UAF subdivision makes more money on drop-outs than successful students.

Plush Surroundings

The sooner the student drops out, the higher the profits for CDE and UAF.

In fact, independent learning might have been such a profitable source of funds for Madison that he could pump money into other areas of his operation. As director, Madison orchestrated the construction of CDE’s extravagant new digs in Fairbanks at the corner of University Ave. and Davis Road, feeding a more-obvious-than-not proclivity for plush surroundings and a general penchant for opulence.

Before his recent fall from grace, Madison also demonstrated an inclination for grabbing power. For example, he launched on ongoing, years-long campaign to “upgrade” CDE from a “center” to a “campus.” He wanted CDE on par, for example, with UAF’s Tanana Valley Campus, a former community college, or one of UAF’s rural satellite campuses. Madison spent much effort bending the ears of UAF chancellors and high-level administrators about his dream, currently deferred if not defunct.

Should taxpayers be supporting a system that encourages the University of Alaska to run a program that turns a bigger profit when students fail? No subdivision of UAF should be allowed to reap more revenue, the higher the dropout rate is for students.

Luckily, Curt Madison is now “sequestered” in some other part of the university system, presumably where he might do less damage to students and higher education in general. Let’s hope some of his talents may be put to better use. We wish him all the best.

All reports to date indicate that CDE’s interim director promises to be far more student-oriented, staff-supportive, and faculty-friendly. Good luck in your new job, Shih-Hsung (Alex) Hwu.

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