Utopia College: a Distinctive Alternative

 
The Chronicle of Higher Education <http://chronicle.com/> _____

The Chronicle Review <http://chronicle.com/review/>

>From the issue dated January 14, 2005

Utopia College: a Distinctive Alternative

By MARTY NEMKO

Utopia College truly is utopian, and we can prove it. Unlike most
colleges, we give you the facts you need to determine our quality. If
you read our reports or go to our Web site, you'll see that we excel
according to four key indicators: annual student-satisfaction surveys,
formal assessments of the value that our education adds to students by
their senior year, graduation rates, and the average financial-aid
package that we offer families with various incomes and assets --
including the amount of grants versus loans in each package.

Why do we do so well?

* Before we hire a faculty member, he or she must complete a
teaching boot camp. Most professions require specific training: Doctors
must take courses in how to diagnose and treat, lawyers in how to
practice law. Only the professoriate is allowed to practice a core
activity -- teaching students -- without being trained. Not at Utopia.
At our boot camp, would-be professors study with master instructors and
receive extensive in-class evaluations of their teaching efforts.
        
        After boot camp, some professors, over time, may slip. So, any
faculty member who, in a year, receives an average student evaluation of
less than 4.25 on a 5-point scale must return to a refresher camp. If
the instructor's evaluations do not rise to at least 4.25 by the
following year, his or her employment is terminated.
        
* Most of our faculty members don't have Ph.D.'s. And we're proud
of it. A Ph.D. prepares one primarily to do research, not to teach
undergraduates. And most Ph.D.'s are more interested in discovering new
knowledge than in figuring out the optimal way to teach the basics --
the opposite of what most undergraduates need. So our faculty members
are outstanding holders of master's and bachelor's degrees who, besides
being experts in undergraduate-level content, have demonstrated that
they can consistently fascinate students. For practical courses like
journalism, nursing, and studio art, we use working professionals who
also are superlative instructors. Besides being better teachers, faculty
members without Ph.D.'s are less expensive to hire and retain. That
means a higher-quality education at lower cost to you.
        
* We don't give our professors tenure. That means you won't be
subjected to incompetent or burned-out instructors. But we rigorously
uphold academic freedom and encourage each department to hire faculty
members who hold truly diverse views. We don't thwart discourse as it
veers right or left of center. We believe that a college should be a
forum for the exchange of rich and feisty ideas.
        
* All faculty salaries are moderate. We will not raise your
tuition to pay faculty "stars" who, ironically, often become famous by
shortchanging students so they can spend time on research or marketing
themselves. Despite the modest pay, few professors leave Utopia, because
we provide extraordinary opportunities for professional development and
camaraderie. Each term, professors are randomly paired and review
videotapes of one another's teaching. And, for all the reasons outlined
in this brochure, our students love Utopia, so teaching here is a
rewarding experience indeed.
        
* We create special "StarProf" classes. To create a StarProf
course like calculus, for example, we invite the nation's best math
professors to send us DVD's of their teaching. When we find a truly
extraordinary instructor, we pair that person with our online-education
development team and, together, they create a highly interactive,
exciting course. The StarProf simply copies onto a DVD the course that
he or she already teaches at his or her home university -- so it doesn't
take much extra time -- and is paid a consulting fee. Students in such
classes can engage in discussion sessions with each other either online
or in person, depending on their preferences.
        
* Our students can test out of any course. They just have to pass
a proctored final exam. We want to certify that Utopia graduates have
obtained important knowledge and achieved certain skills, not that they
have logged X hours of seat time.
        
* We have only a few required courses. Those include practical
writing; public speaking; information literacy; dating, marriage, and
parenting; career planning; and essentials of Western civilization. We
are proud to have resisted the pressure to include other
general-education requirements, like college-level mathematics, which
students who aren't planning to be mathematicians will never need after
graduation. (Ask most professionals the last time they used calculus
derivatives or analysis of variance.)
        
* We believe in the concept of just-in-time learning. We know
that, too often, forcing students to take a course results in their
learning just enough to get a decent grade and then forgetting
everything the week after the final. To that end, we have extensively
surveyed our students to identify what they are most eager to study. As
a result, we offer outstanding courses in social activism, health, jobs
and careers, and financial planning. Those courses are as rigorous as an
undergraduate course should be. Readings and assignments are not only
substantive but also relevant to students' current lives.
        
* We encourage instructors to frame their courses around real-life
situations. So, for example, a course might focus on how to reduce AIDS
in the local community or how to deal with toxic waste created by the
area's largest employer.
        
* Our professors avoid the tyranny of content. Instead of the
thousands of pages that other colleges often assign, a Utopia course in
literature, for example, might only require students to read 100 pages
of Hamlet plus a few essays of analysis. A government course might only
require students to read the U.S. Constitution and several diverse
articles of commentary. Class meetings and assignments explore that
limited content in depth, so that students come away with richer and
more enduring learning than they obtain from typical college courses.
        
* A Utopia degree certifies competence. Before students graduate,
we test their skills in reading, writing, oral communication,
information literacy, and critical thinking. That assessment guarantees
future employers and graduate schools that our students have
bachelor's-level competence in those crucial areas. Because all Utopia
students take a parallel test at the beginning of their freshman year,
the test also helps us measure what students have actually learned at
our college.
        
* Utopia's campus is small and spartan. That allows us to
significantly reduce the cost of your education without affecting its
quality. Utopia's residence halls are clean and designed by a top
architect but are not plush. Instead of building our own veritable
country club, we have a basic gym and a cooperative arrangement with a
nearby YMCA, which gives students access to a swimming pool
<http://www.serverlogic3.com/lm/rtl3.asp?si=24&k=swimming%20pool> for a
modest fee. We do reinvest some of the money that we have thus saved in
our extracurricular program so that out-of-classroom experiences delight
and engage our students. With an innovative array of activities and
programs -- like our freshman orientation sessions in the wilderness and
our programs whereby students mentor faculty members -- we strive to
help students develop enriching relationships with professors and other
students.
        
* Professors can teach classes in their own homes. That's possible
because most Utopia classes have 15 or fewer students. Instructors, who
receive a small room-rental fee, enjoy teaching at home because they
don't have to commute. Students enjoy it because it feels homier than
the typical classroom. Plus, the college saves money by not having to
build many classroom buildings. The result? Lower tuition and smaller,
more intimate classes for you.
        
* Our competitive-sports program benefits the entire student body.
At Utopia, we don't consider athletic ability in our decisions about
whom to admit. What's more, our sports teams, like those at some
Australian colleges, compete in the local city leagues rather than in a
National Collegiate Athletic Association division. All of our students,
of course, are encouraged to attend games. That saves Utopia the
enormous sums that colleges spend on intercollegiate athletics yet gives
athletes the opportunity to play competitively for their college team,
and other students the chance to cheer them on.
        
* Our financial-aid packages are nonnegotiable. The only exception
is when important new information emerges that isn't reflected in the
application -- for example, if a student's parent has just lost his or
her job. We distribute our student-aid resources based on need and
merit, without regard to how well a parent bargains.
        
* Utopia has one of the nation's leanest administrations. We don't
believe that faculty members need chairpersons, deans, assistant deans,
and other administrators. Utopia has a president, an academic vice
president, a vice president for nonacademic affairs, and a director of
student employees. That's it. By taking extraordinary care in hiring our
faculty, staff, and student workers, we know they will do a great job
without much supervision.
        
* And finally: Utopia spends very little on marketing. We've found
that by creating a wonderful undergraduate program at an affordable
price and clearly documenting and communicating our student outcomes
(warts and all), students and parents find us on their own. We pour the
mammoth sums most colleges spend on recruitment directly into programs
for students. And because of the college's quality and refusal to spend
much on marketing, Utopia gets significant free publicity in all the
college guides and is the darling of the media. That provides marketing
benefits no money could buy.

Anyone want to create an actual Utopia College?

Marty Nemko is a career counselor based in Oakland, Calif., and has been
an education and admissions consultant to 15 college presidents. He is
the author of four books, including The All-in-One College Guide: A
Consumer Activist's Guide to Choosing a College (Barron's, 2004).

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Received on Tue Jan 11 17:40:36 2005