President's Letters

Exploring Commonalities and Dissimilarities among UCEA Member Institutions

(UCEA InFocus, July/August 2004)
James Broomall, UCEA President 2004-2005

In the late 1980s the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching sponsored a report that was published as "The Academic Life" by Burton R. Clark. During my interaction with continuing higher education colleagues in North America over the past four months, I have often reflected on that book's subtitle, "Small Worlds, Different Worlds." For the landscape of professional and continuing studies is as diverse as the myriad institutions offering programs and the professionals dedicated to our field. Consistent with my presidential initiative to support inquiry into the organizational configurations supporting lifelong learning and their respective capacities, I have spent the beginning of my tenure in exploring commonalities and dissimilarities among our UCEA member institutions.

Here are some preliminary observations. They reflect in part continuous conversations at several meetings with peers this summer and the results of a recent survey of UCEA Commissioners attending our June gathering.

Service, Engagement Compete with Entrepreneurial Expectations

We do share a heritage of service and engagement that increasingly competes with entrepreneurial expectations. For example, the demands for resource generation and return on investment for our home institutions is a recurrent theme I heard in discussions in Canada, Washington, D.C., Boston, Maine, and Delaware this summer. While the amount and percentage returns vary according to institutional size and mission, the demands are echoed in universities and colleges alike. We also are increasingly involved in inter-institutional partnerships spanning traditional partners like community colleges and government agencies, to those involving corporate and international universities. A third common theme is our need to communicate to our respective presidents and provosts the value that continuing education adds to the institution and the community. This advocacy must be broader than the "cash nexus." In a time of limited resources, we must better articulate the essential nature of our work to an information and global economy. We generally depart from academic conventions as our curricula are more likely to be problem centered and interdisciplinary. Finally, the demand for forecasting skills, trend analysis, and data driven decision-making is acute from professionals working in "one-person shops" to those in organizations with hundreds of colleagues. As the risk-return ratio becomes more problematic it is vital to have timely and relevant information.

Three Differences Between Institutions Stand Out

Yet although we live in a "small world," there are significant differences within UCEA.

Three are pronounced. The first turns on the issue of scalability-our members' budgets range from less than $1 million to more than $100 million per year. From this basic fact follows myriad diversity in programming, marketing, staffing, and capacity. A second fundamental distinction is whether or not a continuing education unit offers its own degree. Those with this ability enjoy a decided advantage in responding quickly to the competitive market for adult and nontraditional learners. A third difference is the cultural legacy and norms of for-profit contrasted with not-for- profit organizations. While traditional higher education is modifying its practices in this new environment, core values regarding faculty governance and learning assessment techniques remain.

The coming months bring with them the opportunity to further explore these topics at our Executive Assembly and the regional meetings across the United States and Mexico this fall. President-elect Whitaker and I look forward to speaking with many of you at these events. Despite differences, our Association brings us together to meet our particular and common professional and institutional goals. The recurrent challenge is to be relevant to both our "small" and "different" worlds.

I thoroughly have enjoyed the first four months of my presidency and look forward to continuing to serve you. Best wishes for a successful fall semester!