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Innovative classes -- what is your soul? -- are cut by strict Continuing Education budget By
Angela Johnson
What is your soul? Do you have soul mates? How many levels of consciousness are there and how do you attain a deeper lever of consciousness? Questions like these used to be answered in classes offered by instructor Delphine Rossi in the health and physical education department. Students could attend "Path With a Soul" and "Path With a Soul II: Exploring Consciousness" for one weekend and get one credit hour. But these classes are no longer being offered as Continuing Education has been forced to cut some of its programs because of lack of money. The decision made by Extension Services, which Continuing Education falls under, to cut some of its programs has some people wondering if it's really the interest of the students or the interest in making money as the services' priority. "I think our whole intent is very pure in terms of serving as many students as possible and provide as many courses as we possibly can," said Gary Poppleton, president of evening school and concurrent enrollment. A one-credit "Stress Management" class taught by Dr. Donna Gordon, "Spiritual Health" and "Body Image" taught by adjunct Professor Rebecca Thalmon, in conjunction with Rossi's "Path With Soul" classes are among the classes that Continuing Education has cut. These classes allowed students not only a way to get one credit hour of electives, but to add to a well-rounded education. They were different than the traditional health classes taught in the health and physical education department because they allowed students to get more progressive information and a new experience in education, Rossi said. Rossi's "Path With Soul" class focused first on defining what the soul is. It dealt with spiritual aspects of life and how to enhance life's experiences through attaining balance of your mind, body and soul. The fall 2000 syllabus for "Path With Soul: Exploring Consciousness" focused on the "Field of consciousness studies and the relationship of consciousness to our personal experience of everyday reality and to our soul's journey. It will explore both the western and eastern models of reality and the belief systems behind them; how personal belief systems, emotions and thoughts, create our life experiences. The course will explore how you can utilize your consciousness and intention to facilitate creating your own life experience including healing the body, mind and spirit." Both "Path With Soul" classes have experiential activities such as meditating and guided visualization. Meditating can be as simple as controlled deep breathing while visualization adds images to your mind while meditating. The techniques are often used to control and release stress, making the mind, body and soul more balanced. LaVar Bair, a non-traditional student in progress of a bachelor's in Electrical Engineering, has taken both "Path With Soul" classes more than once, also with his son who is a college student as well. Bair took the classes because he was not only interested in the classes but because he needed elective credits as well. He said the classes helped cope with stress, work, school and health problems his family has encountered. Not only has Bair benefited from taking the "Path With Soul" classes for needed elective credits for his degree, but he also has seen seniors who need just one credit to graduate. Instead many students may not have to resort taking a two or three credit elective course to get the one credit they need to graduate. Rossi has taught the "Path With Soul" every semester for six years with an average of 25 students per class. The "Path With Soul: Exploring Consciousness" has been taught for two years and has also been full. "Why cut classes that have always been successful?" Rossi said. USU's extension services comprise three departments; Continuing Education, Cooperative Extension and Conference Services. Evening school, distance education and the different USU sites in Utah fall under the direction of continuing education. Evening school was developed in 1981 to give non-traditional students the opportunity to earn a degree. "That is the whole purpose behind evening school," said Cami McClure, administrator of Conference Services. That mission has never gone away, yet the evening school over the years has drifted in different areas, it has lost sight of the traditional purpose. Evening school has got to get back on track Poppleton said. "When they asked me to take over evening school a year ago, I had very strict instructions to get it back to where it's paying for itself," Poppleton said. Rossi agrees that the services offered through Evening School are important to provide further education for those students trying to get a degree. She thinks the services can be more balanced in not only offering core requirements but also allowing creative, innovative and progressive types of classes that any students can take. The problem with catering to non-traditional students may be the definition itself. Twenty years ago, non-traditional students were very easy to define. They were typically older, with several years from their high school career to the collegiate career. They were working full time, usually with families, trying to work on a degree on a part-time basis because they were still allowed them to attend to their jobs and families Poppleton said. "Now you look around this campus, and you apply the same definition to the campus," Poppleton said. Especially in the culture in Utah, a lot of students typically fit this definition of non-traditional students. There is a gray area; it's frustrating to not clearly say what the evening school audience is Poppleton said. Kayaking and some dance classes have also been cut by Continuing Education. "Every night on the shuttle I would hear kids talking about the dance classes and how much they enjoyed the dance classes. You hate to have to give up the things they (students) enjoy too, because there has to be some enjoyment in school or no one would be here," Terry Robinson, administrative secretary of evening school said. Money allotted from the Legislature was for non-traditional students to get a degree, Robinson said. "Everything is not just academic, to really enrich and make a person whole and give them a broad perspective, I think it's important to offer the innovative, creative and artistic types of classes," Rossi said. Classes that didn't fit into core requirements for degree programs or that fulfill general education requirements had to be cut. Continuing Education is at the point of trying to go back to fulfill the original goals and intent of what the Legislature is funding evening school for, Poppleton said. "It really is a big source of frustration for us I think one of my biggest frustrations is to respond back to a department head that says 'Gary, I've got 30 students in this class.' All I can say is that my budget will only go so far and I can go so far into a deficit, but the funds have got to come from somewhere," Poppleton said. Rossi is also concerned with the decisions that Continuing Education has had to make because it affects classes that she is very dedicated to. "Honestly I feel frustrated about it all. I feel frustrated because here are some great, creative, innovative courses that students from all over campus take and can't get anyone to sponsor them, "Rossi said. "The students aren't coming first. Academics, knowledge-education isn't coming first. I find that really unsettling because here we are at a university, a major university and yet the students, at least in this particular situation, I don't think are coming first." Given the budget that Continuing Ed has been given, it has to provide as many courses as possible that support degree programs, including general education courses. "The main reason, like any other department, is we have a fixed budge. The main directive that we have been given is to provide degree programs, not classes, but whole programs for non-traditional students," Poppleton said. "I think we are doing the best we can to provide the most degree programs for non-traditional students and the widest variety of university studies courses." The perception is that courses are canceled because continuing education wasn't making enough money, but the reality of the situation is a little more complicated, McClure said. For example Travel Utah, part of the Travel Studies program was an experiential course that gave students a chance to take a one-day history tour around different sites in Utah for one credit hour. The problem came when USU switched to the semester system and one credit hour no longer requires 10 classroom hours but 15. Fifteen hours is a lot to fit into a one-day tour, so taking two days to get one credit did not appeal to many students, McClure said. All of the tours have been cut from the travel studies program because each program made a little money; but the money from all of the tours wasn't enough to pay the administrators' salary and the coordinators' salary. Every tour needs an administrator and coordinator to run it because they not only take care of all the necessary travel arrangements, but the marketing as well. To offer some of the classes that have been offered through continuing education, some professors may use conference services as an option. Conference Services provide everything from training to experiential classes and summer credit workshops. Taking classes through Conference Services the student has to pay $80 to $100 per credit. Through Continuing Education students were paying $15 per credit hour if they were at the plateau rate of tuition, which means they were students taking 13 to 18 credit hours. "The problem is that there is a niche in the university for courses that are non-degree related that offer one credit. Everyone needs a few extra elective classes, and there is no doubt about it," McClure said.
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