Branch Campus Quality: Tell Your Story
Years ago, when I was associate dean of the Mansfield Campus of Ohio State, I was talking with a department chair on the main campus who had been especially resistant to allowing one of our tenure track faculty members teach a course for which he appeared to be well qualified. The chair said, “We have to be sure that the quality of a regional campus course is equivalent to that on the main campus.” I jumped on his use of the word “equivalent.” “You mean,” I said, “We should make sure we have 300 or more students in introductory sections and make sure that we have TA’s teaching most of the lower division courses, rather than using full-time faculty?” The chair was surprised by my directness, but I was tired of the nonsense. It took some more work, but eventually the faculty member was cleared to teach the course. At about the same time, a local business leader and main campus alum challenged me on that same issue of quality. My respon...