Champlain College: Master plan and master degree

Vermont Business Magazine, Aug 01, 2006 by Moore, Kensington R

Champlain College, established in 1878 as Burlington Collegiate Institute in downtown Burlington, has come a long way in the last 15 years. The college has recently introduced a number of new initiatives and programs including the development of a new BYOB (Bring Your Own Business) program for students to essentially develop their entrepreneurial skill via direct application to their own business while achieving a degree.

Further, the college is developing a "master plan" for the next 20 years, which includes physical campus growth, an entry into the graduate studies market, expansion of the a adult education program offerings, and the expansion of international opportunities for traditional undergraduate students. Add all these things up and it is not hard to see why Champlain College is growing at such a rapid pace.

BYOBiz

Champlain College has just announced the creation of a new, humorously named, BYOBiz (Bring Your Own Business) program. Drawing its name partially from the classic party invitation instruction of BYOB (Bring Your Own Beer), the new program offers undergraduates at Champlain the opportunity to develop their own business or grow one they have already begun.

The program, unveiled in an opening ceremony whose attendees included Governor James Douglas, Champlain College President David Finney, Burlington Mayor Bob Kiss, and Champlain Trustee Jim Crook of GE Healthcare/IDX, fits perfectly with Champlain's curriculum approach of immediately immersing undergrads in their chosen field of study.

Once accepted into the program, students will be provided a "board of advisers," this board will consist of Vermont businesspeople, Champlain College faculty and staff, and peers in the BYOBiZ program, and will act as a sounding board for the individual student's specific business plans and challenges. The college hopes to quickly fill the program, which will top out at 120 students.

One student at Champlain who will be joining the BYOBiz program is Ben Kaufman, a sophomore from Long Island. Ben is the co-founder of a company called Mophie, which makes iPod accessories. Kaufman won a "Best of Show" award at the 2006 Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Mophie now has 17 part and full-time employees and an impressive array of products, all designed here in Vermont and produced in China.

When asked why he decided to come to Champlain College Kaufman explained that he wanted to "get (his) hands dirty" right away, and Champlain was the only school he found which allowed him to immediately jump into his major, with their upside-down curriculum.

On Champlain's website, President Finney is quoted saying "the program will ultimately make a major contribution to the economic vitality of the state," this comes at a time when the governor has been focusing on what he is treating as a crises, the "exodus of young people" as he refers to it.

At the unveiling of the program Governor Douglas had this to say; "As many know, Vermont leads the nation in the percentage of young people who leave their native state to go elsewhere - either for higher education or to begin their business and career lives. We need to reverse that if were going to maintain the strength of our economy and the strength of our community in the next decade or two."

Mophie isn't the only business being brought into the BYOBiz program at an already advanced stage, Go Trading Post, an Ebay auctioneer

Growth

Fifteen years ago Champlain College offered its first baccalaureate programs, degrees in Business and Accounting. Today Champlain has expanded its offerings greatly, now supplying a choice of 35 majors to its undergraduate population, from Public Relations to Electronic Game and Interactive Development. The college has also recently added two new online graduate studies programs. Further, Champlain College now occupies nearly 40 buildings on 22.5 acres and enrolls approximately 1,780 full-time and 740 part-time students, with an additional 420 employees.

Traditional undergraduate students have been the driving force behind Champlain College's growth over the past 15 years; this may not be the case in the future though.

In an interview with Vermont Business Magazine, President Finney mentioned that, "We are set to cap that (traditional undergraduate enrollment) at the 1,900-2,000 (student) level, because Champlain is a small college and my feeling is that if we were to get much bigger we would begin to lose some of the really great things that happen here because of our small size."

Housing expansion for the college may be off the hill. Currently the college has begun site work on a $5 million dorm at 306 and 308 Maple Street, which is designed to house 75 students.

President Finney explained that, "My concept of Champlain is that we are a Burlington campus, and an urban campus in a city, and so having some residence halls downtown or further down the hill would strike me as a perfectly fine idea and would help students get a better sense of the flavor of Burlington as a city."