Edison State's impact on Trenton

Mercer Business, Apr 01, 1996 by Sendzimir, Arri

When the State of New Jersey chartered Thomas Edison State College in 1972 to expand the educational opportunities available to adult leamers, who would have thought that the college would so excel at its mission that its educational services are now in demand not only by individuals but also by corporations, associations, city governments, and community groups all over the state and beyond?

In fact, last year the college created a fourth management area--the Institute for Public Policy--just to respond to groups such as the Urban Mayors Association.

"They recognized the value of our work on Trenton's urban problems," says John Thurber, the Institute's director, "and asked us to help other cities in the state." Bill Watson, Trenton's former chief of staff, joined the Institute last year to undertake this new initiative.

The Institute's office and staff are paid for by the college. Monies for programs, however, come from public and private sources, including foundations (especially the Fund for New Jersey), and corporations. The Dodge and Schumatm Foundations, for example, recently gave a total of $55,000 to jump-start CUE--the Center for the Urban Environment--whose mandate is to assist communities to manage urban open space areas throughout the state such as parks, trees, and playgrounds. In March of this year, Liz Johnson--former associate director of Isles, Inc., and director of Trenton's Department of Recreation, Natural Resources, and Culture--assumed direction of CUE.

Isn't what is essentially consulting a bit of a detour from the business of education? No," says Thurber. "As a college, especially one funded partly by the state, we feel we have a public service mission to provide access to educational resources not only to individuals but to institutions."

"However, we don't take on new initiatives just because it's good for business," says Dr. George Pruitt, president of the college. I take the college's mission statement very seriously. A college can't be all things to all people. It must be prepared to say, 'Those are good things to do but we're not going to do them because it falls outside our expertise, and if we can't do it well we won't do it at all.'"

Thomas Edison is truly unique. Headquartered at 101 West State Street in Trenton, this fully accredited college is distinguished by its many distance learning opportunities, such as Guided Study, Portfolio Assessment, testing, evaluation of credit earned at other accredited institutions and workplace courses evaluated for college-level credit. Students from New Jersey to Moscow and beyond earn their degrees through Thomas Edison (66 percent of its 9,000 students reside in New Jersey, the remaining 34 percent live in other parts of the world).

The college is expanding its electronic access through "interactive computer classrooms" set to open next spring, making even more opportunities available to potential students interested in the college's 11 associate and bachelor' s degrees in 119 areas of specialization. This January, the college launched its first graduate degree in partnership with AT&T.

The college was created to serve mature adults. "We're the only institution I know of where the client base is a given," says Dr. Pruitt. "That means that the barriers to our clientele are barriers of time and place, but that the form of learning is not important. What is important is that the learning took place and that the student can demonstrate it."

In addition to using standardized tests such as CLEP and ACT/PEP as well as transfer credits from other colleges, Thomas Edison will take into consideration learning acquired through on-the-job or even life experiences. It has developed its own tests for subjects not covered by other organizations, and has a substantial list of distance education courses supported by extensive audio, video, on-line, and written materials. More than 330 faculty consultants, drawn from many of the state's colleges and universities, serve as "mentors" for custom designed and Guided Study courses, and they are very serious about their work. "When someone signs up to be a mentor," says Mike Scheiring, vice president and treasurer, "that person agrees in writing to respond to students within 48 hours of a communication. I don't know many universities where you are guaranteed to find a faculty member within 48 hours." The results speak for themselves: More than half the alumni do postgraduate work, and 90 percent of these are admitted to their first-choice graduate or professional schools.

Thomas Edison's reach also extends to institutions which are in the throws of downsizing. As more and more major companies reengineer, employees from many of those organizations are looking to Thomas Edison State College for retraining and preparation for new challenges. Thomas Edison is--and has been--poised to meet this uncertainty head-on, for the employee and the corporation. For those returning to the ranks of student, the college offers many ways to take decades of experience and translate it into a plan toward a degree.