University of Phoenix's Metairie campus fits post-K schedules

New Orleans CityBusiness, Jan 1, 2007 by Stephen Maloney

Violet native Veronica Price has been facing a long commute for the past 15 months.

Hurricane Katrina's near-total devastation of her hometown forced her into a temporary home in Pensacola, Fla., but that couldn't stop the 40-year-old student from completing her education.

Once a week, Price drove three and a half hours to attend class at the University of Phoenix's Metairie campus where she was working toward her bachelor's degree in business management.

Price, who graduated with nearly 400 other Louisiana residents Dec. 2, said her new degree will help speed along her dream to open an adult day-care facility for HIV/AIDS patients in the New Orleans area.

"My experience with the University of Phoenix has been great," Price said. "There wasn't another school that could fit my schedule."

Price is among more than a quarter of a million students enrolled at the University of Phoenix's 191 campuses in 36 states and four countries.

"The events of the last year in Louisiana have brought us back to the core of what we were founded originally to do, which is provide educational access for students who ordinarily wouldn't have it," said Metairie Campus Director Brent Lyons.

Despite 2 feet of water pouring through a caved-in atrium roof at its campus on the seventh floor of the Galleria, Lyons said the school has returned to 80 percent of its pre-Katrina enrollment since reopening in January. The university did not provide exact numbers for individual campus enrollment.

"One major advantage of being a national university is if our students had an Internet connection or a campus nearby when they evacuated, they could still attend class," Lyons said. "It provided them with one piece of normalcy."

Southeast Regional Vice President Jodie Ploessi said the University of Phoenix's standardization is vital for success.

"We have the same academic standards as in Denver, Chicago or Dallas. Our students could literally walk into a classroom wherever they were and continue their education."

This sort of logistical flexibility is an extension of the school's main goal of educating working adults who cannot leave their day jobs to sit in a conventional classroom, Lyons said.

"We have been online with our Axia College since 1989," he said. "Our ground-based programs meet one night a week, and it's up to the students' needs as to which they choose. This is for working people. I believe colleges should provide access rather than restrict it."

The average age of a University of Phoenix student is 34, higher than traditional institutions nationwide which saw a 31 percent increase in students younger than 25 between 1990 and 2004, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics.

Information technology specialist Troy Evans, 37, began taking online courses through the University of Phoenix in April after deciding it was time to further his education.

"I usually get home from work around 7 p.m., and then I have my regular routine," Evans said. "I'm in class for two to three hours every night, which is perfect for me. The flexibility is very important because I don't have time to go to class."

Evans said he plans to use his degree to help his employer, Garrison Digital Color, expand and has already started applying some of his lessons on the job, which Ploessi said is typical of University of Phoenix students.

"We really function as good stewards for the community," she said. "Our graduates tend not to leave the community. They are working adults so they already have jobs and homes here. We provide education for our graduates so they can be successful and create a better-educated work force, which helps the community at large."