bodner089

Continuing to share from my personal experiences, I’ve been fortunate to visit a wide range of branch campuses both across the United States and internationally (Hong Kong, Russia, Mexico and Canada).   Some of the domestic visits tied to meetings of NABCA or RBCA, whereas others were consulting jobs, mostly over the last five years. The consulting work shaped my understanding and opinions more than I expected.   In the absence of a substantial literature or research that identifies best practices, institutions developed branches for their own reasons at varying times in their history.   Every institution I visited had a unique story to tell.   There were common themes, of course, such as struggling to bring programs from the main campus, wrestling with interference from certain main campus offices that think they know more about the branch audience than the people who work there, and making sure that courses and class schedules actually meet stude...

Perhaps the most interesting career transition for me came with my promotion to vice president at Ohio University.   In that position, I was responsible for five campuses, with a combined enrollment (at the time) of approximately 9000 students.   Each campus had a dean, as well as local faculty and support staff.   In addition, I was responsible for the Division of Lifelong Learning, which supported a variety of programs, including paper-based correspondence courses, summer programs, conferences and workshops, and other activities.   In fact, we had a center in Hong Kong that reported to the dean of Lifelong Learning, so in a sense, we even had a branch on the other side of the world.   Later, we also provided administrative support for online courses and programs, which drew my work in new directions. Although having a vice president specifically focused on branch campuses and other outreach programs may not be unique, I do believe it is rela...