Adults, Nontraditional Students to Fill Future Classes

The baby boom of traditional-age college students is gone. The classrooms of the future will be filled with nontraditional and adult students. According to a 2011 study from the National Center for Education Statistics, between 2009 and 2020 enrollment is projected to increase just 9% for ages 18 to 24, but a whopping 21% for those aged 25–34 and 16% for those 35 and older. Schools such as the University of Arkansas Fayetteville are already addressing the aging of the student body with its Off Campus Connections (OCC) program. Director Sylvia Scott and associate director Susan Stiers have run the OCC for nine years. They described how they built the program from having no budget to receiving $200,000 a year, in a session at the NASPA conference held in Orlando in March 2013. Who are these adult students? They're veterans, career changers, transfer students and online students. They're single parents, sometimes first generation students. Retirees also enjoy the free tuition offered by many schools. At Arkansas, nontraditional/adult students must fit into one or more of these categories: 24 years or older, single parent, married, have dependents, working full-time, financially independent, returning to school after a period of time, part-time student or have earned a GED. Based solely on age, the school has 2,900 nontraditional and adult students. When combined with the other criteria, OCC currently serves some 17,000 nontraditional/adult students in a student body of 25,000. Due to their wealth of lived experiences, adult students bring value to the classroom. Since most these students pay their own way, they try to get as much value as possible from a class. Adult students exhibit proven leadership skills, often taking younger students who are having difficulty under their wing. Yet there's a dichotomy between these students’ enrichment and needs in the classroom. Many have self-confidence issues, especially women. It may have been 30 years since they set foot in a classroom, or their previous experiences might have convinced them that they can't learn. Nontraditional/adult students are often coping with major life transitions—a divorce, job loss, empty nest or other significant life change—at the same time as they're taking on the challenges of the classroom. They can seem invisible to administration and even to faculty. Schools that are the most successful at attracting, retaining and graduating nontraditional/adult students are “are highly resilient and demonstrate excellent emotional intelligence” with these students, wrote Dr. Al Siebert, the co-author of The Adult Student's Guide to Survival and Success. In 2004, Scott worked in the Office of Student Involvement and Leadership and was asked to head the former Office for Non-traditional and Commuter Students, and was charged with keeping more students in school. She recruited Stiers and developed an advisory board, which includes faculty/staff from university police, university and off-campus housing, information technology, alumni and parking/transit. The new Off Campus Connections also expanded from serving only nontraditional students to serve all Fayetteville students living off campus. Located in the student union, OCC provides friendly assistance, resources and referrals to support and retain the school's off-campus and commuter students. To recruit and retain more nontraditional/adult students, Scott and Stiers focused on three tasks: Identify gaps. Finances are a huge barrier for most adult students, unless their employer or the government pays the tab. Most scholarships are designed for traditional students and the awards are generally “built around the traditional college model experience,” said Scott. Frequently there's a gap in awareness. The nontraditional student is usually left out of college promotions. When adult students review your school's recruitment materials or Web site, do they see people who look like them? Or students who could be their sons and daughters? Identify approaches. OCC established new ways to honor its nontraditional students. They include the Alumni Association Nontraditional Student Leadership Award, the Nontraditional Student Photojournalism Project and the Veteran's Week Recognition Photo Contest. The Alpha Sigma Lambda Honor Society requires students to be over age 24 and have a 3.5 GPA. Chartwell, the school's food service company, provides a Nontraditional Meal Scholarship. Adult students can earn an academic achievement certificate from it. Identify partnerships. When Scott took over OCC as director, she discovered that she had no money and no budget. Scavenging furniture from the school's surplus office, the two women furnished the commuter lounge, the veteran's resource center and their office from castoffs. To keep the office running, they became adept at seeking out financial resources. A few small grants from various sources got them through the first year. Looking for a continuous source of funds, Scott asked Chartwell to develop a nontraditional student meal plan. Now for every new meal plan sold, OCC gets a percentage, which covers the office's budget of $200,000. The value of partnerships is threefold. They help expand access for nontraditional students. They help stretch tight budgets and they increase knowledge. With budgets getting tighter, OCC offers a well-documented playbook for doing more with less.