Feature Article
Deb Carter
What has been the biggest challenge
for the College for Professional Studies?
Of the adult degree completion student?
“The challenge (of adult degree completion
students) has always been the balancing of
competing needs of their time and energy. That
is a challenge. Adult students frequently, not
all, can rise to that occasion because there’s
significant motivation at the point to which they
return to school. That whole notion of ‘I need
to do this. I know that I’m going to have to put
some things aside until this is finished.’ The challenge of prioritizing, making sure that they can
meet all of the many needs pulls on your time.
The big difference in terms of higher education is, we have a lot more traditional students
who are living like adult students now. They are
almost working full-time. Sometimes they are
involved in a sport. They are certainly involved
in an academic program. That need to spread
yourself very thinly is probably is more challenging for traditional-age students that it used
to be. That challenge that our college needs
to constantly be looking at is the fact that our
students come to us and take courses and they
finish fairly quickly. … Well, that’s wonderful
because we have a lot of students who are successful, but 600 students a year from the College
for Professional Studies is a lot of students to
replace every year. … It’s a huge challenge for
us to recruit the number of students we need
to replace (and also) increase in terms of numbers and enrollment.”
What people at Siena Heights have
influenced you the most and why?
What is one thing most people don’t know
about you?
“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Norm
Bukwaz. I have a different style than Norm, but
so much of what I learned about degree completion, the Bachelor of Applied Science, which is
our most prevalent in the College for Professional Studies – I have learned (from Norm).
He is at the top of the list in terms of people
who have influenced my own career here. …
He took a chance on a teacher of hearingimpaired children. To say one Adrian Dominican
Sister would be difficult, so I would say the
group of Adrian Dominican Sisters, with whom
I had the distinct honor and pleasure of getting to know personally and working with and
just that hug