Purdue University Calumet

Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Purdue University Calumet - BEWARE! HEH is busy negotiating a contract with Purdue University Calumet and it's apparent that the HEH sales force is busy capitalizing on the stressed economy to work its sales magic on administrators! http://webs.calumet.purdue.edu/chancellor/2009-convocation/ HEH actually warranted a mention at Purdue University Calumet's April 16th Spring Convocation: "HEH is a private corporation that will provide marketing, course management software with infrastructure and technical support, instructional designers to aid course conversion and “coaches” to support instruction. Purdue Calumet controls faculty, course content, student admissions and student evaluation and grading. In other words, quality is our responsibility and in our hands. This partnership, which already exists with other universities, has the potential to allow us to serve an additional 2,000-3,000 students without additional buildings or significant major additional investments in technology infrastructure. Revenue from this endeavor can feed growth in these schools while at the same time producing enrollment funding that will benefit the rest of the university. Should these programs be successful, in partnership with HEH, we will be able to develop additional distance education programs that are capable of attracting large numbers of students."Sounds almost too good to be true, doesn't it? Well, it is.Eight days earlier, on April 8, 2009, Purdue University Calumet's College of Education Leadership Team discussed HEH: www.education.purdue.edu/dean/lteam/minutes/2009/April%208%20LT%20Minutes.doc - HEH (Higher Ed Holdings) Update. HEH is a commercial enterprise to get on line masters programs. HEH is negotiating a contract with Purdue Calumet. Dr. Moon is on a committee regarding HEH with Chris Ladisch from the Provost’s Office. Dr. Moon handed out a series of e-mail regarding HEH. Mike Ludwig has looked at the contract and has some questions. Dr. Moon and the Team discussed potential issues that from our perspective need to be discussed. They included:• Who owns the material? The contract says HEH owns it and Dr. Moon feels this would not be agreeable to our faculty. • Section 2D states that if Purdue cannot find faculty to teach the on line courses, HEH finds the faculty without us being able to check their credentials. • Our adjunct positions are unpaid. If on line teachers were assigned as adjunct position, the only way this would work is if HEH paid them directly. ...• Dr. Kelly should meet with Bob Rivers from Purdue Calumet Education to get more details about their possible contract with HEH before Dr. Moon gives her feedback.• Dr. Rud talked about the University of Illinois and a similar on line venture called Global Campus; however, Global Campus is part of the University, not an outside entity. • Dr. Rud said it is a virtual entity but the Global Campus was set up as a 4th campus which has not worked well and the University is looking at restructuring. • Dr. Lehman is aware that there are other entities beyond HEH and they might be looked at. The task force he is on is looking at the issue of on line classes at Purdue. It is a complex problem. • It was suggested that Continuing Education/Distance Learning should be included in the meetings on HEH. • Quality and lack of control are the biggest issues. • Dr. David voiced concern about how the HEH vision fits within the University and College vision for the future of on line learning, could it hurt the Purdue brand? It sounds like the leadership team had a few good questions. Were all those questions answered satisfactorily 8 days later when the Chancellor spoke at the convocation? Purdue University Calument facutly members should scrutinize administration's big HEH push and heed the warnings of faculty members at the University of Toledo and Arkansas State University. I predict they are in for some stormy days ahead. Suggestions for PUC Faculty: investigate violations of shared governance, the role of academic coaches, the lack of interaction faculty have with students, the percentage of tuition that is sent to HEH in Texas, the misuse of state appropriation funds, the promotional practices of HEH (who willingly will advertise PUC as a diploma mill in order to recruit students), the altering of curriculum to fit into compressed 5 week course formats, and the list goes on and on. As happened at Arkansas State University, negotiations take place at the end of spring, just in time for faculty to become distracted with final exams and end of the semester plans. That's a perfect time to avoid shared governance practices and rush through contracts. If faculty are fooled into believing that they truly have control of curriculum under the HEH model, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd love to sell them.