Breaking Barriers: Strategies for Overcoming Obstacles that Nontraditional Students Face

1. Breaking Barriers: Strategies for Overcoming Obstacles that Nontraditional Students Face Carol Fleming and Sarah MacDonald James Madison University

2. Barriers: Obstacles for Success Barrier (bar-ee-er). noun. • anything built or serving to bar passage, as a railing, fence, or the like • any natural bar or obstacle • anything that obstructs progress, access, etc. • a limit or boundary of any kind

3. Context • James Madison University enrolls 20,000 students as of this year • Tradition of excellence in undergraduate education • While nontraditional, nondegree seeking, graduate, and adult student populations are growing rapidly, they often run into policies and processes that are not designed for their needs

4. Example • JMU eID and password • For security reasons, password expires every 90 days (faculty, staff, students, affiliates) • To reset password, users login, go through security awareness training, and reset password • Reminders sent to JMU email address 20 days before, then 15, then 10, then 9, then 8…. • If the password expires and isn’t reset, the user must go in person to the Frye Building and show approved ID to prevent unauthorized access • Sounds perfectly reasonable, right?

5. Exceptions • High school students earning dual enrollment credit • Teachers earning a master’s degree at an off-campus location • Online students • …So now what?

6. Strategy #1: Meet with Stakeholders • Seek first to understand, and then to be understood • What’s the primary concern here? • Present a reasonable case • Show examples of exceptions (as many as feasible) • Suggest alternatives • Ask for help

7. Brainstorm! • What barriers do your students face?

8. Barriers: Our List at JMU • Registrar’s office – permission to enroll, permission to drop all credits, permission to give incompletes • University Business Office – when to bill contract courses, how to control registration, how to accommodate different and varying tuition rates • Visa – ability to accept for noncredit courses • Admission deadlines – Adult Degree Program • Course scheduling– eight week, intensives, crossing semesters • Certificates – creating modules • Financial aid – credit, noncredit

9. More Strategies • Being at the table • Roadshow • Internal and external marketing • Telling stories (in every possible way) • Present evidence – data-driven decision making

10. More Strategies • Over-deliver • Provide as much service as possible – servant leadership • “This is what we do now.” • Suggest a pilot • Breakfast!

11. Brainstorm! • What other strategies can be used to overcome these institutional barriers?

12. A Note About Change • Systems are designed to resist change, even against all rationality • The image of traditional students, living on campus and sequestered from the world, learning everything they need to become empowered citizens and change the world – it’s pretty powerful and deeply embedded • But: this isn’t the reality of higher education anymore • Nontraditonal is the new traditional • It just might take our institutions a while to catch up

13. Barriers We Haven’t Been Able to Address Yet • Child care • Degree progress report • Social opportunities for adult students • Evening courses • Parking • Housing

14. Barriers We Haven’t Been Able to Address Yet

15. Brainstorm! • How can you apply these strategies at your institution? • What are the top three things you can begin to address on Wednesday?

16. Questions? Carol Fleming fleminca@jmu.edu Sarah MacDonald macdonsk@jmu.edu