Before growing Mercy College”™s enrollment to a historic high of 10,000-plus-and-counting, Kimberly Cline balanced a $10 billion budget for the State University of New York.
Cline clearly brought some of that managerial experience to her reign as Mercy”™s 10th president.
In two short years, 108 faculty and staff positions were created to accommodate the exploding student body population ”“ representing 16 percent growth in the college work force.
“It”™s important for colleges to have broad degree offerings,” said Cline, who splits her time as a mother-of-three and head of the 60-year-old private institution in Dobbs Ferry. “Statistics show students change their majors. I was the valedictorian of my high school class and I was committed to studying zoology. After cutting up a pig in zoology, I became an attorney.”
Cline did not credit Mercy”™s soaring student body numbers entirely to the precarious job market.
“But, history has shown during lean economic times, people go back to school,” she said.
In theory, extending one”™s undergraduate coursework into a graduate education buys a student time ”“ time they might have otherwise spent tweaking a resume or hopscotching from one interview to the next.
The college education is ”“ and always has been ”“ a skill-based barometer that sets one candidate apart from the next.
“Even though the unemployment rate was around 10 percent at the beginning of the year, the unemployment rate for college graduates was 4.9 percent,” Cline said. “It shows it”™s important in this day and age to get your degree.”
Fordham University”™s Westchester campus, which opened in West Harrison two years ago, has seen a 13 percent increase in enrollment from last fall to this fall, according to Michael Gillian, associate vice president for Westchester.
“I think that employers will almost always tell you that while they might look for special skills of one kind or another for an entry position, the people that do the best long-term are people with a solid arts and sciences education with a good command of basic skills,” Gillian said. “People who are able to write well, speak effectively, present a point and analyze a problem ”¦ those are the skills that advance people in any field of work.”
At Mercy, there has been remarkable growth for the Personalized Achievement Contract (PACT) program, which assigns students a professional mentor to facilitate positive academic and career transition.
“Our pilot program in the spring of 2009 had 50 students, and this year it has grown to about 750 out of a freshman class of nearly 1,100,” Cline said. “When you”™re a freshman at Mercy, before Thanksgiving you have a resume. It”™s a four-year continuum program and each year we”™re revving them up to be career-ready. We do interactive interviewing and work with them on their internships.”
Fordham Westchester”™s accelerated MBA programs have seen high demand, with similar accelerated components for the graduate school of education and graduate school of social work.
“You come in with business experience before,” said Lynne O”™Connell, assistant dean of admission, Fordham Westchester. “You”™re not fresh out of college, you”™ve been in the work force and then you come into this program ”¦ it tends to be very popular.”
In Fairfield, Conn., the Charles F. School of Business at Fairfield University saw a15 percent increase in registration this year for its four business graduate programs, according to Dean Norman Solomon.
Solomon attributed the academic enrollment increase to those who may have faced a layoff and who have decided to “increase their human capital” instead of immediately reentering the work force.
Working professionals who get tuition reimbursements from their employer have some incentive, too, to further their education and evolve their skill base while remaining gainfully employed.
