Rising enrollments have contributed to the hiring of more staff and faculty at two Westchester colleges ”“ one private, one public.
This year, Purchase College hired 23 professors to accommodate a student body population that grew from 4,175 to 4,268 students.
“Some of those were new positions and some are replacements (for retirees),” said Barbara B. Dixon, college provost. “There”™s a mix”¦ they ranged from chemistry and language and culture to economics, environmental studies, theater arts, arts management, and we had about four new people in art and design.”
Dixon has already approved 12 new hires for next fall.
“Some of those are replacements, four are brand new lines we have added, and again, they show a mixture,” Dixon said. “There are some performing arts, some liberal arts. Sometimes you have a couple of searches that didn”™t work out and you hire a visiting or guest position.”
At Purchase College, specialized degree programs in playwriting and screenwriting and Latin American studies were introduced after successful runs as minor programs; all contributed to new faculty positions.
“Any kind of program like Latin American studies with the word ”˜studies”™ in an interdisciplinary program prepares students to be broadly informed about more than just one specific,” Dixon said. “For instance, environmental studies can have a policy focus and a science focus. It”™s not just here at Purchase. Programs in African-American studies, etc., are growing across the country.”
The global push for diversity in degree programs and well-roundedness in a four-year education will continue to drive college programming and subsequent hires.
Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry has hired 100 faculty and staff members within two-and-one-half years to match its growing student population.
“I think we”™ve grown from roughly 8,700 students to just about 11,000 students and that”™s really targeted enrollment growth because we want to make sure students are in programs where they can get out and get jobs,” said Kimberly Cline, president of Mercy College. “Our School of Health and Natural Sciences, every program has nearly 100 percent placement”¦ we have a physician assistant program and almost all of them are placed before they even graduate.”
Faculty hiring has been strong in the health care area, as well as in exercise science and in a newly introduced communications degree program.
“We believe liberal arts training is the core of how well you critically think and write and we want our students to have that base to be able to take on their career,” Cline said.
Mercy College has asked Irvington for permission to construct a three-building quad near its administrative offices.
The buildings would serve the School of Health and Natural Sciences, School of Business and School of Liberal Arts, respectively, and would serve as a central hub for “faculty to have a place to collaborate that is really the face of the college.”
At Purchase College, Dixon said administrators are eyeing ways to maximize the use of existing facilities to account for future growth and to contribute to student learning.
“All students complete an individual senior project no matter what discipline they”™re in,” Dixon said. “A composition major in music would likely write a consistent program of music. In science, a biology student might be involved in a year long research project”¦ it”™s something the faculty is very proud of and one of the things that helps students get into grad school, to have a certain body of work.”
Did you know?
Ӣ Enrollment in degree-granting postsecondary institutions increased by 9 percent between 1989 and 1999. That number increased exponentially, up some 38 percent, between 1999 and 2009.
Ӣ From 1976 to 2009, the percentage of Hispanic students enrolled in postsecondary institutions increased from 3 percent to 12 percent.
Ӣ Between 1999 and 2009, the number of male full-time post baccalaureate students increased by 36 percent, compared with a 63 percent increase in the number of females.
Ӣ Future projections for 2010 to 2019 include an expected 9 percent increase in enrollments of students under the age of 25, and a 23 percent increase in enrollments of students age 25 and older.
Source: U.S. Department of Education”™s National Center for Education Statistics
