Swimming Upstream

It's Saturday, and it's time to recover from what has been a tough week.

As you know, I work in the Administration of an online university. My goal has always been to work in higher education, and I landed a very good job with my school. I was the fourth person hired in a department that is now home to over 40. Online education, though sometimes maligned, is the fastest-growing sector in higher education today, and there is a good reason for it. If you do not have a Bachelor's or even a Master's degree, you will eventually hit a ceiling in your career track. Schools like mine allow working adults an accelerated and convenient way to get the credentials and get on with it, in about 1/3 of the time.

The academe (ok, snob)in me bristled a bit when I was first recruited by the staffing agency about working for an online university. I had notions of Sally Struthers hawking some diploma program on cable, or of banner ads on MSN. While we do market agressively, the celebrity speakers at our graduation ceremonies are Neil Armstrong or Al Gore, not 1970's sitcom blondes. We have the same accreditation as the best universities in the country, including the ones you attended. And our attention to customer service (because let's face it, students are customers) is second to none.

Some critics will argue that online schools' only goal is to make money. Well, I defy you to find a school that is NOT out to make money. I have friends who are over $100,000 in debt for their education, and I myself owe over $50,000 for my terminal degree. And we all went to traditional schools.

Students pay for the opportunity to earn a degree when they attend ANY university. The difference between the online and the brick-and-mortar is that we are for profit, and with that philosophy comes a strong value on customer service. And yes, it does benefit the company's bottom line when our retention rates are high and students continue to attend school.

But the real winners here are the adult students who work hard, who figure out how to juggle their jobs, their families, and their education in order to reach their goals. And with an online school, they have top-notch faculty, a super-attentive student advising team, the freedom to work whenever and wherever, and the opportunity to get the job done.

So obviously, online higher education has struck a chord, and I've worked hard to help build what we have today at my school. The days and weeks are long, and there is a lot to manage. This past week in particular has been exhausting. We had a new class start. This is not uncommon, and it happens several times a year like clockwork. This also brings in a wave of frenzied activity. But while most universities have one freshman class a year, we have 8. Yes, 8. And these students all need to have their books, need to know how to navigate their new online learning environment, need to be coddled and reassured. After a few weeks, they either figure it out and take good care of themselves, or they withdraw. But it is those first tenuous days that require so much effort to take care of them and help them be successful.

Each class of students that begins with us is kind of like a spawn of salmon. Thousands of students will hatch and begin the long and arduous trip upstream toward getting their degree. My job, and that of my department, is to be an academic salmon weir, and assist the little buggers on their trip. We don't want too many of them to swim off course or get eaten. It's not easy, and we are often met with resistance on several fronts.

Obviously the 6-day weeks and 10-hour days can wear you down, especially in a week like the one that was. Administration runs at the same hyperspeed as the students, but we don't have graduation as our goal and terminus. So for today, I will read Neruda. I will clean my apartment. I will go have a manicure. And I will go back to work tomorrow, on Sunday, to make sure things are running smoothly for all those new little salmon trying to get upstream.